And it seems rather rich expecting pubs to display these mats, when increasing the minimum wage by well above the rate of inflation is one of a raft of measures that have sharply increased their costs with effect from the beginning to April. It comes alongside increasing the rate of employers’ national insurance, almost halving the threshold at which it begins to be payable and drastically cutting the discount on business rates.
Any employee feeling pleased with themselves for receiving an above-inflation pay rise may find that their hours have been reduced to compensate for it, while possibly seeing some of their colleagues let go because their employer can no longer afford to pay them.
On top of this, today it has been reported that there was a net loss of 109,000 jobs during May, added to 55,000 already lost in April, following the steep increase in employment costs. A large proportion of these job losses will have been in the hospitality sector. So it will not be surprising if any pubs receiving a pack of these mats regard it as a sick joke, and they end up in the recycling.
"Any employee feeling pleased with themselves for receiving an above-inflation pay rise"
ReplyDeleteNo doubt same people who would embrace banter bouncers and complain about overheard hurty words.
I for one am happy to pay £8 a pint to support the government taxing us more to give to foreign rapists and frankly if none of you are that makes you far right.
ReplyDeleteI want my pint on one of these beer mats and if I don't get it, I'm in a far right pub where I'd expect to see people reading the daily mail or tweeting nasty things insinuating falsely that Keir likes the twinks.
You have to pay more to support progressive causes and pubs will be better off in the long run when Keir shuts half of them.
Comment from anther site (History Debunked): Had there been no immigration since 1975 the population of the uk would be about 40 million today, instead of 70 million. The reason for this is the collapse of fertility rates. The massive surplus, in particular of housing, which would result would lead to a collapse of the housing market, effectively removing it as a household cost. As the cost of living declined people would start having more children, stabilising the population.
ReplyDeleteImmigration is a government ponzi scheme, used to artificially drive GDP. Blair's goal of 50% entering university is another key element. It removes all those who would have done menial jobs so they have to be imported.
I'll bet ya tho that all those that were offended by Timbos brexity beer mats will be equally offended at Keir and Rachels beer mat propaganda.
ReplyDeleteBeer mats are new communication tools. TV is dead, newspapers dead, twitter dead. pedo sky never took off. This decade is all about the beer mat.
Whether or not having a minimum wage or the recent rise is a good idea, letting people know what they're legally entitled to is a good idea.
ReplyDeleteBut I've often wondered how sponsored beer mats work - does the pub get paid to use them? Are they paid per mat or does it depend on pub size / turnover? Who negotiates on behalf of pubs? Can a pub refuse certain adverts? Who checks that pub uses them?
This sunny day and hopefully weekend I am going to avoid all those woke pub employees and have a few quality beers in my garden, perhaps I'll do a braai and warm up the sauna. Who says I'm not all for multiculturalism?
ReplyDeleteThere are various ways in which hospitality venues could find enough staff, and those workers have enough to live on: government increasing the national minimum wage and scrapping the youth rates of it; wages councils setting legal minimums in the industry again; making it easier for unions to win recognition and strike; state set limits on basic costs, especially energy, and rent controls; higher taxes to pay for more generous in-work benefits; or a youth mobility scheme with the EU. I'm not sure the right would like any of them though.
ReplyDelete99 per cent chance you're anti-Israel. Am I right?
DeleteI'm anti all states that privilege a particular ethnic or religious group and discriminate against others: Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, China.
DeleteNo you're not really.
DeleteMore Corbyn organic vegan turnip beer, pinkos want us to drink !
DeleteLess beer that people want !
We currently have the highest tax burden since WW2, so I can't see that jacking taxes up even further is going to solve anything.
DeleteI'm not advocating tax rises to pay for higher in-work benefits, simply pointing out that's what happens if the minimum wage is set at a level below which workers can live on.
DeleteThere is a radical right alternative to that: scrap the minimum wage, union recognition laws, National Insurance and income, corporation and inheritance taxes, welfare benefits and the NHS, shrinking the state and letting employers pay whatever wages they want and have workers pay for everything they need out of them. It'd probably have a few knock on effects: demands for wage rises to offset the loss of working tax credits and housing benefit, women with children leaving the labour market, more competition amongst employers for staff unless immigration rules were also relaxed, the end of the buy to let private rented sector, with mass defaults on mortgages, bank failures and the collapse of property prices, but someone like Liz Truss or Donald Trump would probably think that after the initial disturbance it would all be worth it.
Whilst, at 35% of GDP, the tax burden is at its highest since WWII it is still lower than the average across Europe. There are a s core of European countries with higher tax burden than the UK. The Scandinavian countries are the highest with rates around 45% of GDP,.
DeleteYet despite that the 2025 World Happiness Report shows the four Scandinavian countries to be top of the list with the UK languishing in 23rd place.
Almost as if paying the government, rather than private enterprise, to provide the vital necessities of life is seen as a good thing.
Employees paying less than a living wage so that the employees have to claim benefits is a government subsidy to those employees whether that is in the hospitality sector or in manufacturing ladies lingerie,
ReplyDeleteIs that how you want your taxes spent
Probably related... My local paper website (I haven't had the paper itself for years) informs me that my local Morrisons supermarket "...will be trialling alternative opening times...to see if they better suit customers."
ReplyDeleteWhat are those new times? The article goes on to say that the store will be "opening an hour later and closing an hour earlier."
You couldn't make it up.
Only rubbish pubs close. The best pubs survive. Keir is only culling the rubbish pubs and redirecting economic resources from rubbish pubs to vital DEI policies in local councils.
ReplyDeleteI am having a problem discerning the sarcasm, if any, in any of the earlier comments.
ReplyDeleteI think that I speak for most of the earlier commentators when I say that young bar staff should actually work for free and consider it a privilege to serve their mortgage-free, ladder-raising boomer customers. What could they possible want an extra 67p an hour for anyway? I bet they'll waste it on take-away coffee and avocado on toast instead of putting it towards a deposit for their first home.
DeleteI was thinking the same. Sounds like Socialist Workers Party have arrived.
DeleteJust for some light entertainment, this magical clip appeared from nowhere on my screen just now...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/videos/cd1p5ljn8d9o
(Off, or even on, topic, the best red wine we tasted at Vinopolis in Southwark, a few years ago, was Israeli, and it was superb, beating all the other tastings by a yard of ale...)!