The Plan To Ban Happy Hour
DIZZY loks at the plans to rid us of happiness and happy hour:
According to the news this morning there are plans afoot to ban “happy Hour” in pubs and also crack down on sueprmarkets selling multibuy options on booze. The argument goes, and I’m sure it would please the Portman Group greatly, that traders are not being “responsible”, and that essentially we’re all turning into a nation of alcoholics.
It’s all in the name of our health because we are not responsible enough to make the ‘right’ decision (ergo what they want us to do) ourselves. We’re all victims of the evil suppliers of alcohol who tempt us away from the path of light straightheadedness.
Yet it seems that no one in Government has a grip on the market driven reason for the rise in cheap booze and happy hours. Nor do they have a grip on the unitended consequence of their own actions having a direct role in creating the thing that they now see as a problem to be tackled.
Think about this for a minute. Why are pubs increasingly using Happy Hours to attract customers? It’s pretty obvious that you do not start selling off your stock on the cheap unless you have a business issue where you are not making enough money. If you can get them in they might stay or they might eat etc.
So why are the pubs needing to do this though? Well, over 1300 public houses have closed in the last year since the smoking ban was introduced. Smokers leaving the pubs has had a detrimental effect on business in many parts so they need to lure people back.
The Happy Hour; doubles for the price of singles and other offers becomes ever more popular. At the same time, all the people that have left the pubs beacuse they cannot smoke have started drinking at home.
This shifts the competition in the market to the likes of Teso, Morrisons, Asda and Sainsbury, who are all competing for those people to come and spend there money with them. So they all start offering crazy offers on booze.
What is the Government’s repsonse to a situation that it has created? Easy. Ban Happy Hours and legislate to stop supermarkets selling cheap booze. You know what that is in reality? Price control by proxy, yet another parallel between Brown’s Government and the 1970s.
Ban it! Ban it! Ban it! If they like it, ban it! Or, if it’s not totally illegal, tax it!
That was the manifesto for the [insert party name here]…
July 21st, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Miserable buggers !!!
July 21st, 2008 at 8:31 pm
I’ve been telling people for yonks that drinking will soon be banned. You mark my words….
July 21st, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Lone Pigeon, I’m a tad worried about that one.
It would mean that the sensible thing to do would be to drink as much as possible, as soon as possible, before they ban it.
Right?
July 21st, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Chenier
drink as much as possible, as soon as possible
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
That’s my philosophy too! (Hic !)
Cheers !
Or,’ Bottoms Up ‘- if you prefer!
July 21st, 2008 at 10:32 pm
hahahahahahahahahahahaa lol - funniest three lines on here for ages
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:13 am
Ah banning alcohol, does that include the bars in the House of Commons?
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:24 am
JuneJohnson! Yes. But not the Lords.
If we have Prohibition will we be able to legally grow cannabis for our own consumption?
The trouble with alcohol is that people are genetically programmed to love it, leave it alone, need it or want to use it to get their knickers off or ask for a raise.
If this fucking ridiculous Government is so keen to stop street gangs running the country - why are they preparing the way for an Al Capone governance of the streets?
Are we going to rely on the people who fill up the ferries every Saturday morning - like we did before the supermarkets gave it to us at a reasonable price?
July 22nd, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I, like Lone Pigeon, have been predicting a ban on alcohol.
It’s only a matter of time - and for our own good, of course!
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:19 pm