Stop crying about the cost of beer
Posted: February 19, 2011 Filed under: Business, Do something Now is good, Government, Interesting, Northern Ireland | Tags: cost of beer, nitb, northern ireland hotel trade, profit per pint, vat increase Leave a commentOne of the biggest gripes people complain to me about is the price of a pint of beer and I’m sick of it.
People fail to understand that a 2.5% VAT increase on the top of a pint or 1p on a pint at the budget doesn’t simply mean a 2.5% (or 1p if we are talking about the budget) increase in the cost they pay in the bar.
The hospitality trade has to pay 2.5% vat on every single thing needed to provide you with that pint of beer, heat, light, barware, rent, cleaning products, the list is endless.
A 1p cost on the pint of beer at the budget, is 1p on the barrel price, not the actual price you pay.
In real terms,
A 2.5% increase in VAT results in a 10p rise in the price of a pint
A 1p increase in the cost of a pint at the budget, results in 5p-6p on the price you pay
Last year, in Northern Ireland the average price of a pint of beer was £3.00 and the average profit per pint was reduced to an all time low of 13p………. still think you are being ripped off?
Many pubs and hotels have done their upmost to absorb recent increase’s but with the disastrous weather in Q4, the hospitality trade in Northern Ireland was hit hard. Hotels and bars have had to apply price rises or risk their business failing.
Speaking on this, Colin Neil, Chief Exec of ‘Pubs of Ulster’ The trade body says.
“Unfortunately this is another instance where pubs fair worse than supermarkets, which still retain the margins to absorb the VAT increase whilst selling alcohol below cost. We hope that the coalition government’s plans to introduce minimum pricing in England and Wale and the upcoming consultation on a minimum price for alcohol in Northern Ireland will lead to an end to the pub industry being unfortunately penalised with disproportionate taxes. However current proposals to not go far enough and we call upon the Assembly to lead the way and set an effective minimum price for alcohol in Northern Ireland.”
If you want to see your local bar continue to be there for you in the future, pay a fair price for alcohol and please, please stop crying about the cost of beer……… no one is making you drink it!
Save the forests, sell the forests
Posted: February 17, 2011 Filed under: Belfast, Business, Do something Now is good, Government, Interesting, politics, Scouting, Scouts | Tags: keep the forest, ruskys plan for government, save the forests, sell the forests 2 CommentsLast year, David Cameron’s coalition Government announced controversial plans to sell the nations forests and free up some cash for our failing country. It was wrong. It was wrong because there was no immediate plans as to who would buy them or what would be done with them.
Today, David Cameron’s Government U-turned this plan. Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman told MPs the Government had “got this one wrong”, as she announced the current consultation was being halted.
Speaking on this, Labour’s leader Ed Miliband MP said
“Virtually every person in the country could see selling off our forests was a foolish and short-sighted policy but they went ahead regardless. Now they are panicked into a retreat hours after Mr Cameron said they would carry on with their consultation.”
Ed Miliband is also wrong.
Selling off the nations forests can only be a good thing……… if done right.
Let look at the facts for a second,
Government owned forests, both public and private are a burden on the public purse and what do they actually provide us? A nice place to take our kids and dogs when the sun is shinning and a habitat for wildlife to flourish.
OK, so the later of my point is worth keeping them for but who says for the later to happen, they have to be state owned? When people talk about selling off the forests, they automatically think of hungry fat cats swopping in and building concrete jungles but it doesn’t have to be that way.
With the correct model, more forests could be open to the public, enjoyed by all and be …….. er profitable? Sure, lets think about it, even in public forests, most of the woodland is actually shut to the public due to our fancy pants health and safety laws, it just would not be safe for the average punter to be rambling about it.
Let’s get a forest and use all of it for the good of society. What am I talking about here? well how a forest that contains
1. Land for public’s and rambling (ok we have that already, i’ll move on)
2. Houses that are eco-friendly and built from the timber actually grown in the forest, that would be a nice place to live
3. Eco-office’s, again built from the timber in the forest and powered from power generated from woodchippings from the forest, what a great place to live
4. Let farmers use the land to….. er farm
5. What about a school in a forest? I’d love to send my Daughters there, what a great place to learn
6. A hotel ! built again eco-friendly. What a super place to holiday
6. An adventure centre, Scout den, watersports centre, farm shops, cafe’s on the river, research centres, theaters you name it.
I’m talking about a sustainible, profitible venture that doesn’t cost the Governement (utimately us) a penny. It can be done, with the right guidlines and objectives in place it should be done.
A forest for all…….. lets do it!
Calling all hoteliers……. Do you think you are good enough?
Posted: February 10, 2011 Filed under: Business, Do something Now is good, Interesting, Internet, Retail | Tags: Business, hospitality, hotel, uk Leave a commentFancy some free UK wide advertising?
Think your hotel is good enough to go under the TV lens spotlight?
Read on
I received the below press release today calling for hotels to put themselves under the spot light for a month of filming, ‘The Hotel’ will film everything in a chosen hotel for a month, hiring, firing, good service, Corp business, the restuarant and coping with the recession.
In terms of advertising, you could not get better value for money but be careful. There are two types of hotel out there;
The hotels that are shit hot &
The hotels that think they are shit hot
Can you guess which one the producers are after?
Get your house in order and get applying !
Russell McQuillan 