The latest restrictions on a hospitality industry struggling to survive aren’t just confusing – they are also condescending
It is in the nature of stories about the hospitality industry that they come with a selection of ready-made metaphors. And so it is that the newly introduced tier regulations for the hospitality sector can variously be described as a collapsed soufflé, a split sauce or, perhaps most appropriately, a complete dog’s dinner.
Last weekend, partly to mollify its own rebellious MPs, the government released the evidence used to justify those restrictions: the closure of all pubs and restaurants in tier three areas, and the rule that venues in tier two could only serve alcohol alongside a “substantial meal”, forcing all those pubs with no food offering to close. It was a thin document, referencing the obvious fact that without social distancing, pubs and restaurants are crowded places where virus transmission is likely. It pointed to super-spreader events in South Korean and Japanese bars and clubs. However, it contained nothing on transmission rates in venues using rigorous infection control measures of the sort introduced in the UK since July.
