Whilst pubs are closing left right and centre, the drug and prostitution sectors appear to be in good health - and growing dramatically!
The Office of National Statistics have reported that consumers in the UK spend more on illegal drugs and prostitution than on beer and wine. Well, not in our village (to the best of my knowledge).
They say that £12.3 billion was spent on drugs and prostitution - but only £11 billion on Beer and Wine. So HMG gather billions in tax and duty from B & W but naff all from D &P (both D & P being recorded as miscellaneous goods and services, presumably!!)
I wonder if HMG are going to introduce as many laws for D & P as they have for B & W, and then ensure that the tax revenue grows from such activities? I doubt it, myself. Much easier to go on persecuting the poor old publican!
We run courses on Drug Awareness and preventing same, but not got into a course on prostitution yet. However, good to see there are some growth industries in the UK!
Has the world gone mad?
Martin Read CMBII
Managing Director of Inn-Dispensable Personal Licence Training
Showing posts with label report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label report. Show all posts
Friday, 3 October 2014
Friday, 12 September 2014
UK Alcohol Consumption Down But Publicans Are Far From Out
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
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
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