Pub Ban On Watching England's World Cup Match

[Ken4155]

I was reading over the weekend that the Home Office had denied pubs an extension from 11pm - 1 am on the weekends of June 13 & 14, and Jul 11 & 12, despite the industry bosses asking for this extension in order for England fans to watch the opening match and the final, itself.

Now i have just heard it announced on local radio news that 'Dashing Dave' has come to the rescue of English footy fans and over-ruled Norman Baker, the Home Office Minister. A sensible decision, for sure, but it really does strike me as a little suspect. Couldn't be another attempt by DD to portray himself as a man of the people, could it?

[viv38]

Probably planned it between themselves (lol).

[Buenchico]

The crazy thing is that most pubs probably don't need any form of extension anyway. The majority of pubs around here close at 11pm on most nights of the week but, if you actually read the licences that they've got on display, you'd find that they're already licensed to 1am. (It's just that they don't normally bother staying open that long). So, irrespective of what goes on in Westminster, they can show the World Cup matches within their existing licensed hours without any problems. (In North Norfolk nearly all pubs applied for, and got, 24-hour licensing when the Licensing Act 2003 was due to take effect, even though hardly any of them normally stay open much after 11pm. So they'll certainly have no problems!).

[Baldric]

///the Home Office had denied pubs an extension from 11pm - 1 am///

Whatever happened to 24-hour licensing?

[Ken4155]

And most of my local pubs would have stayed open - round the back!! - irrespective of whether the man on the white charger had acted or not. I just found it very suspicious that Norman Baker, supposedly, hadn't sounded his boss out before acting as he did.

[Ken4155]

I don't quite know how this supossed '24 hour drinking' works but i do know that pubs had to be granted a special extension for both the Royal Wedding and the Queen's Jubilee. The World Cup, according to Baker, is not considered to be, "of national importance."

[Hopkirk]

Will there still be any pubs by then?

[Baldric]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_licensing_laws_of_the_United_Kingdom#Permitted_hours

[aelmpvw]

lot of fuss over nothing, England will be back home after a week

[Ken4155]

aelmpvw; which may be true but also irrelevant as the ban only covered England's opening match which kicks off at 11pm. The second weekend in question covers the final, which also has an 11 pm kick off and publicans expect their places to be quite full at this time, no matter who is in the final.