Hospitality industry bosses have been expressing their disbelief this morning as reports suggest that pubs could reopen in April with no alcohol…
But the news has left hospitality bosses and operators in shock, with the CEO of the British Beer and Pub Association saying the industry has come ‘under attack’.
I don’t know why anyone is shocked.
After all, it’s clearly a natural progression from the pub smoking ban, It’s all about Health. And Health is the only thing that really matters, isn’t it? If pubs were healthier places after smoking was banned, they’ll be far more healthy after alcohol is banned.
People will still be able to drink fizzy drinks, and milk, and of course water.
Although, after a few more years, all these will be banned too, except water. And all food will be banned too, except bread.
And we’ll live on bread and water.
What could be healthier than that?!
People will soon get used to it, just like they did with the smoking ban.
It’s often said that Britain was a far healthier place during WW2 rationing, when people only got the bare minimum, and everyone was lean and fit.
That’s how health is measured: by how thin you are. The thinner the better.
So perhaps we should bring back rationing?
Everyone gets a loaf of bread and a jug of water a week. And a piece of chocolate once a month. And a small (low-fat, low-sugar) plum pudding at Christmas.
No need to stop there. It would also be a lot healthier if cars and buses and trains were banned too, with everyone walking around on their own two legs. That would keep them super-fit/.
We shouldn’t be making life easier for people. We should be making it harder.
Some people seem to think that a pub with no beer would be insanity. But really it’s no more insane than a pub with no smoking. A public house is simply a house into which anyone can enter. There’s nothing that says that such a house should be able to sell alcohol any more than it should sell food or clothes or machine guns. Why should it sell anything at all?
Health is the only thing that matters. Not freedom or democracy or reason or faith or honesty or anything else. Just Health and Health alone.
But you probably know that by now.
Frank Davis 
An inverse relationship between smoking and COVID-19
June 15 2020
“Researchers at the University of Washington and Stanford University School of Medicine have reported a significant inverse relationship between current smoking and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mortality rates across forty countries.
However, David Haynor and the team say the difference in mortality rates between countries with the highest and lowest national smoking prevalence seems too large to be mainly accounted for by the effects of smoking. They suspect unidentified confounding factors could still be responsible for any perceived protective effect of smoking.”
However, the magnitude of the association observed and the wide-ranging implications this could have highlighted the importance of the further investigation, say the researchers.
The same correlation was identified”
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200615/An-inverse-relationship-between-smoking-and-COVID-19.aspx
Jordan
23 Jun 2020
“Smoking rates in the Middle East kingdom of Jordan have become the highest in the world amid what public health advocates say is widespread interference in policy-making by multinational tobacco companies.
More than eight out of 10 Jordanian men smoke or regularly use nicotine products including e-cigarettes, according to a government study carried out in 2019 in collaboration with the World Health Organization. Jordanian men who smoke daily consume an average of 23 cigarettes a day, the survey found.”
“The Jordanian figures contrast with those in Europe, the US and Australia, where smoking has been drastically reduced over the past three decades with the introduction of limits on tobacco companies’ power to lobby and advertise, as well as through awareness campaigns about the dangers of smoking.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/23/jordan-smoking-rates-highest-in-world-amid-claims-of-big-tobacco-interference
Jordan
June 23, 2020
Coronavirus Cases:
1,042
Deaths:
9
Recovered:
751
https: //www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/jordan/
Like a game of Jenga, you can only pull out so many supports before the whole edifice collapses.
For anyone who hasn’t studied Prohibition.
ALCOHOL
A DANGEROUS AND UNNECESSARY MEDICINE
HOW AND WHY
What Medical Writers Say
BY
MRS. MARTHA M. ALLEN
Superintendent of the Department of Medical Temperance for the
National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union
Published by the
DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL TEMPERANCE
OF THE
NATIONAL WOMAN’S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION
1900
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26774/26774-h/26774-h.htm
How to Make an Herbal Tincture
“Herbalists generally believe that tinctures made of alcohol are more effective in releasing all the medicinal components from the plant than other methods of using herbs.”
https://web.archive.org/web/20120926030459/http://suite101.com/article/how-to-make-an-herbal-tincture-a120952
Banning alcohol in pubs because it makes people forget their social distancing is a new one.
From the Lockdown Sceptics newsletter (the link is behind The Telegraph paywall).
Yes, this is all more evidence if any was needed that health cultism is the new religion and the gym is the new church, whether you like it or not – disgraceful illiberal hard coercive paternalism.
Pubs to Reopen in April – But Can’t Serve Alcohol
Pubs and restaurants could reopen as soon as April if they agree not to sell alcohol under options being discussed to allow the widespread relaxation of coronavirus restrictions after Easter.
The Telegraph can disclose that a temporary “booze ban” is being considered as part of the Government’s roadmap for lifting lockdown, which will be unveiled on Feb 22nd.
It is understood the move is being discussed to allay concerns from Prof Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, and others about the effect of drinking on social distancing.
Under the three-stage plan for lifting restrictions, some outdoor socialising is expected to be allowed in March and schools are set to return.
It is hoped that hospitality can then reopen in April and that all of the most vulnerable will be vaccinated by May, in time for the local elections.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/02/05/exclusive-pubs-restaurants-could-reopen-april-no-alcohol/
On a lighter note, Slim Dusty the ballad singing country performer was prescient, with his mournful track Pub With No Beer:
Oh it’s-a lonesome away from your kindred and all
By the campfire at night we’ll hear the wild dingoes call
But there’s-a nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear
Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer
Now the publican’s anxious for the quota to come
And there’s a far away look on the face of the bum
The maid’s gone all cranky and the cook’s acting queer
Oh what a terrible place is a pub with no beer
Then the stockman rides up with his dry dusty throat
He breasts up to the bar and pulls a wad from his coat
But the smile on his face quickly turns to a sneer
As the barman says sadly the pub’s got no beer
Then the swaggie comes in smothered in dust and flies
He throws down his roll and rubs the sweat from his eyes
But when he is told, he says what’s this I hear
I’ve trudged fifty flamin’ miles to a pub with no beer
Now there’s a dog on the v’randa, for his master he waits
But the boss is inside drinking wine with his mates
He hurries for cover and he cringes in fear
It’s no place for a dog ’round a pub with no beer
And old Billy the blacksmith, the first time in his life
Why he’s gone home cold sober to his darling wife
He walks in the kitchen, she says you’re early Bill dear
But then he breaks down and tells her the pub’s got no beer…
Hogarth. Gin Lane. Imbeciles.
Yes.
Dear Mr Davis
In next week’s news:
Restaurants can open, but cannot sell food.
Schools, colleges and universities can open, but cannot teach pupils or students.
Hospitals can open, but cannot treat patients.
Airports can open, but cannot allow planes to take off or land with passengers aboard.
Supermarkets can open, but cannot sell anything.
The list is endless.
Thank goodness we have that nice Mr *hitty and our beloved government™ (PBUI) to tell us what we cannot do this week. Or next week. Or ever.
DP
Great work DP, and dystopian, but don’t give them any ideas. Placing institutions above those they were created to serve is the essence of totalitarianism, as I have noted before…your body belongs to the Vaterland, Jawohl.
Islamification by stealth. Pubs are the obvious target.
They tried it a few years ago when some Councils banned dogs in public places, but the backlash was too great for them to sustain and enforce the order.
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/dogs-banned-11-parks-in-norfolk-1418218
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1069570/dog-news-council-ban-dogs-public-places-parks
Dear Mr Davis
From June last year, a piece singing the praises of Professor Linda Bauld, behavioural scientist at Edinburgh University.
“What we normally see with other respiratory conditions is that smokers are very badly affected – that is what you would expect. For some weird reason that is not the case with Covid and we don’t understand it. The data from multiple countries shows smokers are under-represented in case numbers, and they are also under-represented in the numbers of people who go into hospital with Covid. But when they are in hospital, even though they are in smaller numbers, they’re much more likely to die or to have bad outcomes.”
She overlooks the fact that once in hospital smokers cannot smoke, so if smoking provides protection against covid, hospitals are in effect killing smokers.
Prof. Bauld is not listed on sage, the government’s agency for stuffing the public; the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours (SPI-B) presumably being her department. However “4 participants have not given permission to be named.” If they don’t want to be named, they should not be on the committee. Participants on other groups are similarly shy.
DP
Yet Daily Mail says
“Pubs will be allowed to serve alcohol when they reopen – senior Government sources have claimed – with the 10pm curfew and ‘substantial meals’ rule both set to be axed.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9230173/Life-lockdown-Alcohol-BANNED-pubs-April.html
Meanwhile, social distancing (or not) in a pub in Sydney last week:
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=250704633117214&id=100045330381627
You have to wait 15+ mins before the band comes on. Virtual pub? Boring, yes, but an example.
Somebody mentioned this in an audio group I’m in, not really to my taste musically, but his other uploads looked sort of interesting, so to share here … in regard to lock-downs or not.
~ RdM
https://m.facebook.com/peternorthcote
https://www.facebook.com/peternorthcote
Not that I’m particularly into his music, though some might be, classic rock too & all that, but just to demonstrate that right now on the planet in Oz people are actually having live music in pubs!
When will Boris relent? Can you have booze and music as well, without masks ?
Still have to go outside for a smoke of course;- when will that be ever overturned, imagine it!? ;-