Home Office runs a self-fulfilling prophecy

In all my time working with the licensed trade, I have never known it to be under so much pressure to comply with rules and regulations dreamed up on the spur of the moment.

The idea that it was "necessary" to impose mandatory conditions on all pubs throughout the country to cope with the irresponsible actions of a few is repugnant. It is like caning all children in Dickensian times to deter them from doing any wrong. "Let this be a lesson to you!"

Similarly, the police have taken their lead from the Home Office, whose vendetta against the licensed trade shows no signs of abating, to seek a set of additional "conditions" for the World Cup. In some areas, these are being given an extra push by the suggestion that if you do not sign up to them (a written acceptance is required) then you might find your premises licence under review for failing to comply with the licensing objectives.

Sometimes this is dressed up as a form of co-operation, but the truth is that licensees are being coerced into accepting a fresh set of requirements in the unlikely event of any trouble occurring. Even pubs with a history of football involvement, and those pubs with Sky Sports installed, have not had any difficulty for years. Yet suddenly there is a perceived danger of widespread hooliganism and mayhem — for an event which on any reckoning has passed off in most places in the past without so much as a whisper of trouble.

As one reader so succinctly put it last week, this is the Home Office dampening the flames with a can of petrol. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy — if there is trouble, we knew that it would happen; if there is no trouble, it is thanks to the stringent conditions imposed by the police! Nowhere will there be any room for any congratulations to the licensed trade for doing what comes naturally and ensuring that their own houses are kept in order.

Four years ago there was not this urgent rush to impose a set of rules on pubs, yet as far as we can discover the event passed off without significant disturbance in most places. In fact, it appears to have been more or less the same as usual, with some loutish behaviour that you would find on any weekend, but not wholesale rioting or drunkenness.

This is because it is not that sort of event. Football rivalry tends to be at local level, or between rival gangs — not between the supporters of the USA and Algeria in a pub in Oldham!

Now, four years later, there appears to be a threat of World War III in every town and city in the land; so the police are on red alert and licensees have to sign a contract to have decanted bottles, polycarbonate glasses, door staff from two hours before kick-off until closing time (why?) and no visibility of the match outside the premises. Oh, and no drinks promotions.

This is, of course, part and parcel of a continuing demonisation of the trade as a whole. That is not over-stating the situation: there are clearly those who would like to see pubs virtually removed from the landscape of the UK, treated as an anachronism and confined before long to history. It will take some considerable time to achieve this, of course, but by a process of creeping legislation and red tape you can create a strong deterrent effect to entry, and by suggesting that all pubs need a set of stringent anti-disorder conditions, you can give the impression that they are all as bad as each other.

It appears to make no difference what the BII or the BBPA says. You are all tarred with the same brush.