New Labour: The Party of Sin

I like the columnist Nick Cohen. I don't always agree with him he often has an interesting point of view and I think he's partly right in his latest column. Gambling really doesn't need a great deal of deregulation and I certainly can't think of anyone I've met who is begging for this. But then I haven't met Paddy Power or William Hill.

As for the licensing laws though, he makes the same mistake that many have made before. Allowing bars to open and close any time they wish should be welcomed because it will finally remove some archaic laws. Where Cohen gets it wrong is in assuming that that bars will have to remain open later because obviously this is the choice of the owner or manager. Secondly he assumes that the owners of pubs will want to be open later.

Over the years the breweries who own pubs have been very resistant to the idea of later closing. This is mainly because they would need to pay more staff for longer hours and they also the eleven o'clock rush is good for business. Another issue is that many pubs have only one manager, and when is the poor guy meant to get any sleep.

Cohen also ignores the fact that many bars already are open until 12 or later because they're playing music. If you've ever lived opposite a pub like I have, you'll know that the noise at chucking at time might be a little more tollerable if it's not preceeded by four hours of inept karaokee. Anyway, by allowing pubs to stay open without having to play music it should make pubs slightly less noisy.

But at the end of the day the licensing laws as they are make no sense, they don't stop lager louts roming the streets, they don't prevent noise and nuisance and they waste police time. Let's stop all this nonsense about when a bar can and can't be open and then treat the issue of drunken idiocy seperately

Posted by Ivan at May 23, 2004 11:42 PM