Mug's away: Historic pub in David Cameron's backyard faces closure as the landlord can't even pay himself
A boozer at the heart of Cameron's
Cotswold's constituency could be another casualty of the beer duty
escalator
Early evening at
The Chequers, and the locals are in - with one exception. David Cameron still
hasn't turned up. Which is a pity. Because if the PM ever joined the regulars
at the bar at teatime they would have a lot to chat about. Football. What's on
telly. And why, after 500 years on a street corner in Chipping Norton at the
heart of Cameron's Cotswolds constituency, the future of The Chequers looks so
uncertain. The pub could be another casualty of the beer duty escalator, which
will add five per cent tax next year - a burden on landlords that the Sunday
People insists should be scrapped. Local Ian McFall, 40, promises he wouldn't
talk politics with the PM - "We're too civilised for that," he says. "But
I would ask him to explain why the pint he had just bought me is so expensive.
And I'd want him to hear why a pub like this is so important to us. "It's
not a drinking place. It's a meeting place. We don't want to lose it." Landlord
Jim Hopcraft has been preparing his accounts and, again, the figures make grim
reading. The £3.50 he gets for every pint of London Pride bitter he sells
includes nearly £1.14 in tax. That's money in the government's pocket, not
Jim's. During the two years he has been running The Chequers he has not been able
to pay himself a wage. "I have a
difficult decision to make - whether I can carry on, or whether I have to pack
it in," Jim, 48, admits. "I love this pub. I love the customers and
the atmosphere. It was a privilege to take on, but I have a family, and this
isn't making a living." The best hope for landlords like him, he says,
would be for the government to end the duty escalator. Otherwise, with 7,000 of
the nation's public houses already gone, The Chequers, with its low-slung oak
beams and stone walls dating back to the 1500s, might be at risk of joining
them. "If we have to go, probably the brewery would want to find another
landlord. But customers might drift away, it might be tempting to sell it. It
could become a Tesco Express, or a block of apartments." Dad-of-two Jim is
preparing a video for the Prime Minister which includes a tour of the building
from the ancient cellars to the newly refurbished restaurant, with the stark
message: This is your local too, Mr Cameron, please don't let it die. Jim says:
"It's the perfect English pub. What a shame if five centuries of history
had to end like this."