Wow. Just, wow. Britain sucks. - "How pointless regulations are ruining British pub life - Reason Magazine."

Just when you thought politics couldn't be any dumber, they find new ways. Full article at the link well worth reading.

Two Pints of Non-Alcoholic Lager and a Packet of Fat-Free Crisps: How pointless regulations are ruining British pub life - Reason Magazine:

"If you want to buy a drink at a pub in Oldham, northern England, you must stand in an orderly 'post-office-style' line. It must be a straight line, starting one meter from the bar, with barriers, signage, and a 'supervisor.' There must be no drinking while standing in line, and no drinking within one meter of the bar. Customers cannot order more than two drinks at one time. And if a pub wants to advertise discounted drinks, it must give the police and local council at least seven days' notice.

...One Staffordshire pub hurriedly axed its 25-year-old dominos team, when police discovered that it lacked a license for sporting activity. Once the landlady had acquired a license, though, she discovered that nobody would be allowed to watch the dominos, since this "would constitute a live sporting event" and require a further license. The pub was also missing other key licenses, she said: "I was told that I couldn't have music playing, I can have the TV on but with no sound. The regulars can't sing any songs."

Dancing also requires official paperwork. One unlicensed York pub was threatened with a £20,000 fine, after an "impromptu jig by pensioner Mavis Brogden." There is a license for live music—in addition to which London pubs must fill in a risk-assessment form, giving the names, addresses, aliases, and telephone numbers of all performers, as well as the style of music being performed and the target audience. There is even a "spoken word licence." One Cambridge pub had to cancel its monthly poetry readings because it lacked specific permission.

...Preston Council banned "vertical drinking" (drinking standing up)... In a Home Office test-scheme in Yeovil, customers are fingerprinted and photographed at the pub door, and local pubs will "share information" on drinkers.

...U.K. politicians are inventing new ways to regulate all of the niceties of British pub life. One policy document suggested a 70-decibel limit on pub music, on the basis that "music speeds up drinking patterns by drowning out conversation and arousing the brain." The document also proposed warning signs about the dangers of alcohol and bans on cocktails with "suggestive names" such as "Sex on the Beach." There must be teams of officials working on the regulation of the dreaded "Happy Hour" and its deadly offers of "free drinks for ladies," "two for one," and—most notorious of all—"buy two glasses of wine and get the rest of the bottle free." As Home Secretary Jacqui Smith lamented, "It can't be right that you can still find promotions for 50p shots until midnight or 'all you can drink for a tenner' nights..."