George Osborne plays Artful Dodger as he "simplifies" your pockets.

George Osborne has discovered a wonderful new word: simplification.

Each new tax burden is now described by this modern day Artful Dodger as an opportunity for the Treasury to simplify things and not content with his far-reaching "Granny Tax" he has also taken a swipe at the over 65's in Yorkshire!  This artful move has been accomplished by targeting a traditional Black Beer known as Mather's Black Beer: An excellent article on this was printed in the Telegraph on 22nd March:

Will Treasury "simplify" Black Beer to the point of extinction?

CWF  (Continental Wines and Fortified Aperitifs) are the only distributor of this beer now and sell approximately just 35,000 bottles a year mainly to the over 65's in Yorkshire.

The Treasury actually admit that the revenue from imposing excise duty on Mather's will be negligible, but nevertheless they are going to go ahead anyway and probably destroy a product that has been known about since Captain Cook's time when it was seen as a remedy against scurvy.

Perhaps they should consider that once sales are reduced to a level that becomes unviable commercially there will be no revenue anyway.