Some organisations in the sector have embraced the move that will see Government allowed to give pubs the option to stay open later for key events when Parliament isn’t sitting.
Bit like VE Day recently - remember that wonderful opportunity for pubs to stay open till 1am on a Thursday. Remember how many pubs took advantage of keeping the doors open with no customers coming in from about 9pm onwards? No, me neither.
Throwing us slops
The sector is facing an existential crisis - mainly driven by a pig headed Government that refused to recognise the damage of it’s own actions.
Throwing us a few slops from a bucket that will have zero impact on the challenges the sector is facing is frustrating enough. Having others welcoming and praising the moves is just rubbing salt into the wounds.
I know there’s a sense that we have to maintain good relations with Government to enable dialogue, but when the other side is consistently not listening, perhaps we need to revise the tactics?
Rather than welcoming these pathetic attempts at PR puffery by a Government with its back to the wall, we perhaps need to start pushing back.
Meaningful reform
Let’s stand up and say, “thanks, but no thanks”. How about we stop licking the boots and start telling them to forget the “opportunity” to stay open late for customers that don’t want to go out late, and how about they do something with real meaning, like, I don’t know, lower VAT for hospitality, effect fast and meaningful reform of business rates, and stop making it more expensive to employ people in back handed tax grabs.
I’d much rather see more people standing up, pushing back and using the opportunity gifted by this PR platform to hold the Government to account on things that really matter.
Otherwise it feels like we’re thanking the school yard bully for only taking half our lunch money, while they continue to put the boot into our ribs.
