EXTRA-time ladies and gentlemen, please ...

On average three UK pubs a day are closing for good - or more realistically - for bad.

Now there seems to be more unpalatable news for publicans and customers.

On October 29 the Government plans to increase beer duty which, many believe, will be putting the 'public house - the heart and soul of our communities' under even more pressure.

This sobering view is not a glass half-empty reaction.

Since 2010 Wirral has lost 35 pubs – 15 have put the towels on in the period 2016-17 alone.

I grew up in the Vauxhall Road area of Liverpool where there was a pub on every corner.

Relatives ran a tavern in West Kirby and I can still recall the aroma of hops and the heady mix of laughter, music and a sense of community.

I don't drink anymore - I've had my share.

But that doesn't mean I don’t enjoy pubs – Wirral, especially, has some of the best beer gardens in the country.

Pubs generally have adapted for the better.

The range of non-alcoholic drinks have greatly increased, cuisine has never been better - notably for vegetarians - and we still see a lot of our sport in there, as well as enjoying celebrations from birthdays to wedding receptions, quizzes to meetings.

They also boost local economies make our soap operas watchable.

But the beer tax is leaving a bitter taste in many mouths.

I have friends who run a pub and say they were hoping for a beer duty reduction incentive - not an increase.

Pubs are a welcoming part of our UK identity - pre and post Brexit.

They are tourist attractions in their own right and support 900,000 jobs - many for our youngsters Americans envy them.

I recall visiting Disney World in Orlando, where they had created a world village featuring a pocket view of national cultures.

A good old-fashioned boozer symbolised Blighty.

Our pubs are national treasures.

Britain's Beer alliance has set up the website Long Live the Local which has an on-going petition.

It also reveals one in four of us fell in love in a pub.

Time now to put that love back.

Opposing beer tax - I'll drink to that.

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TODAY is 'International Day for the eradication of poverty.'

The General Assembly of the United Nations urge countries to 'fight poverty in all its forms and dimensions.' 

It's timely that the controversial Universal Credit is being blamed for sending people into the poverty pit.

When two former prime ministers from opposing parties speak out to make damning statements about its failings you know that this roll-out is going to become even more difficult and unpopular John Major and Gordon Brown have warned that big benefit changes with large benefit cuts won't work.

Universal Credit is blatantly unready.

Mrs May, currently stuck in Brexit deadlock, has promised that austerity is over.

For many, it will continue to be a depressing future if Universal Credit isn't made fit for purpose.

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MOVE over pandas – the Koalas are here.

I have always had a soft spot for these creatures ever since those '60s stars Tingha and Tucker came on our screens and had a fan club boasting 750,000 members.

I applaud the decision to bring endangered Koalas over to this country to breed.

Watching soon-to-be parents Harry and Meghan on tell this week meeting a real-life Koala made me jealous.

These bears and I have a lot in common: they like being hugged; sleep for 20 hours a day and eat for the other four.

When I was at primary school I even edited my own magazine - Koala Bear News.

So, I will be first in the queue to see them in their cuddly, furry flesh when the Koala Bear Creek at Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire opens next Easter.

For now, the four female and one male have their work cut out as well as getting adjusted to life in the UK.

Eucalyptus leaves all round.

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WIRRAL-based stand up comedian Pete Price is looking forward to another sell-out variety show at the Royal Court studio next month.

Pricey is also pleased that he is making wavelengths in other ways.

The flamboyant, one-time chef turned funny man says he recently met some Liverpool ladies who came back stage to see him and honour their late mother – a massive Pricey fan.

Apparently, the mum was on a visit to Oxford to see her relatives and brought her own transmitter radio with her ...

Why?

Because the last time she went down South - she 'couldn't get Pete on theirs.' 

Priceless.

And finally As I was attending my health centre last week for an MOT, I met a few people looking forward to their anti- flu injection amid a choir of sneezing in the waiting room.

I overheard one man swear by the success so much so that he quipped: "I'm coming back tomorrow for a Brexit jab."

Peter Grant