\n<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s plan to extend licensing hours seems to be a rather desperate measure to encourage growth (Pubs to stay open until early hours in push for UK growth, 8 October). Will there be enough customers for pubs to afford the additional staffing and running costs of staying open later?<\/p>\n
Many pubs are already closing early on some evenings and perhaps not opening on others. If the government really wants to give\u00a0licensed premises a boost, it should find a way of reducing the price of the drinks they sell, but this would be unpalatable when it\u2019s\u00a0looking for ways to raise taxes.<\/p>\n
Pubs and clubs should be an accessible resource for communities, where friends and families can come together. When pubs were thriving \u2013 many years ago \u2013 the price of a drink in a pub was much closer to that paid in a supermarket. Until that gap narrows, it is unlikely that there will be any hope of slowing down the alarming rate of pub closures. I wonder how encouraging alcohol consumption squares with the NHS\u2019s plans to reduce the health harms of alcohol and the government\u2019s commitment to prevent the incidence of mental health problems that result in people being unable to work. Alcohol misuse is clearly associated with a range of mental health issues, including depression and anxiety, and is a significant cause of death.<\/p>\n In 2023, we had the highest recorded number of alcohol-specific deaths in the UK (10,473). The cost to society of alcohol-related harm, including to the NHS, social care and the criminal justice system, is an estimated \u00a327.4bn each year. It is hard to fathom why the government would contemplate these huge human and exchequer costs. But one should not underestimate the power of the purveyors of the commercial determinants of ill-health, including the drinks industry. Longer pub opening must mean that the chancellor has decided that the solution to economic difficulties is to drown our sorrows in drink. Presumably, our\u00a0alcohol\u2011fuddled brains will also fail to notice the introduction of ID cards and restrictions on free speech. Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <\/em><\/strong>email<\/em><\/strong> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <\/em><\/strong>letters<\/em><\/strong> section.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The government\u2019s plan to extend licensing hours seems to be a rather desperate measure to encourage growth (Pubs to stay open until early hours in push for UK growth, 8 October). Will there be enough customers for pubs to afford the additional staffing and running costs of staying open later? Many pubs are already closing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[79,447,15234,16683,16684,10140],"class_list":{"0":"post-28007","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-arent","9":"tag-latenight","10":"tag-openings","11":"tag-pub","12":"tag-pubs","13":"tag-spirit"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Clive Turner<\/strong>
Barking Tye, Suffolk<\/em><\/p>\n
Alan Walker<\/strong>
Emeritus professor of social policy, University of Sheffield<\/em><\/p>\n
John Hall<\/strong>
Bristol<\/em><\/p>\n