'Don't Drink or Drive' trumpeted the Sun newspaper on Thursday, a day after Treasury chief Alistair Darling unveiled the measures in the government's annual spending plan.

The government is hoping that the increases on alcohol taxes will help curb Britain's binge-drinking culture.

But breakfast talk radio was abuzz with callers lamenting the potential death of Britain's pub scene as the rise in taxes comes less than a year after the government imposed a smoking ban in all public buildings.

'They put more on alcohol, because they think there's going to be binge-drinking, but it won't stop. It just stops people going in pubs,' said Ms Sarah Thomas, 33, a teacher trainer smoking a rolled tobacco cigarette outside The Goose pub in central London.

Alcohol duties will rise by 6 per cent above the rate of inflation - meaning an extra 4 pence (S$0.10) for a pint of beer, 13 pence for a bottle of wine and a whopping 55 pence a bottle for spirits such as whisky - from this weekend.

The duties will then rise by another 2 per cent above inflation in each of the next four years, reversing a trend in previous budgets to keep increases low for most alcohol products. Duties on spirits were frozen for the past 10 years to boost British spirit makers' competitiveness, accounting for the large jump this year. A packet of cigarettes will rise by 11 pence.

The first budget under Prime Minister Gordon Brown also planned to reward environmentally aware voters by imposing higher taxes on heavier polluting cars from 2010.

The increases - to be charged at the point of sale and subsequent higher road taxes - mean that many family cars, along with gas-guzzling vehicles and sports cars will come with larger price tags and be more expensive to drive.

Mr George Osborne, the opposition Conservative Party spokesman said the plans would unfairly target hard working families who need large cars or people carriers.

'Labour's economic incompetence means a rising cost of living for the very people they said they would help,' said Mr Osborne.

The government will also begin imposing a charge on single-use plastic bags next year - a measure already in place in Ireland - if supermarkets and other stores had not made 'sufficient progress' to voluntarily reduce their use by the end of this year.

The government stressed the money raised by a plastic bag levy would go to environmental charities, while the rises in alcohol and cigarette taxes would help fund a 1 billion pound package to tackle child poverty.

But Mr Steve Thompson, 39, an air conditioning engineer enjoying a lunch break with a cigarette and a half-pint of beer outside the Melton Mowbray pub, also in central London, wasn't buying the government's social plan.

'They know that people who are addicted can't quit smoking but they still tax it and get their revenue for it,' said Mr Thompson.

'They're crooks. They waste taxpayers' money terribly.' Rob Hayward, British Beer & Pub Association Chief Executive, said the government was 'shooting itself in the foot' because it would lose revenue as pubs are forced to close.

'The government is punishing all beer drinkers rather than tackling the minority of drunken hooligans,' Mr Hayward said.

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association added that as the differential between Britain and continental Europe increases more people will simply go abroad to take advantages of the cheaper prices, particularly on wine. The new charges will tax wine at around 1.46 pounds a bottle - the highest in the European Union and well above the 2 pence charged in France.

'Taxed to death'
With Britons already facing rising prices for food and other basic goods amid the gloom caused by the global credit crunch, the Wine and Spirit Trade Association said the new taxes were a form of punishment.

'It is bizarre at a time when the economy is slowing, prices are rising and many families are feeling the pinch that the government should choose to add to their burden by making the simple pleasure of a glass of wine or spirits considerably more expensive,' said the association's Chief Executive Jeremy Beadles.

Mr Thompson was despondent, but resigned.

'In this country, you get taxed to death,' he said over his half-pint. 'There's so much tax. Everything is going up ... and wages don't increase. None of it balances.' -- AP