Pub mocks Chancellor with ‘Rachel Thieves’ beer tap
A beer tap labelled “Rachel Thieves” has appeared on the bar of a Hertfordshire pub protesting Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves introducing crippling tax hikes.
Anyone ordering the beer will receive only water
The Green Dragon in Flaunden, which is run by publican Chris Ghazarian, has added the spoof cask ale pump badge as a protest – telling customers that pints of this particular beer are “very bitter” and cost more than anything else on the bar and anyone ordering it will receive only water.
Speaking to the British national press, Ghazarian said: “They find it hilarious. I obviously don’t make them pay for it.” Revealing more, Ghazarian explained: “If it was a real beer, it would probably be something that’s very bitter and not very pleasant. It would be the most expensive thing on the bar.”
Giving a nod to the description on the pump clip, Ghazarian highlighted that “the majority of pump clips have the alcohol percentage on them, and when you’re dealing with the Chancellor, percentages are a big thing. But the fact there are no certainties with her, I thought I would put on, ‘The % may go up at any point’”.
Hospitality businesses across the UK have been struggling under the weight of costs rising from business rates, National Insurance contributions and minimum wage demands and the industry has insisted that recent measures taken by Reeves are still not going far enough to assist in the recovery of the sector.
Ghazarian explained that the Chancellor’s rescue plan – a 15% rates discount lasting one year followed by frozen bills for two more – was not going to help in the timeframe available.
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Plus, Ghazarian noted that the plan had confused customers already and said: “I had a lot of my customers saying to me, ‘I thought there was going to be 15% off the price of my pint’. And I had to explain that my business rates were still going up, I was just getting 15% off what they could have been.”
‘You can’t tax your way to growth’
Ghazarian added: “The government has made the cost of running a business just impossible, while claiming to be pro-business and backing the economy to grow. But you can’t tax your way to growth.”
As such, he insisted that the mock pump clip served as more than British humour and pointed out that instead: “The pump clip voices our opinion in a pint-sized format. Everyone notices it, agrees and has a little laugh. It’s a way for me to voice my thoughts and how I feel about what’s going on at the moment.”
Ghazarian said: “I pay enough VAT and tax and everything else, like a lot of people do. With all these added costs, my suppliers are putting their prices up, which means I put my prices up, which means the customer has to pay, and it will come to a point where the customer says, ‘Do you know what? I’m not going to pay that’. So your trade declines, you don’t need as many staff because you’re quiet, so unemployment rises. It’s a simple formula. You don’t have to be an accountant to work it out. It’s a very vicious cycle and once you start gaining momentum, it will be very hard to stop it.”
He added: “At the minute we’re okay, but with what might come next I don’t have much confidence at all. I’m married, I have an 18-month-old and another on the way, and this is our family home. I want to keep the pub open, but if customers stop coming and the taxes are too high, it’s only going to end one way. Pubs are going to close. I just hope it’s not us.”
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