Don't mention booze.

I meant to a post on this earlier, I have been too busy recently to do so though.

The other day I found this story, I read it again today and am praying to every god around that the Fun Police don't manage to spot it.

When I read this I thought "What a perfect argument for re-establishing pubs as social places for everyone." By this I was thinking of those under-18 who are refused entrance to some pubs due to their licensing (or so I was told upon evictions when under-18 in some pubs), those betwixt the ages of 16 and 18 being allowed pint with food (I remember clearly being told by the older generations this was allowed) and most importantly smokers.

The cynics among you laugh to yourselves at my naivety, but I still hold hope for mankind... even if it is rapidly dwindling for the immediate future of those whom inhabit these isles. My next thought was that of the bellow from the "public conscience" army of "For the CHEEEEEELDREEEEEEEN!" New tougher licensing laws to be able to serve alcohol, bouncers after 7pm, if not all day, screens hiding all alcohol, all alcohol kept behind the counter, breathalysers to ensure that those purchasing said alcohol are completely sober (I wonder how long it is before this is enacted in pubs to stop "binge" drinking), regular tests for the shop owners and workers to make sure they are fit for the task and massive fines for failure to comply.

So the aftermath of this would be ruin for I doubt even supermarkets would serve alcohol or it will be so prohibitively expensive that no one will buy it. Near every brewery in the country would close, pubs would either become restaurants or close. Everyone would turn to home-brewing, the sensible brewing beer, cider, mead and wine. The less fortunate? Blind through a poor understanding of the fermenting and distilling process. That would be the hardcore few, the rest would be nice cosy teetotallers to avoid the sheer effort now involved in drinking.

I think I might have found something to still seem fantastical enough to be in a dystopian fiction novel... I pray it can go in a dystopian fiction novel, I fear that these prayers shan't be answered.

As Bruce Dickinson so aptly (though I don't imagine he ever envisaged it being used for this) put it (certainly he would deny this is what it implied/meant) "Run to the hills! Run for your lives!" I doubt that will be far enough to escape the behemoth of Westminster now though.