Summer Edition Newsletter Out Now!
Pub Guide
Opening Times
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Issue 131 Summer 2007 Download a copy of Opening Times 131 as a PDF file - 704 KB |
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TAKE IT TO THE TOPSign CAMRA’s Full Pints Petition |
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Pub customers were robbed of £481 million in 2006. Beer drinkers are being mugged of £1.3m a day! How and why are these crimes against beer drinkers happening? The answer – short measure. Recent CAMRA surveys of local authorities’ trading standards departments have revealed that 26.6% of all pints are served over 5% short. And the worst example found by officers was 13% short. CAMRA is calling on the Government to stop this legalised robbery. 76% of pub goers want the Government to stick to its promise, made in 1997, to ensure that drinkers get a full pint. Since Labour made that promise beer drinkers have lost an estimated £4.5 billion. CAMRA’s chief executive Mike Benner said” It is a disgrace that up to a quarter of all pints served in the UK are less than 95% liquid when customers are paying for a full pint. The inaction of the Labour government in allowing this unfair practice to continue has cost beer drinkers billions of pounds”. CAMRA is launching a national petition calling on Government to define a pint of beer as a pint of beer and to require licensees to endeavour to serve a full pint every time. Beer drinkers can sign up by clicking on the web site www.takeittothetop.co.uk. CAMRA has also produced eye catching posters and petition cards that drinkers can sign and return for the PM’s attention. Credit card sized short measure cards are available so drinkers can check by how much they are being short changed. |
It is not just real ale drinkers that get regularly mugged at their local. Lager and Guinness drinkers also suffer from short measure. Pub managers are often under pressure from their bosses to squeeze extra pints from their casks and kegs. The training manuals of some pub companies advise licensees to serve 95% pints. The current code of practice issued by the trade body The British Beer and Pub Association recommends that its members serve a 95% pint to customers but advise that if they ask for a top up it should be given with good grace. But when was the last time you shopped for a kilo of potatoes or a dozen eggs and had to ask the shop keeper to give you more because they had originally given you short measure? So let’s end this short measure disgrace. Go to www.takeittothetop.co.uk and sign up to the petition. 
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