Plastic Glasses - (more on the pc nonsense)

From the South Wales Argus.

GWENT's licensing chief is urging pubs and clubs stalling on switching from glass to polycarbonate to put the safety of drinkers first. - This despite the fact that there is no real evidence that plastic is actually safer.

PC Jim Aitken, who is heading the Argus-backed campaign to reduce weekly glassing assaults in Gwent's pubs and clubs, asked licensees to follow the lead of more than 20 premises already making the change. - Mostly making the change under pressure from the police who have already stated that they will "look at licenses if they do not change to plastic.", based on twenty five glassing incidents in one year in an area of 40+ public houses, and out of a population of 137,000 in Newport, oh and that doesn't include drinkers coming into town on a weekend.

His plea comes after some licensees said they did not intend to change to shatter-proof polycarbonates in the evenings.

Both the Potters and Revolution in Newport City Centre told the Argus that they catered for more mature drinkers which meant glassing attacks were extremely unlikely. - Well done them treating the customers like grown up's rather than children to be nanny'ed.

While both premises said they supported the campaign's good intentions, and accept a changeover may be inevitable in the future, they insist have no plans to change yet.

Gino Rabaiotti, owner of the Potters, on Upper Dock Street, said he also did not have the space to stock glass for the daytime and polycarbonate for the evenings.

Police are hoping to secure £10,000 of Community Safety Partnership funding that could pay for the complete changeover in the city centre.

But Mr Rabaiotti said moving to plastic all day and night could put daytime customers off and affect business.

"We have an over-25s policy here and our customers are a lot more mature than other places in Newport," he said.

"I think it's a good idea in many ways but we just don't have the space to keep the stock here."

Andrew Edmunds, manager of Revolution, said there had been no glassing incidents there during the last year. - Indeed, no incidents so whats the need to change?

"The danger of having glass in our bar isn't really that great," he said. "But we definitely see the safety side, particularly for some places, and I've no doubt we will have to change in the future." - think its getting back to that pressure from the police come licence renewal time.

PC Aitken warned the non co-operation of any licensees would damage the campaign to convince others to voluntarily move to polycarbonate. - Good, its not needed. Plastic glasses crack, nothing worse than a pint of beer slowing pouring out of a hairline crack and down your arm. Oh and one has to ask the chattering classes who think this sort of thing up if they would be happy drinking their wine out of a plastic glass? Or is this just intended for us plebs and not the wine drinkers?

"The nature of a public house is you don't know who is going to come through the door. Where there is lots of people and lots of alcohol, there is always a risk. - There is also a risk of being hit by lightning, remote though that may be and with just 25 incidents in the designated "plastic zone" in a year I think I would like to take my chances. Oh and should a fight start it would be nice to actually see a policeman in the pub of an evening! Rather than sitting in their noddy cars and picking the pieces up afterwards.

"Safety of customers is paramount." -PC policing is paramount methinks, some more of the boys in blue on patrol of an evening, actually going into bars would be worth more than this gesture.

So if you oppose this, then sign this petition

• We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to oppose calls by police to introduce blanket use of plastic glasses even in pubs and other licensed premises with no history of violence. We feel blanket bans on glass are unnecessary and will have a detrimental effect on the licensed trade and the drinking experience of the millions of law-abiding pub goers in well run establishments up and down the country.

previous bit: http://newportcity.blogspot.com/2007/05/beer-save-our-traditions.html

Link to campaign in the Morning Advertiser:http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news_detail.aspx?articleid=29937

This can be beaten as this shows:http://www.camra.org.uk/page.aspx?o=202215

CAMRA welcomes news that “nanny-state” plans to ban beer glasses in all Glasgow's public houses have been abandoned.

The Glasgow Licensing Board had planned to impose a ban on the use of conventional beer glasses in all licensed premises by the end of next year. However the licensing board has now announced the ban will only apply to late opening venues and to venues with the highest risk of glassing attacks.

When the original plans were announced, CAMRA expressed concerns that a knee-jerk ban on conventional glasses would damage the reputation of Glasgow's public houses, restrict availability of specialty foreign beers and reduce pubgoers enjoyment of a pint of Scottish real ale.

Furthermore an insistence on pubs using plastic or toughened glass beer glasses would have increased costs and more importantly the use of plastic would have led to the creation of more plastic waste.

CAMRA Scottish Director Ken Davie said: “I am delighted that the Glasgow Licensing Board has seen sense. Banning the use of conventional glass in all Glasgow's public houses would have sent a very negative message to all visitors to the city and was bound to damage tourism. It is right and proper that a ban is imposed where a venue has a history of assaults using glass, however the vast majority of Glasgow's public houses are well run and trouble free.

“It is gratifying that law-abiding pubgoers will now be treated like adults and a very small minority of hooligans will not be allowed to ruin the image of Scotland's superb cities.”

Tags: BBPA, polycarbonate glasses, risk assessment, Political Correctness, CAMRA, Real Ale, Nanny State,

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