Happy hours will be not be banned in pubs and clubs in a reversal of policy by the Home Office over its plans to crack down on binge-drinking. The decision is one of a series of climb downs in the new alcohol offensive to be confirmed by Jacqui Smith tomorrow amid Labour worries of not further alienating the public during the recession. Plans to put health warnings on alcohol labels, to raise the minimum age children can drink at home and proposed rules for supermarkets to have specific check-outs for alcohol sales have all also been shelved - The Daily Telegraph
More than half of Scots would report their own family members to the police for drink-driving, new research revealed yesterday. The Road Safety Scotland survey found 53 per cent of people north of the border would be likely to shop family or friends for the offence - The Herald
Lenders to Orchid, the privately owned pub and restaurant group that includes the Bar Room Bar and Sri Thai chains, have sent a restructuring team from Price Waterhouse Coopers into the company. HBOS, which financed the £571 million buyout of Orchid two years ago by GI Partners, the private equity firm, has drafted in the accountancy firm to advise on a financial restructuring. PwC was also asked to step in as administrator should this become necessary, although this is not the case at present - The Times
A gadget which turns your iPod into a breathalyser has gone on sale in the UK. The iBreath plugs into the music player and has a tube for users to blow into. Two seconds later it reveals whether you are over the legal limit. The £55 gizmo also acts as a radio transmitter - so you can play tunes from the iPod in the car - The Sun
The trickle of pub companies abandoning dividend payments is fast turning into a deluge. Of the big guns, Punch Taverns and Mitchells & Butlers have both scrapped payouts, and, while Greene King is expected today to hold its interim dividend, Marston's is tipped to, at best, cut the final dividend when it reports prelims on Friday - The Times
Space beer, the result of a five-month mission to boldly grow, where almost no one has grown barley before, has landed in Japan. The beverage, brewed from barley cultivated in the International Space Station in 2006, has splashed down courtesy of the Russian Academy of Science, a Japanese university and beer giant Sapporo. But the 100 litres of the 5.5 per cent alcoholic brew are not for sale, although tastings are being offered to some earthlings as Sapporo tries to push its brand into a new orbit - Reuters