England will have its own bizarre solution thanks to the barmy smoking proposals
The PMA Team, Deputy Editor
No apologies for returning to the troubling issue of the proposed smoking ban. News that a sizeable number of Labour MPs are intent on derailing the Government's barmy proposals is to be welcomed. The current idiotic plans are the result of horse-trading between cabinet ministers in a farcical series of panicky late-night phone calls. Forcing many pubs to give up food to retain smokers will drive thousands of pubs into a trading cul-de-sac in the long term. It's impossible to square the Government's desire to reduce binge drinking with forcing thousands of pubs to give up serving food.
Exempting private members' clubs from the proposals will hand them a massive trading advantage. While Wales and Scotland have been bold enough to embrace a non-smoking future, England will have its own bizarre solution to the problem. That nowhere else in the world has come up with the Labour's answer to the smoking conundrum should be a massive clue to its workability.
Punch, which runs 8,200 of the UK's better tenanted pubs, says it has around 3,200 outlets serving a modicum of food. These are pubs that are making progress along the evolutionary curve that leads to a balanced food and drink offer. It's the way forward for the entire pub industry. The temptation will be, as in thousands of other pubs in dozens of tenanted estates, to play safe and keep smokers happy by ditching food. It's a guaranteed return to the dark days of pub catering - pickled eggs and slabs of pork pie.
The partial smoking ban is set to provide a text-book example of the law of unintended consequences. The rich heritage of family brewing and pub-owning is one marvellous facet of the industry. Last week, George Gale shareholders decided to cash their chips at least in part because of uncertainty surrounding the ban. When your business is set to be worth less next year than this year, what incentive is there to retain it? How can you begin to plan when it's unclear exactly how your tenanted estate will be affected by market-distorting legislation? Who'd be surprised to see more regional family brewers deciding it's time to shout - in the style of The Weakest Link contestants - bank.