Threat of global sanctions
It has become something of a cliché to say that drinking is the new smoking, but it is increasingly clear that global solutions are being proposed to the "problem" of alcohol consumption.
A trawl through recent cuttings, both from this newspaper and the national press generally, of course throw up the usual crop of politicians ranting about things of which they know very little! Even the Prime Minister, according to weekend reports, has overstepped the mark on more controls, with the Home Office back-tracking on several of the issues he raised at the Labour Party conference — a question of poor briefing, possibly.
What concerns the licensed trade most is the idea of everyone being put into the same boat, through the introduction of a mandatory code, with conditions applicable to every outlet, or a root-and-branch change in the licensing laws, as proposed by the Tories, which will see even stricter controls, higher penalties and greater interference by locally elected politicians.
The British Beer & Pub Association, to its credit, has been busy lobbying heavily, warning of the knock-on effect of neighbourhood pubs being weighed down with additional legislation and compliance at a time of economic hardship. But the press is now full of health warnings as well, the latest of which is draft guidance from NICE — the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
The headline issue appears to be minimum pricing and that is what most commentators have concentrated on.
But in addition to the usual warnings about excessive consumption and the economic effects of alcohol misuse, the guidance also moves into the realm of licensing, with the following key observation: "Making it less easy to buy alcohol, by reducing the number of outlets selling it in a given area and the days and hours when it can be sold, is another
effective way of reducing alcohol-related harm."
The fact that pubs are closing at a rapid rate anyway throughout the country is, of course, not mentioned or evaluated. It could be that the authors of this guidance are concentrating their minds on the off-trade, but that does not seem to be the case when one comes to the detailed recommendations. It is clear that pubs are being targeted in exactly the same way, particularly in terms of reducing the days and hours when alcohol can be sold. Are we to revert to the old Sunday closing laws in Welsh counties, for example, or even in inner cities?
The two principal concerns, however, are sales to juveniles and sales to those who are already intoxicated. The former can of course happen in both sectors of the trade, but the latter is more likely in the context of the on-trade (although if a drunk walks into an off-licence he should still be refused service).
What worries me most at present is that global solutions and global sanctions are the preferred route of all political parties and health experts. What has happened to the "targeted and proportional" idea that good governance is meant to follow? If legislation is to be introduced by the Home Office to allow extra conditions to be placed on all licences, where does it end?
The answer is, as I commented earlier this year, that the whole of the licensed trade will become demonised and legislation will be introduced to impose an even stricter straitjacket on the retail sale of alcohol.
What licensed trade leaders must continue to do is to distance the vast bulk of this industry from the irresponsible minority, accentuating the value of the British pub as a controlled and responsible outlet of benefit to the community, and resist this clamour for blanket conditions and universal condemnation.
