WHEN IS the government going to blow the cross-Channel booze smugglers out of the water?

For three years now, this racket has been wrecking jobs and costing the country a fortune in lost tax.

It has now got to such an extent that today it is disclosed that the bootleg van gangs, exploiting the EU's single market and the giant gap between British and French drinks duty, are costing every pub in East Lancashire £3,225 a year in lost sales.

And it is not just the livelihoods of licensees that are being hit, the pain is felt all the way down the drinks industry chain.

And as pubs go to the wall, the traditional focal-point of many communities is also being lost.

The government should stop the rot and scupper the scam - by equalising our drinks duty with that across the Channel.

Why sustain a black market that is ruining British business and jobs?

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