Blog description.

Accentuating the Liberal in Classical Liberal: Advocating Ascendency of the Individual & a Politick & Literature to Fight the Rise & Rise of the Tax Surveillance State. 'Illigitum non carborundum'.

Liberty and freedom are two proud words that have been executed from the political lexicon: they were frog marched and stood before a wall of blank minds, then forcibly blindfolded, and shot, with the whimpering staccato of ‘equality’ and ‘fairness’ resounding over and over. And not only did this atrocity go unreported by journalists in the mainstream media, they were in the firing squad.

The premise of this blog is simple: the Soviets thought they had equality, and welfare from cradle to grave, until the illusory free lunch of redistribution took its inevitable course, and cost them everything they had. First to go was their privacy, after that their freedom, then on being ground down to an equality of poverty only, for many of them their lives as they tried to escape a life behind the Iron Curtain. In the state-enforced common good, was found only slavery to the prison of each other's mind; instead of the caring state, they had imposed the surveillance state to keep them in line. So why are we accumulating a national debt to build the slave state again in the West? Where is the contrarian, uncomfortable literature to put the state experiment finally to rest?

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Tuesday, May 5, 2015

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:



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.



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.



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:




4 comments:

  1. http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/business/68190661/tougher-drink-driving-laws-close-angus-rd-eatery

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11369743

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Lindsay.

      I have busy day tomorrow but will post update Thursday.

      Delete
  2. I agree mark

    There was a story the other day about someone being dealt severely by the law for multiple drink driving infringements. Loss of license etc.

    Had he ever had an accident?

    But that's not the point is it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Police making big money from fines of those caught between old and new rates.

      Delete