Alcohol as the big bogeyman

 We've been back in Eastbourne for a few weeks and we're already planning our next trip to Bristol.  Work is so busy that the only option is to block out the calendar well in advance to stop us being trapped around appointments.

I'm already excited to go back - so many places to revisit and the prospect that things are getting a little better on the plague front.

Also, we know some places do reduced opening in January - partly as recovery from December but also because so many people do Dry January.  By the beginning of February, pubs will have more confidence about their punters, I reckon.

Anyhow - enough of my excitement.

I go through little phases of being sufficiently irked at news coverage that I feel the urge to grumpily write or tweet something.

So it was the other day.  The shitstorm about parties in No10 during lockdown rumbled on, and on, and on as story after story was uncovered (leaked?).

Then Newsnight did a short feature about the "Boozy Culture of No10" when a load of ex-staffers were rolled out to say how often there was drinking, how much, and so on.  I don't think it's a particularly attractive picture of a government and its staff and I don't think it's a great way for them to behave - but I'm minded to point out (grumpily) that none of that is illegal.

What was illegal about the parties wasn't what was served at them - it was the fact that it happened at all.

Once again "Booze" is being a proxy for wrong-doing.

It pisses me off.

I work really hard for our odd little organisation and more often than not, after a day's work I like to drink beer.  Sometimes it's at a pub or other establishment - sometimes it's at home.

Very occasionally (usually when I go to another town for work) I may have a drink at lunchtime in the spirit of collegiate bonding.  

The brewing and pubbing industry has had a hard enough time without being the scapegoat for a lazy media who know that using the word "boozy" is a dog whistle.  

Stop doing it!

We have a brilliant licensed trade (well, in our small and medium organisations anyhow) and we should be proud of it - not making it the dirty little secret that no one admits to.