Champagne drinkers in Britain face higher prices over the next year as the impact of the Brexit vote on the pound takes its toll, the drinks industry warned this week.
A “triple whammy” of Brexit, inflation and possible rising alcohol duty is forecast to push up the prices of champagne and prosecco in the UK by £1 and 59p per bottle respectively, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association said.
Duty on a bottle of still wine in the UK is £2.08, meaning that 55% of the average-priced bottle goes on duty and VAT, while for sparkling wine drinkers duty is 28% higher than still wine.
Not March ...
Brexit secretary David Davis indicated that the UK is unlikely to trigger Article 50 and kick-start the formal Brexit negotiations at the European Council summit in early March.
His comments came following reports that Downing Street was preparing to invoke the two-year mechanism for Britain’s exit from the EU during the two-day European Council summit in Malta beginning on March 9.
Who Blairs? ...
Tony Blair has insisted Brexit is not “inevitable”, in a speech this week, as he urged “millions” of Britons worried about leaving to fight to stop it.
In a controversial intervention in the Brexit debate, the former prime minister called for a “revolt” to halt withdrawal, similar to the populist wave that won the referendum.
“The one incontrovertible characteristic of politics today is its propensity for revolt,” Blair told a London audience.
EU revenge …
European Union states could take revenge for Brexit by kicking out more than a million expats, a report from Brussels warned this week.
A leaked document drawn up by the European Parliament's legal affairs committee suggests countries may retaliate over tough immigration rules.
The warning comes amid a major row over reciprocal rights for EU citizens in the UK and Britons living on the continent.
The Berliner ...
Lloyds Banking Group (LON:LLOY) is close to selecting Berlin as a European base to secure market access to the EU when Britain leaves the bloc, sources told Reuters this week.
The UK’s largest mortgage lender – still partly state-owned - is examining steps to turn its branch in the German capital into a subsidiary and may apply for a licence to do so later this year, the sources said.
Lloyds, which declined to comment, is the only major UK retail lender without a subsidiary in another EU country and it would be the first major lender to commit to Berlin as a hub to access the rest of the continent after Britain quits the EU.
Fascist tradition …
The Archbishop of Canterbury grouped Brexit and the election of Donald Trump as US president with the revival of nationalism, populism and even fascism across the globe.
In his opening address at the Church of England’s synod meeting this week in London, Justin Welby said: “There are a thousand ways to explain the Brexit vote, or the election of President Trump, or the strength in the polls in Holland of Geert Wilders or in France of Madame Le Pen and many other leaders in a nationalist, populist or even fascist tradition of politics.”
Although the CofE leader has previously suggested Trump’s politics and policies were based on fear and exclusion, his criticism went a step further by linking the US president in with far-right party leaders in Europe.