In the news

I wonder if there are a few motives for this:

1. They have the votes to do it and it'll deliver a long term benefit. So why not?
   
2. Politicians/civil servants inability to use someone else's policy when you can do extra work to create your own.
   
3. A distraction the media and public can engage with. (which you hope they've run past focus groups who are in favour of it).
   
   

On the chat about the impact to the service industry, I'd like to see numbers on that. I did lots of reading of pub business plans and market trends around 2017. Everything I read said less people drinking alcohol resulting in a need to move to food led spaces with broader beverage options. My gut says commentators on this are thinking about the drinking/smoking habits of their youth, not the reality. Happy to be proved wrong on this. Also Brexit. This was a big factor in fucking the pubs I was working with.