As part of a move to cut binge-drinking the government is proposing that pub customers carry a card licensing them to drink outside their own homes.Very droll.
The Publican has seen draft documents apparently drawn up by pubs minister John Healey in which he outlined proposals to ensure anyone over the age of 18 entering a pub carries the credit card-sized ‘drinking licence’.
Yes, of course it was an April Fool, and it was amusing watching the commenters falling for it. However, as Simon Clark mentioned this morning, we have already seen laws passed which would have been deemed laughable just a decade ago.
During a heated pub discussion three years back, I suggested to a friend that, in time, we could require a swipe card or stamp book to be presented at pubs, clubs and off licences when buying alcohol. He wasn't convinced. But if the current attitude of legislators continues in the same puritannical vein, such a scheme is perfectly plausible for the future - the near future, even.
So who are the fools here? The ones who fell for the Publican piece? Or those who refuse to stand up to the bully state, believing that power drunk MPs can be trusted to know when to stop?
Binge-drinking is a relatively minor problem, but binge-bansturbation by way of collective punishment is evil, hugely addictive to members of parliament, and extremely dangerous to the public.
