Ear bending to grow spending - Ed’s letter

The government is having a review of the licensing regime in the UK, in a classic case of ‘we know there’s a problem in hospitality, let’s not address it at all’.

For the pub sector - and for wider hospitality - the problem isn’t that it’s hard to stay open late. The problem is that it’s hard to find anyone who wants to drink after 9pm and harder still to find the money to pay anyone to serve them if they do.

But never mind, because we’re going to have a four-week consultation to discuss it anyway.

A government spokesperson said: "For years, red tape has made it harder for pubs to serve food outside, host live music, or even stay open, with some historic venues forced to shut over noise complaints or outdated advertising rules. Now, a four-week call for evidence is giving people the chance to help fix it.

"Whether it's enjoying a pint with friends while listening to a local band, grabbing a bite from a pop-up food stall, or taking part in a community quiz night, these changes could make it easier for pubs and bars to offer the kind of experiences people love.”

This approach to the sector is a familiar one and it’s churlish to look at the prime minister and his cabinet as new to the art of scratching around desperate to make themselves look  like real people who know what a pub is. Faced with competition to be the most salt of the earth, they have naturally landed on the pub and making it easier for us to enjoy community quiz nights. Whatever they are. And whenever they are (surely not at 2am?).

The review was met with the kind of derision you’ve lived through in the last minute or so if you’ve made it this far. The review doesn’t address cost, business rates or the reality of a clientele who likes to go to bed early.

It also doesn’t address the rest of hospitality, outside the boozer - where the likes of Nigel Farage prefer to be photographed, having a good, honest pint.

But before we start grumping about what it all means for restaurants and hotels, let alone coffee shops, let’s lean into the positive. Sir Keir Starmer needs a win. Now, we have written before about how that win could be making a big deal about the careers that hospitality offers: local, AI-proof careers. That was thinking too big.

What Starmer needs most of all is his own version of that photo of the Queen Mother pulling a pint of Young’s. He needs to look like a human, a human who can speak regular words and might watch X Factor.

We are, of course, happy to deliver. We are nothing if not hospitable. But don’t be too shocked if, in our four-week conversational window, other demands than late-night community quizzing are raised.