Dearth of Rural Hospitality in Marlborough Due to Iain Wowser-Galloway’s Lower Blood Alcohol Limit?

Just figured something out when Mrs H and I were looking online at somewhere to go for lunch today. Here’s strong anecdotal evidence Labour MP Iain Lees-Galloway’s halving of the blood alcohol limit is having the decimating effect on rural hospitality I said it would have – and with no improvement in the road toll statistics because this limit only adversely affects the responsible, not those who are going to drink irresponsibly and drive:

National MPs looking tired, glum and thoroughly unenthusiastic in the house today. #7LongYears

— Iain Lees-Galloway (@IainLG) May 5, 2015

. @IainLG Glum and dull and sad. What's eating them? #nzqt

— Deborah Russell (@BeeFaerie) May 5, 2015

@BeeFaerie Eating? Perhaps death of rural hospitality on new wowser blood alcohol limit? ;) @IainLG

— Mark Hubbard (@MarkHubbard33) May 5, 2015

@BeeFaerie And I mean that @IainLG This time last year in Marlborough Sounds between 10 and 15 wineries to dine at. Today, five, I think.

— Mark Hubbard (@MarkHubbard33) May 5, 2015

Yes, some of the winery restaurants have closed for winter, but my comparison at this time of year from one year to next - and we spend every April and May in Marlborough - is correct. The number of rural winery restaurants open here currently is half, at least, possibly one third, only, of what it used to be in previous years. As well as impacting on all our quality of life outside the taxi lanes, that’s lost jobs and a dent in rural economies.

Mind, for the record, I’ve not changed my behaviour, even though I ‘suspect’ – haven’t a clue – it puts me over the new limit. We have a meal out roughly once a week and I drink a safe amount, but will end up in the new tax soon enough, as many thousands of others have since the wowser limit was rolled out. But damn, it’s getting hard in Marlborough to find a decent dining experience to dine out at.

Which is all a way of such f**k you too, Iain Wowser-Galloway.

I would be interested in such anecdotal evidence of failing rural hospitality in other regions.
 

Update 1:

Hattip Lindsay Mitchell (comments), further evidence of hospitality jobs lost by MP Iain Lees-Galloway – I’m surprised the unions seem to be invisible on this issue.

Woodbox Restaurant, Hamilton, Closed Down by Iain Lees-Galloway:

The owner of a well-known Hamilton eating spot is putting its demise as a restaurant down to tougher drink driving laws.

The Mystery Creek-based Woodbox winery, restaurant and bar was last year re-opened as Angus Rd. Eatery, with its owners citing the need for a more casual dining offer as fine dining was heading out of fashion. 

However, a year on from the refurbishment, Angus Rd. Eatery has closed its doors and will operate solely as a wedding and function venue. 

Pumice Food Group director David Kerr said the restaurant had struggled to attract clients. 

"There had been a bit of a down turn in the country-evening-dining type thing," he said.

He was not "100 per cent sure" whether lowering drinking limits were to blame, but they "probably [had] something to do with it".

Similarly, at least three of the Marlborough winery restaurants we once were able to frequent: Highfield Estate, Drylands Estate, and a French winery restaurant of which the name defeats me for now, are this year serving only the wedding and special events markets, their expensive (gorgeous) bespoke built restaurants sadly baring closed doors to the road.

Tough Times for Rural Hotel Owners:

The rural pub is an important community and business centre for rural socialising and networking. It’s a culture all but dead.

Since early settler days and gold rush fever they've been the next stop on the dusty road. A place to hang your hat, quench your thirst, and make new mates.

But the great Kiwi country pub is in danger of dying out.

Drink-drive laws introduced this week could be the last nail in the coffin for traditional rural hotels, publicans fear.

"Times are tough," said Travis Cooper, licensee of the historic Hurunui Hotel in North Canterbury.

"In the old days, farmers would be down the pub having a beer at the end of a day's work. Now, with the new drink and drive laws, they can't afford to."

Many publicans have this week reported local police having a high presence, breath-testing departing clientele. West Coast drinkers at Theatre Royal Hotel at Kumara, built in 1876 at the beginning of the Kumara gold rush, are already staying away.

Related:

Political Subversion in a Wine Glass: Scarlett Johansson and the Context of Joy.

Dunne and Lees-Galloway: Further Boot in the Gullet of Rural Hospitality.

The Nonsense Liquor Law that Made Mrs H and I Drink Too Much for Lunch.