Government launches sting operations on British pubs
January 1, 2010
The chairman of one of the country’s most popular pub chains has spoken out against what he says is an attack on drinking establishments by the government. Tim Martin who runs the Wetherspoon chain claims that although binge drinking is a problem in Britain it should not be the country’s pubs who foot the blame. He said that new measures by the government to crack down on the problem of underage drinking will do little more than put pubs out of business rather than getting to the root of the problem. Mr. Martin said that sting operations which involve underage people entering bars and pubs and attempting to buy alcohol were stupid.
New rules say that if a publican is caught selling alcohol to underage drinkers more than twice then their license to operate could be revoked. Mr. Martin said that putting pubs out of business would do nothing to combat Britain’s binge drinking culture. He claims that pubs are a place where drinking can be monitored unlike the streets or in peoples homes. If people are getting out of control in a pub, then something can be done about it, he said.
Mr. Martin went on to point out that recently a pub in Coventry which employs around fifty people, pays a rent of £175,000 every year and whose owner had been running the establishment for more than eight years had almost been put out of business because of government rules. Mr. Martin said that Wetherspoons was able to combat the government because of its size. He said that individual publicans would be the ones to suffer because they lacked sufficient clout.
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