"The Vicar of South Acton suggests that a huge prize should be offered for the invention of a good temperance drink. We regret to say that this is not the first studied insult that has been offered to Government ale."
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This is an exchange on Government ale in the House of Commons in 1919:
"Sir J. D. REES asked the Food Controller if he will state when the low-gravity beer known as Government ale will be abolished?
§ Mr. McCURDY I am not quite clear to what the hon. Member refers. So far as I am aware, there is no beer properly defined as "Government ale."
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1919/mar/27/government-ale
Sounds like the typical politician's trick of avoiding the question. As Rees was a Tory and McCurdy a Liberal, it also might be another confrontation between the brewing and temperance lobbies that were so common in the early twentieth century.
I think by this time the expression "Government Ale" had been officially forbidden. So McCurdy is sort of right.
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