The post-WW2 world order, which assumed US oversight of the west is no longer. At the same time, Brexit materially changed the UK’s role internationally as well as damaging our export reliant economy with the world’s biggest trading block just 24 miles across the English Channel.
Within Britain, we pay the highest electricity, gas and rail prices in Europe to satisfy company shareholder expectations rather than the needs of the end user or the nation. Australia just made its public transport free to conserve fuel, can you imagine that here?
Global companies, which generate billions of pounds in revenue from these shores, pay tax where it suits them, leaving you and I to pay higher taxes to fund the infrastructure needed for a rising population that Brexit ironically was meant to prevent.
Imagine for a minute if your pub or brewery paying tax at less than 10% of your turnover, like the tech giants do.
Within Britain, the younger generation are economically disenfranchised, unable to join the property ladder with those seeking to better themselves weighed down by student debt growing daily at 2% above base.
Icing on the cake
Meanwhile, the Baby Boomer generation of the ’60s approach retirement age insisting that “things need to go back the way they were” safe with their triple-locked pensions.
The US’s war in the Middle East and the inflationary pressures this brings provides the icing on the cake.
Put all of this together and it’s easy to conclude that Britain is ungovernable right now. Six Prime Ministers in the decade since 2016 would appear to back that up. We had six between 1974 and 2010.
All of this affects every one of us but anyone who suggests an easy, detail-free solution to our challenges either doesn’t understand the complexity or chooses not to share the truth with those desperate for an easy answer.
The UK has never needed its pubs, bars and taprooms more than it does today. A place for people to meet friends and family in a social environment. Places to bring communities together. The alternatives to them for many young and old people alike are too dark to countenance here.
But to do that, the sector needs the economic conditions to have a hope of thriving. On my travels, I see examples in every town I visit of independent brewers and pubs busy with people but the owners struggling to convert that into profit.
Rebalance of tax burden needed
A fearless and material rebalance of the tax burden towards those who can afford it is required. Did anyone else spot BP’s 50% rise in profits on the back of the Gulf Crisis the other week? It made £2.4bn profit (up 50% on 2025) in the first 12 weeks of the year. That’s almost £100m profit a day, or a £1 profit per second from when you read this to the end of the decade – each and every day.
Equally, the imbalance between the taxes paid by traditional and online businesses needs a scythe not a scalpel to administer.
Companies, especially those domiciled abroad for tax reasons, don’t elect governments, millions of British taxpayers do.
If our current PM wants to make sure we don’t move to a seventh PM anytime soon he needs to start with some good news. Where better way to start than a material boost for our sector, which can, in turn, help deliver the economic growth the Government is seeking. Let’s start with ways Government can work with us to boost youth employment in a sector renowned for providing a first stepping stone into employment then busk it from there…
I am sure we can all raise a beer to that.
