Casting a political shadow
As a footnote to the article above, it may have escaped the notice of one or two of you that all the current licensed trade legislation is coming from the Home Office, not the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).
The Violent Crime Reduction Act covered a wide swathe of legislation which brought us closure notices for persistently selling alcohol to persons under 18 (three strikes), summary reviews of licences requested by police, drinking banning orders (not yet in place) and alcohol disorder zones.
During the same period, the DCMS, with its hands full of gambling matters, has managed just one potential piece of legislation - easier minor variations to licences. Nine other simplification proposals, outlined by the DCMS in 2006, have not yet seen the light of day.
As I have said before, the balance of power for the trade has slipped away from the Ministry of Fun and back into the hands of the Queen of Darkness, whose attitude towards pubs and alcohol is manifestly clear and politically important.
Drink is bad news, especially when associated with the young. There is absolutely no incentive for the Home Office to view the licensed trade with anything other than hostility, because its revised brief, having lost half of its powers to the Ministry of Justice, is to control and prevent anti-social behaviour and crime - and of course illegal immigrants working in the security industry!
Even the best trade PRs are going to have their work cut out to reverse this particular trend.
