No 10 has vowed to confiscate powers from local councils which try to restrict customers from standing up while drinking in pubs or ordering at the bar.
Wow. Really getting his teeth into the crucial affairs of state there, isn’t he?
It comes after the Guardian revealed on Thursday that Westminster council in central London recommended not allowing “vertical drinking” or ordering at the bar in its new draft licensing policy. The draft document, now out for consultation, recommends that pubs applying for new licences allow only table service rather than bar ordering. It also suggests new pubs in popular nightlife areas including Soho call last orders at 10pm, to reduce noise and disturbance.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: “Busy pubs full of people talking to each other is not a public nuisance, it is British life, and it is thousands of jobs.
It's a relief to have a PM who recognises there is such a thing as British life, and not as something to immediately discard in the face of woke desires, but isn't there far more important things he should be getting to grips with?
And why is he considering handing more powers to the Poison Dwarf of London?
“The government is devolving new licensing powers to the mayor [of London] to help support pubs and nightlife. Soho did not become world famous by taking last orders early, switching the lights off at 10 o’clock.
“The prime minister encourages local leaders to work with the industry so that pubs can continue to thrive.”
Good luck with that!
The government is due to grant new powers to the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, allowing him to “call in” local council decisions he opposes.
A spokesperson for the mayor previously said he was against “restrictive and anti-growth policies” and said he hoped to use new powers to be granted to him by the government to stop councils from overreaching. The draft policy says pubs should “discourage excessive drunkenness and encourage the provision of more seating in premises that serve alcohol for people to sit and enjoy a drink and order food by table service in place of open bar space that caters for high-volume vertical drinking”. It goes on to recommend that sales of alcohol and food should be “by waiter or waitress service only”.
Who wouldn't believe that wasn't a threat to traditional pub habits? You'd have to be a moron. wouldn't you?
Oh.
Paul Swaddle, the Conservative leader of Westminster council, denied the plans amounted to a ban on “vertical drinking”. He told the Press Association that newspapers had carried “confusing stories” about the document and added: “I want to be straight with people. There is no plan, and never has been, to ban drinking while standing up in a Westminster pub.”
We can read, you know. And we know you aren't being 'straight with people'.
2 comments:
A more cynical.person than I may suggest that, by devolving these licensing powers to a Muslim mayor, Big Boat Burnham, or his Labour successor, will claim it's nothing to do with him when Sad Dick Khan't slowly denies licence applications or renewals in order to make the consumption, or purchase of alcohol in Londonistan unlawful. One more step towards a Sharia caliphate, allegedly.
Penseivat
If the government didn't want local councils deciding licensing conditions, they shouldn't have pass the 2003 Licensing Act.
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