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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 measures.
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 has launched 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.
It is not just real ale drinkers that get regularly mugged at their local: lager and Guinness drinkers also suffer from short measure.
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 and 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?
