Labour claimed the draconian smoking ban would ease pressure on the NHS. By that logic, there was an even stronger case for banning drinking.
Think of all those hapless drunks clogging up A&E every weekend. Quite aside from all the liver damage.
The smoking ban would have been another killer blow for the pub trade, by blocking drinkers from lighting up in pub gardens.
Thankfully, it was binned by Wes Streeting, the only Labour politician with a spot of common sense.
But Labour is still waging war on pubs. It’s just found sneakier ways to do it.
First, one-woman economic wrecking ball Chancellor Rachel Reeves hiked employers’ National Insurance, which will cost the hospitality sector a staggering £3.4 billion a year.
Pubs warn they’ll have to jack up prices by 10% or close.
Fifty pubs go bust every month, and Reeves’ NI raid will shutter even more.
Labour’s not done yet. Now it’s unleashed Communities Secretary Angela Rayner on the nation’s boozers. Her workers’ rights reforms risk destroying the spirit of pubs by policing what we say there.
As George Orwell noted in his 1946 essay on the perfect pub, regulars go “for the conversation as much as the beer”.
Under Rayner’s plan, pubs might have to stop customers from discussing anything controversial.
Why? To protect bar staff from “harassment”. Which could include overhearing opinions they don’t like.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has warned Rayner’s rules could “disproportionately curtail” freedoms and could even extend to “overheard conversations”.
Imagine that.
Pubs are for letting off steam and yes, that sometimes involves saying daft or offensive things.
It’s a human right to talk rubbish in the pub. I may have done it once or twice myself.
The EHRC warns that clamping down on that “may lead to disproportionate restriction of the right to freedom of expression”. I’ll raise a glass to that.
It would also be a logistical nightmare for pub staff, who’d be expected to judge whether a private chat between punters crosses some legal line, then shut it down.
Picture it: bar staff eavesdropping and reporting drinkers to the authorities for a spot of tipsy wrong-think. How very Orwellian.
These rules are part of Rayner’s Employment Rights Bill, a cornerstone of Labour’s New Deal for Working People.
It spells potential disaster for Drinking People.
Free speech is protected under the Equality Act for “cogent, serious” discussions on important topics like politics, religion, and sexuality.
Unfortunately, not every pub conversation is cogent. Especially as the evening wears on.
Rayner’s plan is yet another threat to our struggling pubs.
The British pub is more than just a place for a pint. It’s a cornerstone of community, blether and half-cock political debate.
Whingeing about the government may come into it too. Perhaps that’s why Labour wants to call in the thought police?
Angela Rayner’s sinister plan must be quickly shut down, before even more pubs are.
