Pubs could reopen if landlords rationed beer to two or three pints per customer then asked them to go home to help with social distancing measures, it has been claimed.
Lockdown adviser Professor Eyal Winter, of Lancaster University, said people were ‘starving’ for pubs which he described as ‘an important part of British culture’.
Mr Winter, an economist advising politicians on how to ease the coronavirus restrictions, said social distancing would have to be enforced if pubs reopen.
One possible result of his proposals would be to stagger the number of people going into pubs over the course of a day to avoid them getting ‘very full’ at one.
He also told The Guardian that those flouting the rules should be fined amid fears some people would behave unacceptably as soon as lockdown measures cease.
And he said theatres and cinemas could reopen but only selling half as many tickets as normal with gaps in seating and higher prices to cover lower revenue.
Mr Winter said Britain should follow the approach of the Germans with clear dates and targets on reducing restrictions as the country leaves the lockdown
He told the newspaper. ‘One of the most important things is to have a programme to say ‘in two weeks we will do such and such’.
‘You need to make the rules crystal clear and explain the rationale behind each one of them.’
On Saturday, another Government adviser said that beer gardens should be allowed to reopen to drinkers.
Pubs have been shut since the UK went into lockdown on March 23, but Professor Robert Dingwall said it is time to relax the rules.
‘If it is a sunny weekend afternoon and the pub has a garden and the landlords are prepared to accept responsibility for not overcrowding that garden, I see no particular reason why it should not reopen,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
As lockdown set in late last month, police were on the alert to close any pubs or bars that refused to comply with the government’s shutdown of social venues.
Read the rest here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8264199/Coronavirus-UK-Britons-face-two-three-pint-limit-bid-stop-day-drinkers.html
Hello Prohibition!! — I don’t think so!!
Related: Seems Blair is till throwing weight around:
“A major increase in state surveillance is a ‘price worth paying’ to beat Covid-19, a UK think tank says. The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), founded by the former prime minister, says it could offer an ‘escape route’ from the crisis. In a report, the Institute argues the public must accept a level of intrusion that would normally ‘be out of the question…'”
Coronavirus: State surveillance ‘a price worth paying’:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52401763
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Having been in English pubs (mostly in Brighton in 1970 but also London) with all the folks them–small and large pubs–I am surprised anyone there is putting up with this nonsense. Without pubs, England is not England, IMHO.
Yep, any infringement on their beer drinking might just be the spark the average UK bloke needs to finally get up & start doing something LOL!