Tuesday 1 May 2012

Putting vegans in charge of the chicken coop

The news from Scotland is, as usual, not good...

Alcohol licences rejected after warning from NHS over health concerns 

A supermarket and two independent retailers have had their alcohol licence application rejected after objections from the local health board.

WHAT?!?

Sainsbury’s wanted to open a new store in the Cowgate, Edinburgh as part of the development of a site which was destroyed by a fire in 2002. NHS Lothian warned the Edinburgh Licensing Board that granting the licence went against the protection of public health.

Are you kidding me? What kind of moron would give bureaucrats from the NHS the power to reject planning applications?

The Scottish Government have recently given health boards the chance to object to new licences.

Oh, sweet devolution. This is local option for the twenty-first century—the preferred halfway house for would-be prohibitionists since time immemorial.

New guidelines were introduced in Edinburgh in February to prevent overprovision.

If only there was some other way to prevent over (or under) provision. If only we had some sort of mechanism whereby 'supply' fluctuated to meet 'demand'. In such a system, businesses would carry out research into whether there was sufficient demand for their services before investing and would go bust if their research was wrong. We could call this system a market.

NHS Lothian is not in the least bit interested in letting grown adults buy what they want, especially if those adults are working class. This is a case of middle class hypocrites clamping down on the plebs. You think I exaggerate? Read this...

Earlier this year, Tesco avoided a ban by arguing that residents of Roseburn are healthy and middle class. They were given the go-ahead for a new licensed shop after a lawyer argued the residents of upmarket Roseburn were “bottle of wine on the way home” drinkers.

Wow. Rarely is fear and loathing of the proletariat made more explicit than this.

To help crack down on lenient licensing, Police were also asked to supply the board with evidence which showed there had been 85 crimes within a 50m radius of the proposed store between last month and the previous March 2011.

Well, duh. It's a rundown area in need of regeneration, which would have been provided by building a supermarket, cleaning up the area and creating jobs. None of which will happen now because some unelected mandarins at the NHS find it morally objectionable that supermarkets sell alcohol.

A concerned resident in the Cowgate, Catriona Grant, submitted a public objection to the board.

Our "concerned resident" wouldn't be this Catriona Grant by any chance?

Catriona Mary Grant (born 1969) is a founder member and former co-chair of the Scottish Socialist Party and the party's equalities spokesperson.

Oh yes. That's her.




So let me get this straight. A perfectly respectable supermarket chain has been prevented from opening a new shop because a socialist "avenger" objects to the existence of supermarkets and a bunch of self-styled public health experts don't like working people buying alcohol. What other outcome can there be when you hand power over to this rabble of unelectable reactionaries?

Do hurry up with that referendum please Mr Salmond.

13 comments:

Curmudgeon said...

Hopefully Sainsbury's show some guts and say "stuff you" rather than accepting a store without a licence.

Jay said...

Her twitter profile reads: "Remember evil triumphs when good people do nothing...feminist vigilante, so nae messing"

What a hateful woman this is -- spent a minute perusing her tweets and retweets. Dreadful beast, she is. God, I hope she never has a chance to spawn.

Curmudgeon said...

She is the evil that triumphs. I doubt whether she's read much Burke, really.

Ivan D said...

At least Catriona is not yet objecting to kebab shops on the grounds that they promote obesity.

Suboptimal Planet said...

"Do hurry up with that referendum please Mr Salmond."

Well said. Shame we don't get to vote in it.

Devil's Kitchen said...

"It's a rundown area in need of regeneration..."

Hmmmm, not really—the Cowgate sits under but parallel to the Royal Mile. It is right at the centre of town and at the other end of the Grassmarket from the "pubic triangle".

So, what it is is the destination for students and residents who want to get absolutely off their tits. It is also the prime destinations for Stag and Hen dos from miles around, especially Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, etc.

Which would account for the rather high crime rate...

DK

Mr A said...

Oh goody, is that how it works?

I object to the smoking ban!

Does that mean the ban will be gone soon?

How do these people get so much power?

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, this kind of thing is A Trend. NYC Bloomberg's DOH (which does nothing he doesn't pre- approve of) has floated trial balloons about limiting the number of bars per neighborhood and ending what're known as "happy hours" when bars serve liquor at a discount.

So far, the press here has given these ideas the raspberry, which doesn't mean they won't keep being proposed, while the propaganda ramps up and the "polls" showing public support are faked, till one day: voila!

Walt

dearieme said...

The Cowgate - I remember a wonderful pub there where advocates would congregate and you could hear the most wonderful gossip as their tongues loosened. There were also plenty of sad, wee down-and-outs in the Cowgate. A mixed bag in the Scottish style - a Sainsbury's would only add to the fun.

David C said...

Chris - thanks for providing the quiet voice of sanity amongst the howling banshees.

John M said...

Firstly, nobody said Sainsbury's couldn't open a supermarket, they just stopped it selling alcohol.

Secondly, with the Supermarkets destroying our pub trade with loss leading alcohol surely expecting the odd store to not sell booze should be encouraged?

Just don't sit there whining about Supermarket "freedoms" and then bitch when all your pubs have shut.

Curmudgeon said...

It's largely a myth that supermarkets have caused the closure of pubs. If anything, supermarket drink offers are a response to the shift in drinking from the on to the off-trade, not a cause.

Very little alcohol is sold in supermarkets at a loss, as Chris has explained on here before. They're not that stupid.

And it's funny how people didn't moan anywhere so much about supermarket competition before July 2007.

Jonathan Bagley said...

My local Wetherspoon was yesterday advertising draught bitter at £1.85 a pint - less than a typical pint of pub beer cost in July 2007. Anyone who wanted to drink in a pub in 2007 wouldn't be now put off by price alone.