THE Chancellor left the duty on drink untouched in the Budget this month - a tiny crumb of comfort for a trade that's so battered by bootlegging that it wants alcohol taxes slashed so UK prices can come down.

Yet, what have the wailing brewers done now?

They have put up the price beer - so that a pint could be as much as 6p dearer.

This time, it is giant Whitbread who send up this price rocket, blaming rising costs.

And, last year, it was the other brewers who serve East Lancashire who pushed up prices by around the same amount. But while hitting drinkers in the pocket are they not shooting themselves in the foot - and, possibly, aiming at the heart of many hard-pressed pubs?

Surely, if the drinks trade - outside of the supermarkets - is suffering like they say, should not they be doing all they can to keep prices down?

After all, how they would have howled if the Chancellor had done this.

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