Today saw the most dismal side of the smokeban yet, as a forlorn-ness seems to have set in amongst the good barkeepers of this industry....
The smokeban has decimated attendances in pubs-we know that.
Food has been advertised in an effort to maintain a customer base, which to a certain degree has worked, but trade has still fallen to base proportions.
I espied two young ladies this afternoon (Mary & Alex) both of whom I rarely see wending their way home until just after 6pm. Intrigued, I jokingly asked them if they had "had a skive" for the day-and promptly reduced one of them to tears!
It transpired that, as not enough customers wanted to eat today, the girls were not required past 4pm, thus they left their place of employ 2hrs worth of pay light! (Incidently, they had one drinking customer to serve in 4 hrs-he had one pint and left!) This, of course, raised concerns that even though they were employed by a brewery (of some significance) it didn't mean they were guaranteed their weekly wage.
Both girls work the maximum hours they can.
Both girls need every penny they earn.
Both girls are now very worried about their respective futures.
Both girls have every right to be!
1567 pubs & clubs have closed since July 1st.
Nigh on 10,000 jobs have been lost since July 1st.
Industry bankruptcy has increased since July 1st.
More homes have been lost since July 1st.
The gov't have ignored the industry since July 1st.
Now it seems that staff, some of whom have worked as barmaids for as long as 14 years, are no longer safe; they no longer have job security. The smokeban has hit the industry so hard, the industry is in utter turmoil. Staff are no longer guaranteed to earn that which they need to survive as normal human beings in this democratic (?) country. The message is clear to all. No punters, no work which equals pubs having to cut back on costings and staff being denied their rightful earnings, earnings incidentally, staff were hourly contracted to by the breweries in the first place!
On the one hand this gov't are bullying people into work situations to get them off state benefits, yet this is the other, rancid, disgraceful side of gov't. People that are employed are facing reduced hours, breadline finances and possible poverty simply because of the most spitefully restrictive law ever passed in this country.
If this is not 'living' proof that the smokeban law is a dismal failure then what, exactly is needed to show this dictatorial gov't that they are wrong?
Figures don't lie, we know the figures, the gov't ignore the figures! Instead, this gov't invent figures to 'show' the smokeban is a raging success, that they are right. Self vindication has always been the facade of lies and fabrications, yet this gov't march ever onwards on the back of self vindication.
As for Mary & Alex, well, they haven't got time for all this political jousting, they are just worried about next months bills and the money to pay them! This gov't has now denied them that right!
