"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."
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.
This is an exchange on Government ale in the House of Commons in 1919:
ReplyDelete"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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