The Portman Group, an organisation established in 1989 by the UK's leading alcohol producers, with a role to promote responsible drinking; to help prevent alcohol misuse; has reported strong evidence to show that ‘we’ (the great British public that is) are changing our relationship with alcohol!
The politicians of course, ever seeking to boast of their wisdom, try to take all of the praise for achieving this; with alcohol consumption falling, underage drinking falling, breath-test positives falling and alcohol related accident numbers and violence also declining.
However, the real praise should go to those great British Publicans who through greater professionalism, training and education ensure that alcohol is sold responsibly in the 50,000 + pubs in the UK.
The dramatic growth in food sales in pubs has changed the whole atmosphere in so many pubs; legislation has also forced pubs to comply with more and more red tape and stringent penalties for any irresponsible alcohol retailing activity. I just hope that drinking at home (where consumption is totally unsupervised) is not taking too much out of our treasured world famous ‘British Pub’ heritage! ‘Pre-loading’ at home often sees intoxicated customers arriving at the pub having not bought a single half of bitter there! Leaving the publican to deal with the consequences.
The reported trends are of course good news, whilst I have no doubt that other reports to counter this published evidence are on their way and will show we are all on our way to Armageddon through ‘the evils of drink’.
The anti-alcohol brigade is alive and well and will latch onto any shred of a statistic proving alcohol to be at the root cause of all societies problems!
Watch this space!
Martin Read CMBII
Managing Director of Inn-Dispensable Personal Licence Courses
Showing posts with label drinking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drinking. Show all posts
Friday, 12 September 2014
Monday, 14 April 2014
Pubs Granted Longer Serving Hours During World Cup
I have long thought that responsible, adult people should be allowed to stay up as long as they like, preferably in a pub, before drinking their Ovaltine and hitting the sack. Well, now Her Majesty’s Home Office have agreed we can do so if we want to - well, only for the World Cup!
They, the Home Office, who are in charge of these things, originally pronounced that the World Cup was not an "occasion of national importance", and that pubs would not be allowed to stay open till 1.00 am (so that customers could watch England miss three penalties in a shoot-out). Rather, they thought that we should all be at home swigging ten pints of strong lager bought from the local supermarket, most of us watching in agony alone without the comfort of our mates to sob with, as the last missed penalty puts us out of the competition.
Then Halleluiah, 'call me Dave' listened to the outcry from the trade and got involved, telling the Home Office to reconsider, and what do you know; reconsider they did! Their new pronouncement is that the World Cup has become and therefore now IS "an occasion of national significance" and pubs (if they want to) can stay open and serve alcohol for four hours after an 8.00pm kick off, until 1.00 am at the latest (not quite sure what happens if there is 20 minutes plus extra time in the match, guess we will have to leave the pub and find out the result in the newspaper at breakfast).
Luckily, I shall be in Spain on holiday during the first England match and so I shall find a bar, and I bet I shall not need to ask Pedro the owner if I can stay till the match finishes (I’ll let you know). I also imagine that Spanish fans will not need to ask if they are allowed to stay in their local bar when Spain plays no matter what time it finishes? This probably also applies in the other nations taking part.
Bridget Simmonds, British Beer and Pub Association CEO said "It’s really great news, which will put pubs at the heart of a great national event, I am pleased that HMG have listened and made sure that COMMON SENSE prevails. Thank you to the hundreds in the pub trade who made their views clear to the government". And so say all of us!
Martin Read CMBII
Managing Director of www.inn-dispensable.com Personal Licence Courses
They, the Home Office, who are in charge of these things, originally pronounced that the World Cup was not an "occasion of national importance", and that pubs would not be allowed to stay open till 1.00 am (so that customers could watch England miss three penalties in a shoot-out). Rather, they thought that we should all be at home swigging ten pints of strong lager bought from the local supermarket, most of us watching in agony alone without the comfort of our mates to sob with, as the last missed penalty puts us out of the competition.
Then Halleluiah, 'call me Dave' listened to the outcry from the trade and got involved, telling the Home Office to reconsider, and what do you know; reconsider they did! Their new pronouncement is that the World Cup has become and therefore now IS "an occasion of national significance" and pubs (if they want to) can stay open and serve alcohol for four hours after an 8.00pm kick off, until 1.00 am at the latest (not quite sure what happens if there is 20 minutes plus extra time in the match, guess we will have to leave the pub and find out the result in the newspaper at breakfast).
Luckily, I shall be in Spain on holiday during the first England match and so I shall find a bar, and I bet I shall not need to ask Pedro the owner if I can stay till the match finishes (I’ll let you know). I also imagine that Spanish fans will not need to ask if they are allowed to stay in their local bar when Spain plays no matter what time it finishes? This probably also applies in the other nations taking part.
Bridget Simmonds, British Beer and Pub Association CEO said "It’s really great news, which will put pubs at the heart of a great national event, I am pleased that HMG have listened and made sure that COMMON SENSE prevails. Thank you to the hundreds in the pub trade who made their views clear to the government". And so say all of us!
Martin Read CMBII
Managing Director of www.inn-dispensable.com Personal Licence Courses
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