Licensing Minister Gerry Sutcliffe is the latest to damn the government's anti-pub measures - calling for publicans to campaign against tax rises on alcohol.
The Chancellor - tasked to curb binge drinking, instead used the Budget to load tax on responsible drinkers - slapping tax increases on wine, beer and, for the first time in 10 years, spirits. Independent rural pubs, typically the centre of community life, are most likely to suffer as price rises force country folk to stay at home.
With the true cost of living under Labour soaring, the Chancellor plunged Britain's poorest into further misery by abolishing the 10p rate of tax. The Treasury Select Committee, of which I am a member, released a report on the Budget today (Monday) concluding that the hardest hit will be those under 65 with an income under £18,500.
In Shropshire the average family will pay an additional £110 in tax as they face the prospect of an economic downturn and interest rate rises on refixing mortgage rates in the year to come. But a poor take-up rate of working tax credit among households with no children, designed to sugar the pill of scrapping the 10p starting rate, means more pain for low earners.
The Bank of England is widely anticipated to cut interest rates this week.
The Treasury Committee has confirmed that Darling's economic forecasts are too optimistic and don't give enough weight to the considerable risk of continued financial market turbulence.
Labour's boasts of no return to boom and bust look increasingly hollow now.
