And no, it’s not the closure of the Forth Bridge, it’s the effect on the licensed trade of last year’s reduction of the drink-drive limit, which has recently seen its first anniversary. I won’t say “celebrated” as it’s not something remotely worthy of celebration. The Morning Advertiser site doesn’t allow you to cut and paste, but this summary of the effects makes grim reading.
As I’ve said before, feel free to support this in England and Wales. But don’t pretend it won’t have a devastating effect on the pub trade. The supposed “pub campaigners” who favour this are in the same category as the useful idiots who didn’t think the smoking ban would have a negative impact on pubs. If you actually want to support pubs you need to accept them, warts and all.
An inevitable consequence of such legislation. With the current limit I will go out and have a half or a low strength pint and confidently stay within the limit. If it changes I will drink nothing and probably stay away and stick to town centre pubs which I can either walk to or use public transport. That means country pubs will be bypassed. More pub closures will be the result.
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