Licensing gets tough?

So I'm an advocate of the pub industry, I believe that alcohol is a valuable social lubricant and that under the right kind of supervision great fun can be had, great ideas can be exchanged and great relationships formed. 

For me pubs and bars are a vital part of communities and, when looked after by responsible owners, landlords and managers, are the best places for the consumption of alcohol to take place. 

What really grinds my gears though is walking through town and seeing once great pubs and some potentially great bars suffering in the recession. Further on you go past 'super bars' and tacky shit holes which are full to the brim with gyrating masses laced out of their tiny minds on chemically produced beer, fluorescent fizzy cocktails in bottles and semi viscous, flavoured and coloured industrial spirits.

Why's that then? Because if you make products very cheaply you can sell them very cheaply. Sell cheap - attract customers, young customers who want to fraternise with other young customers and find that getting smashed as quickly as possible is the best way to do that.

So here for once is the licensing authorities doing something half decent that should level the playing field for those who sell proper drinks at responsible prices and still uphold the duty of care that everyone in this industry should uphold.

Please see the message below from West Yorkshire Police Licensing:

With Freshers' week approaching West Yorkshire Police and Leeds City

Council are more than aware of some of the heavily discounted prices of

alcohol being advertised throughout the city at various premises on their

specific student nights. We view some of this pricing and the associated

promotions as completely irresponsible. I write to remind you of the

mandatory conditions on all of your licences in relation to irresponsible

promotions. I also warn you that we consider 'students nights' and severely

reduced pricing of alcohol at these events to fall under the following:

'activities carried on for the purpose of encouraging the sale or supply of

alcohol for consumption on the premises in a manner which carries a

significant risk of leading or contributing to crime and disorder,

prejudice to public safety, public nuisance, or harm to children.

Should premises choose to continue with these irresponsible promotions West

Yorkshire Police will have no option other than to consider review

proceedings against their licences. Please remember that we will also

disclose evidence at any hearing of other incidents associated with your

premises.

This is the first and only warning we will be giving and we expect

appropriate action to be taken immediately.

SO...

As the students return to their universities let's all show them what drinking and pubs should be about. Many of us have suffered from the media portraying the industry as unhealthy and debauched - we need to teach these 'students' what it's all about...