Railway Hotel [Southend] pens letter to punters after closure

[whole diary]

[grahame]

A story from Southend - in the Basildon Canvey and Southend Echo

THE Railway Hotel team is saying farewell to their beloved venue after more than 13 years.

Here, manager James Vessey-Miller writes of the highs and lows, sharing his final goodbye to the Southend institution.

By now you will have already read the news that The Railway Hotel has run out of steam.

The company that facilitates this Southend institution has drawn grinding to a halt and has collapsed under the weight of unbearable pressures and almost un-tradable circumstances.

A heartfelt article carries on with a description of everything they've done but how the lockdowns and slow restart have rather pushed then to a point where carrying on is impractical.   I feel for them and, frankly, I'm mighty glad we closed down as a hotel and cafe when we did.   We may have risen to being no.1 in Melksham on Trip Advisor, but a high ranking alone does not pay the bills ... and trying to keep a business in situ, even if not trading, for most of the last year would have been challenging.

[broadgage]

Despite vague messages of support, I strongly suspect that TPTB^▸ (The Powers That Be) are not keen on drinking venues such as pubs, licensed hotels and wine bars.
"drinking is the new smoking"

The health lobby would no doubt like to make permanent some of the restrictions introduced during the pandemic.
An outright ban on drinking would be a huge vote loser and seems most unlikely, but creeping regulation to discourage drinking "improve public health" seems likely.
And of course the administrative class love restrictions and regulations for their own sake.

[Lee]

Despite vague messages of support, I strongly suspect that TPTB^▸ (The Powers That Be) are not keen on drinking venues such as pubs, licensed hotels and wine bars.
"drinking is the new smoking"

The health lobby would no doubt like to make permanent some of the restrictions introduced during the pandemic.
An outright ban on drinking would be a huge vote loser and seems most unlikely, but creeping regulation to discourage drinking "improve public health" seems likely.
And of course the administrative class love restrictions and regulations for their own sake.

That might sound extreme, until you consider that some of the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)'s most senior health professionals are openly talking about ongoing masks and social distancing being required for the "winter virus season".

This will most likely kill off the traditional Christmas and New Year party period as far as pubs, restaurants, nightclubs etc are concerned, the revenue from which is generally required to get them through the quiet months.

Taken alongside the requirement to sign each customer in before they can enter, and it would be hardly surprising if many said "Blow this for a game of soldiers, I will invite me mates round my gaff for a drink instead". This in turn will finally finish off many of those establishments who have somehow survived the current ongoing hospitality apocalypse.

And that's before we even consider the issue of "Covid Passports".

As an aside, all bars and non-takeaway restaurants over here are closed, and there is a ban on drinking alcohol outdoors, until at least mid-May and probably a fair bit longer if France's most senior health professionals have their way. Despite this, "someone I know very well" recently attended two birthday parties, both of which featured copious amounts of smoking, drinking and general mixing of related and non-related attendees, the numbers of which somewhat exceeded "official guidelines".

Welcome to your Brave New World, my friends.

[broadgage]

Alcoholic drink no longer needed, just a little soma.

[CyclingSid]

An outright ban on drinking would be a huge vote loser

I seem to remember the same being said about smoking, but we seem to have the same old political parties.

[grahame]

An outright ban on drinking would be a huge vote loser

I seem to remember the same being said about smoking, but we seem to have the same old political parties.

The smoking ban inside was very cleverly done - putting the onus onto the proprietor of the business to ensure it was adhered to.  As an operator of a hotel when that came in, I could be fined for allowing someone to smoke inside my establishment.  Net result was that people - when approached for smoking when they should not - were very embarrassed and put the tobacco out; the only significant transgressions we got were by visitors from outside the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) who weren't aware of the law here, and quickly adhered when it was gently explained.  We also provided facilities where they could smoke, even in shocking weather.

I suspect alcohol is a somewhat different case and the same technique would not work.  You didn't visit us to smoke - it was incidental, but one of the main reasons people go into pubs is to drink.

[Lee]

An outright ban on drinking would be a huge vote loser

I seem to remember the same being said about smoking, but we seem to have the same old political parties.

Maybe so, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the smoking ban was a part - maybe not the biggest part but a part nonetheless - of the reason why support for Labour has drained away from the "Working Men's Club belt" since the mid-2000s when it was brought in.

This retrospective article is fascinating in that regard - https://www.vice.com/en/article/mbav33/an-oral-history-of-britains-smoking-ban

Eric Joyce: They thought, you know, 'F*** off, you educated, posh ponces, telling us what to do in our private lives.' And, of course, we'd also kill off lots of the clubs dependent on such income – including some Labour clubs, of which I had a big one.

Patricia Hewitt: My working men's club really tried to persuade me to keep the exemption [for establishments not serving food], and in the end I just thought, 'For health reasons I cannot do that, I can't vote for that.' It was very sad – I don't think they ever forgave me.

Interesting also that Tony Blair saw the dangers, but was on the way out and couldn't do anything about it, but Gordon Brown, who was on the way in, didn't or wouldn't.

For better or worse depending on your personal view, many of those seats are now represented by Conservative MPs^▸ (Member of Parliament), and form the backbone of Boris Johnson's majority.

[Lee]

An outright ban on drinking would be a huge vote loser

I seem to remember the same being said about smoking, but we seem to have the same old political parties.

The smoking ban inside was very cleverly done - putting the onus onto the proprietor of the business to ensure it was adhered to.  As an operator of a hotel when that came in, I could be fined for allowing someone to smoke inside my establishment.  Net result was that people - when approached for smoking when they should not - were very embarrassed and put the tobacco out; the only significant transgressions we got were by visitors from outside the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) who weren't aware of the law here, and quickly adhered when it was gently explained.  We also provided facilities where they could smoke, even in shocking weather.

I suspect alcohol is a somewhat different case and the same technique would not work.  You didn't visit us to smoke - it was incidental, but one of the main reasons people go into pubs is to drink.

You'd have thought so wouldn't you? However, it is also worth remembering that you are looking at it from the perspective of being a hotel owner from that period, which is rather different from being the owner of a pub/bar type establishment back then.

From my recollection of being a young smoker and drinker in the 1990s and early-2000s, visiting a pub/bar type establishment wasn't just about having a drink - it was often about having a drink and a cigarette, and a whole now-lost culture that went with that.

Now, as a former political advisor, I can tell you that part of the art of politics - as you are about to discover as you set out at the start of what will undoubtedly be your long and successful political career - is about taking your opportunities as they come up. As an example, if you happened to be someone who wanted to do to drinking what was done to smoking, then the decimation of the number of pub/bar type establishments, combined with the rise to prominence of senior health professionals only too willing to back you up off the back of the biggest health emergency of the modern era, would provide one of the few opportunities to line all your ducks up in a row that you will ever get.

Never say never - After all, how many punters sitting in their local enjoying a fag and a pint in the mid-1990s would have seriously contemplated not being able to do so barely a decade later?

[broadgage]

An outright ban on drinking would be a huge vote loser

I seem to remember the same being said about smoking, but we seem to have the same old political parties.

The smoking ban is not total, smoking is still permitted in many open air places, and on private property if not open to the public. Smoking products are still lawfully sold.

I very much doubt that we will see complete prohibition of drinking.
I do however expect creeping regulation and control.
Reductions in number of licensed premises.
Restrictions on opening hours.
More onerous rules for licensed premises, including CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) survellience, trained staff, and so on.
No drinking at the bar in a pub, table service only.
Limitations on numbers of persons allowed at one time.
A prohibition on employers organising or encouraging anything involving drinking, Christmas parties and the like.
Social distancing in the virus season, later extended to all year.
Some form of special pass, permit, or other document required to purchase drink.

An (almost) complete ban was tried in the USA but was not a success. It is hard to ban the use of alcoholic drink when it is fairly easy to make your own.

[JayMac]

They better not ban alcohol. I've just started homebrewing!

[TaplowGreen]

They better not ban alcohol. I've just started homebrewing!

Hope you've got a shower as well as a bathtub!

[JayMac]

They better not ban alcohol. I've just started homebrewing!

Hope you've got a shower as well as a bathtub!

Shower over bath.

I am using proper home brew equipment. 40 pints of an American Pale Ale on the go. Should come out around 5.6%. No bathtub gin here!

[Witham Bobby]

Despite vague messages of support, I strongly suspect that TPTB^▸ (The Powers That Be) are not keen on drinking venues such as pubs, licensed hotels and wine bars.
"drinking is the new smoking"

The health lobby would no doubt like to make permanent some of the restrictions introduced during the pandemic.
An outright ban on drinking would be a huge vote loser and seems most unlikely, but creeping regulation to discourage drinking "improve public health" seems likely.
And of course the administrative class love restrictions and regulations for their own sake.

You forgot the sugar

[broadgage]

Producing ones own FERMENTED drink, such as beer, wine, or cider, is legal in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) and many other places. Selling it is a serious offence.
Producing ones own DISTILLED SPIRITS such as gin, rum, vodka and the like is illegal in the UK and in most other places. It is the simple act of distilling without a licence that is prohibited, regardless as to what is done with the spirits.

So home brewed beer is fine, but bath tub gin, no way.