Now They Have A Go At Polish Beer

Beer prices set to rise as Polish lager sales soar 250% in Britain

The Daily Mail is evil. Today, it tries to mix up a story about the increase in popularity of Polish beer with a possible increase in prices. Nobody has put their name to this piece of crap journalism. The point is that people read the headline and blame foreigners for everything.

But hang on......surely even the most hardened supporter of Little England would realise that most decent beers of a lager type come from abroad.

Moreover, The Mail makes no reference to the many wonderful brews made in the UK. So much for patriotism. Lagers like the Belgian Stella, German Holstein, or Dutch Grolsch tend to be more expensive than home grown ales. In my neck of the woods we have been blessed with some new, fresh microbreweries. Unfortunately, they find it difficult to sell their wares in pubs due to the monopoly of big pub companies.

Then we get this:

• Meanwhile, Danish group Carlsberg said it had already increased beer prices by one per cent in the past year and a sharp hike in the cost of goods such as malt and aluminium was expected to lead to further increases.

So, nothing to do with those cunning foreign (non-Danish,Dutch, German) types from Warsaw. What about the perpetrators of this heinous crime?

• Tesco beer buyer Helen Moores said the Polish beers were breaking all the chain's records.
  "Polish beer has definitely arrived in a big way and if sales continue at their present rate then in a few years Tyskie could become the new Stella Artois or Becks," she said.

But surely the Poles are guilty somewhere; after all they were in the headline? Well.......

• Meanwhile, Danish group Carlsberg said it had already increased beer prices by one per cent in the past year and a sharp hike in the cost of goods such as malt and aluminium was expected to lead to further increases.
  Carlsberg is the latest firm in the food and drink sector to warn of rising costs, with bread makers and dairy producers among those upping prices to protect margins.
  The rising cost of commodities, such as wheat, has also stoked worries over the impact on overall inflation in the UK.

The headline in the Mail is another attempt to have a go at foreigners. If you read the story there is nothing to connect the Polish beer popularity (partly due to the likes of Wetherspoons stocking it a low prices) and beer prices increasing. This is another example of creating a myth which will stick and become fact.

At least The Poles are paying taxes here unlike the trustees of The Daily Mail. Isn't it amazing how the ex-pats and deserters seem to be the most vocal on issues of immigration?

Beer prices may rise. There is nothing in the story to link the two. Unfortunately, there are enough Mail readers who just read the headline, to make this dangerous. The evidence is contained within most stories - just read the idiotic posts - and yet idiots like myself cannot get a comment published!

This is another example of how the reviled Mail operates. Nowhere in the story does it link Polish immigration or beer with an increase in the price of a pint - the reader is invited to use their own prejudice.

If we are to defend the Mail, let us think why they might use this particular juxtaposition. Answer on a postcard to Mr. P. Dacre c/o "Are you thinking what we're thinking".