Mark Daniels: Water water everywhere...

The Government's new Mandatory Code appears to have got Publicans in to a bit of a lather and the histrionics have reached new levels not even seen by those created over the Beer Tie.

But which part of the Code is it that's got every body a bit hot under the collar? Is it the fact that a vast majority of the Code is aimed exclusively at penalising the on-trade and holding them to account for all that is evil in the world of alcohol consumption, while the off-trade appear to be allowed to run free with offers of cheap booze?

No.

I attended one of the consultation meetings over the proposed Code last summer and, from what I can remember, the only thing supermarkets and other members of the off-trade are going to have to do to uphold their part of the Code is to put up a poster reminding pregnant ladies that consuming alcohol could damage their unborn baby's health. Meanwhile, landlords face a £20'000 fine and even a jail sentence for offering cheap alcohol deals that could be deemed as "irresponsible."

So is it the fact that we've got to start offering 125ml measures of wine or ensure we check everybody's identity if we think they're still a teenager?

No.

Despite the fact that parts of the Code include enforcing new measures for our drinks and therefore mean there will undoubtedly be a cost burden on the purchase of new glasses or wine measures or the production of new menus, not to mention reprogramming tills and EPOS systems, few people seem to have picked up on this fact.

And nobody really argues with the fact that underage drinking is wrong and that we all should be vigilant against those who attempt to pervert the law.

No, it seems that the part of the code that has got everybody in to a screaming frenzy is the bit that says we must offer free tap water to our customers should they ask for it.

The irony, of course, is that in a supermarket they charge more for bottled water than they do certain brands of vodka, a fact that seems to have been missed by all but the most hardened campaigner. But as I read through the various responses to the proposal of Free Water in the new Code, I think I could be forgiven for believing that before long my pub will be full of people sitting in front of my roaring fire drinking crisp, clean tap water offered freely in Anglian Water branded glasses.

The very thought of it filled me with horror ... until I remembered, of course, that this isn't what the tap water part of the Code means at all.

Whilst we do, indeed, carry a cost burden for offering water to our customers, pubs are not exactly going to end up with weekly water bills as large as the dray and trays of glasses being put in to the washers are not going to be full of vessels that contained unpaid for drinks.

We're talking here about the provision of free tap water to consumers who are already on our site, purchasing alcohol from us in a safe and comfortable environment. I don't know of any sane publican who has refused to give a paying customer a free glass of tap water - and how many establishments put a free jug of tap water on to a dining table full of paying eaters and drinkers?

It happens all the time already and it's not exactly going to change.

I don't agree with the new Mandatory Code. I don't agree with the fact that its sole purposes is to put yet more strain on to the already beleaguered publican's bureaucracy. I don't agree with the fact that it is being implemented despite vehement opposition from members of all corners of the industry.

The last time legislation was forced through in such a manner, and in the face of trade and public opposition, we got the Smoking Ban. And look what happened to pubs after that.

Like the fabled hoards of non-smokers who failed to appear in the aftermath of the Ban, water-fetishists are unlikely to besiege our pubs and demand to be allowed to sit there and drink for free.

I doubt that this particular part of the legislation will actually cause any of us any trouble whatsoever. Other parts of it, however, just might.