EU threatens Herefordshire local tipple

[megilleland]

Don't tell Bobby, but this could be the last straw.

 

Dan Glaister, The Guardian - Saturday 7 March 2015

 

Four out of five cider-makers under threat from EU tax call

 

Plan to end exemption for small producers ‘would hasten demise of traditional orchards’

 

The day of the oppressor is over,†reported the Gloucester Journal in 1766. “The calamity of the cyder drinker is put away; the deadly excise man shall appear no more in our quarters.â€

 

But the Journal had not reckoned with the European commission when it declared that the attempt by the Earl of Bute’s government to raise a duty on cider producers had been defeated. Last week the commission demanded that the British government do away with a duty exemption worth £2,500 to small-scale producers of cider and perry.

 

Under the exemption, introduced in 1976, cider-makers who produce fewer than 70 hectolitres a year – about 12,000 pints – do not have to pay duty. The National Association of Cider Makers calculates that this accounts for about 80% of the UK’s 480 cider-makers.

 

(read on)

 

 

[bobby47]

I bloody hate the European Union. I do! Bloody hate ain't to stronger word to describe the deep loathing I hold for this arrangement that allows their madness, both social and economic, to hold us all in its death grip.

Like me, some of you might think, 'I hate the EU as well'. Well you bloody don't! If you hate them, it, and all it represents as much as I hate them, it, and every bloody thing they bloody represent, then you are sick and unwell and you should throw yourself at the feet of your General Practitioner and demand some immediate healing.

That's right! You ain't bloody well! I know I ain't and it's all because of this bloody European Union that buggars about with just about everything that I hold dear.

Now they're Buggaring about with Cider. The barstards! I don't drink Cider. Hate the bloody stuff, but I'll defend anyone's right to drink it without bloody Brussels interfering with their supping of this very British drink.

Bloody European Union! I challenge any man or woman who taps upon these pages to offer me up one good thing that the European Union has done for me, you and our Country since it's rotten inception.

[dippyhippy]

First they took my hoover, then they took my cider.

 

Very soon, they'll be no pleasures left in life for me!

 

If they dabble with my hairdryer, I'll never be able to leave the house again without either a hat or a paper bag over my head!

 

Surely all of this meddling in my day to day existence must be an infringement of my human rights??????

[twowheelsgood]

Don't forget they took your lightbulbs as well, giving us the high polluting mercury based alternative. The latest is they've taken our handbrakes - oh yes - new cars can't have a good old lever because it discriminates against those who can't pull on one, so to speak. Enter the electric button, and many cars rolling down hills. Irons are next … (really).

[bobby47]

Bloody hand breaks! I didn't know that. Nobody told me about that little bucket of pleasure. Bloody European Union! Nothing! Not one single thing has landed on my lap from that Godforsaken place that's made me mutter, 'lovely. Just what I needed'.

Even their rotten musics awful. What have they gifted us in recent times that's pleasing on the ear and makes you clap your hands, stamp your feet and jump up and down all over my fat face?

Bloody Conchita Wurst, the bearded lady who won that accursed Eurovision Contest and those despicable Transylvanian Twins who gifted the planet with 'We are the Cheeky Girls'. Bloody Cheeky Girls! If ever that unholy pair ever pop into the Commercial and begin their sultry dance gyrating their bodies anywhere near me and lads, I'm going to tell one of them, and I've no idea which one it is to, 'Clear off. Go bother Lembit Opik you dreadful example of Mainland European taste in music'.

There ain't anything that they've got that I want and if I did want it, this'd be the last place I'd use to bloody ask for it!