MANCHESTER Mayor Andy Burnham has today called for a 9pm curfew on buying ALL booze to extend across the country to stop house parties after pubs shut.
The local leader said the 10pm curfew was “doing more harm than good” after several nights of packed streets and public transport after boozers shut up at 10pm due to new covid rules.
He called for a 9pm cut off for selling all booze to come into place across the country to help stop the incentive for people to carrying on drinking in their homes rather than out.
Such rules are already in place in Wales, where people are unable to purchase alcohol from supermarkets or off-licences from 10pm.
Mr Burnham told Radio 4’s Today programme: “Perhaps if there was a 9pm curfew on sale of alcohol in supermarkets and shops, that would prevent the rush to shops once the pubs have closed.
“That’s what we saw on Thursday, that would have been around the country.
“My personal feeling is that the curfew is doing more harm than good, and creating a disincentive for people carry on drinking and partying at home. that is, we’re told the main place where the virus is spreading, in the home.”
It comes as:
- Thousands of uni students were ordered to stay in their halls completely after outbreaks of coronavirus
- Ministers are considering making the ban on household mixing in lockdown areas the LAW – meaning people could be slapped with fines for breaking the rules
Boris Johnson told the nation’s boozers and restaurants they had to shut by 10pm from last Thursday onwards as part of new measures to stop the spread of coronavirus.
But videos and pictures of people spilling out into the streets causes chaos last week, and clogged up public transport.
Queues at supermarkets and off-licences led to people continuing to drink in their own homes instead, despite the rule of six forbidding groups from gathering indoors.
STUCK INSIDE
Meanwhile, thousands of university students are imprisoned in halls amid calls to shut Covid-hit campuses.
More than 500 cases have been reported across 30 sites, forcing students to be isolated in areas rife with the virus.
But many of the youngsters are partying to relieve boredom while others have questioned why they were told to return to accommodation when teaching is done remotely.
And students are also furious that they have to pay full tuition fees to simply sit in their rooms.
The president of the National Union of Students (NUS), Larissa Kennedy, told Good Morning Britain: “I’m hearing from some students across the country where there are security guards outside of these blocks where students are being kept, stopping people from leaving, coming and going, where students are being discouraged from getting deliveries and told by the university that they’ll deliver food and that delivery has not arrived and so they’ve gone for the day without food.”
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.hellofaread.com/politics/eu-makes-olive-branch-on-state-aid-spending-ahead-of-crunch-brexit-talks/
