I received the following official communication today, contrary to some contributors here.
“Sale of alcohol on the parliamentary estate
Alcohol will not be sold after 10pm anywhere on the parliamentary estate. In line with the Governmentās industry guidance, catering facilities will remain open later (but no selling of alcohol) when the House is sitting, to serve food for those still working and to support social distancing.
This decision was taken by the Speaker last Thursday. Today [28 September] is the first day since that the House is expected to sit beyond 10pm.”
September 28, 2020
Still getting preferential access to Covid tests and GP’s though arnt you…
September 28, 2020
They are essential workers.
September 29, 2020
They get dedicated GP service in London which is more than any real essential worker.
September 28, 2020
Preferential tax rules on “expenses”, travel costs, pensions, subsidised bars & restaurants, the creche, parliamentary shop …… still we are all in it together they say.
HMRC allow Ā£5 for a meal before taxing it – (only where the employee has been undertaking qualifying travel for a period of at least 5 hours and has incurred the cost of a meal). Not much more than the cost of two coffees or teas.
The net subsidy at the House of Commons bars and restaurants is circa Ā£3.1million. About Ā£5K per MP or Ā£100 per week.
September 29, 2020
Sounds like the EU level playing field
September 28, 2020
Take your own hip flask and cool box. Everyone else will except Speaker and Hancock.
September 29, 2020
I had been able to cope with pubs until the latest restrictions. Table service is not much good in Wetherspoon if you cannot attraction the attention of the bar staff. I donāt like phone apps. My phone is too old for the wetherspoon app anyway!
Then when it comes to paying you have to go to the bar(in a mask) to access the credit card machine. If you pay by cash they bring your change to you. Knowing what ales are on and remembering them is also difficult – unless you bring binoculars. The bar staff cannot remember them.
September 29, 2020
I quite like the Weatherspoon’s business model but if their staff can’t provide a service in this set up I suggest you go elsewhere.
I went to a Fullers pub the other day and the beer was lovely, service was great to. Unfortunately it was Ā£6.50 a pint which quickly adds up
September 29, 2020
Ā£6.50 a pint!
I know an old Fullers pub in The City that had guest beers and offered discounts to certain organisations. Excellent beers were under Ā£4.00 a pint, which is good for the City.
I will now be drinking locally in a pub that offers 50% off food Monday to Wednesday and is less hectic than Wetherspoons.
September 28, 2020
Cheers for the update – but it isn’t that you are following the lawlike every other pub in the land, rather an internal policy (like weatherspoons saying that they’re closing at 9:30pm)
September 28, 2020
It’s enough to send you to drink!
September 28, 2020
Very important blog explaining false positives scandal. http://Www.drmalcolmkendrick.org. Stop testing, give everyone Vitamin D supplements and the crisis is over.
September 29, 2020
Mike Wroe: “Stop testing, give everyone Vitamin D supplements and the crisis is over.”
Never let a crisis go to waste. Even if the crisis was a manufactured crisis originally.
September 29, 2020
But this government needs to ‘save-face’ and been seen to ‘save-face’ , you’re correct the issue has gone much further than the covid-flu, the government has dug a hole and doesn’t know how to stop digging
September 28, 2020
A sensible PR gesture if nothing else. There needs to be a gradual erosion of perks for MPs and members of the HoL, so that their life parallels anyone who is self employed. It is only then that they can appreciate the challenges faced by the self employed. However I am not against them earning three times as much as they do now or more. I would also reduce their numbers to 250. I would also put an end to school, uni, gopher, career MPs. It is a job for people with life experience.
September 28, 2020
Thanks for clarifying
September 28, 2020
So they just buy half a dozen drinks before 10pm and sit in the bar past midnight. If they believe the virus exists they are hypocritical and deluded, if they know it isn’t they’re liars and traitors.
September 29, 2020
+1
September 28, 2020
If it is a case of the Commons following the same rules as everybody else everything should stop at 10pm. Or are we saying that other pubs and restaurants can continue selling food and soft drinks but not alcohol after?
I am hearing by the way that some pubs are refusing to admit people if they don’t use the T&T app. This is totally against your governments published law which says they have to offer an alternative means, even if a pad of paper, for those who don’t have mobile phones. If this is extended to supermarkets, as rumoured, then I will have to starve.
Reply The Commons can only sell food to MPs after 10 pm if we are still working then as it is a staff canteen
September 28, 2020
Still utterly nonsensical, even if M.P.s are also suffering it.
September 28, 2020
Good to see a policy change at Westminster. You see, it can be done.
September 29, 2020
Agreed. Next they’ll be doing something about the invasion.
September 28, 2020
Why you have bars at your public sector place of work is both a mystery and an outrage.
September 29, 2020
I remember the good old days before lunchtime drinking was declared a mortal sin.
Lots of employers had their own bars on the premises. Some employers – usually in the drinks business – provided a free daily allowance of alcohol.
I remember drink then being banned on the premises of my UK employer – but wine being provided at a meeting in the Paris office!
September 28, 2020
hope you watched the panorama TV show, if you could find out why Dido Harding has still not been sacked I am sure we would all be interested…
September 29, 2020
I’d like to know what our Clandestine Channel Threat Commander has been paid for. There has been more arrive since he was appointed than any other time.
September 30, 2020
agreed.
but like any senior police role its not a job any decent person could accept nowadays. too much political correctness, and being forced to do the job with one hand tied behind your back.
September 28, 2020
what on earth is Boris tweeting support of Bill Gates for?
Cummings has lost his mind if he thinks this makes sense.
for a whole bunch of reasons Boris would be far better off being at least neutral about Bill
September 28, 2020
It’s good that public annoyance has been responded to so quickly. Perhaps it will focus the minds of those MPs who DO drink at the bars to push for a more rational curfew time, say ‘last orders’ at 11pm. This should reduce the damage being done to pubs and allow restaurants to serve two ‘sittings’ in an evening.
September 28, 2020
“This decision was taken by the Speaker last Thursday. Today [28 September] is the first day since that the House is expected to sit beyond 10pm.ā
I nominate, as the collective noun for a large group of liars:-
A Parliament of liars.
September 28, 2020
Yes and they are not letting on that anti drink is part of Agenda 2030!
September 28, 2020
Perhaps a little sobriety will facilitate the appreciation by MPs of the outstanding good sense of the Swiss, in rejecting the Right’s bid to end Free Movement and the Customs Union with the European Union there, and by a magnificent 62:38 result too.
The spectacle of the UK’s lamentable fiasco is a gift which keeps on giving for the good of the Continent, clearly.
September 29, 2020
They had previously voted to curtail immigration from the EU to acceptable levels. They had no need to go further as they had already taken action.
We were given no leeway, despite our representations prior to the referendum so we left.
September 29, 2020
Oh, so why is the ending of Free Movement so vital for the UK, if it is not for the land-locked Swiss, then?
September 29, 2020
The Swiss are brilliant, and freely decide what happens to be best for them.
In contrast, regarding a so-called lamentable fiasco as a gift reflects dim, Martin.
September 29, 2020
I wonder if the Swiss are taking their share of the dingy asylum seekers? Martin, you know so much about the EU, how many 1000 have the Swiss now agreed to take?
September 28, 2020
Surprised Prime Minister Whitty hadn’t got on to this before.
September 28, 2020
Who is going to tell the pub landlords this will never end.
September 28, 2020
I walked out of a pub tonight, never to return until we win the impending global revolution.
September 28, 2020
Very noble (not).
At least one Tory speak sense about this virus (Desmond Swayne)
September 28, 2020
Why is there this general push/nudge towards alcohol restriction.
( Yes I know the police are pretending they canāt to cope with drunks anymore).
However Borisā sister said something about banning drink until Covid ādefeatedā.
And govt. is doing its darnedest to prevent pubs from surviving.
Ah ha!
Alcohol is seen as a major obstacle to sustainable development Agenda 2030.
Read about it at MHIN website!
Globalism is at the root of everything…and no one is letting on!
They all must believe in it.
September 29, 2020
Government advice on alcohol limits has already been hijacked by teetotallers and the Temperance Lobby.
https://life.spectator.co.uk/articles/no-wonder-britains-alcohol-guidelines-are-so-extreme-just-look-at-who-drafted-them/
September 29, 2020
Are other workplace canteens permitted to open past 10.00PM if shifts are continuing?