‘When the pubs suffer, everyone suffers’: Pub landlord speaks to LBC

1 December 2021, 13:24 | Updated: 2 December 2021, 13:16

Landlord argues people should be allowed carry on amid Omicron

By Liam Gould

A pub landlord in Essex has urged the government not to place any further restrictions on the hospitality industry.

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This comes as new precautionary measures have been introduced amid growing concern over the new Omicron Covid variant. 

Read More: Omicron: PM gives Christmas green light as part of 'balanced and proportionate' approach

Adam Brooks, landlord of The Owl Public House and The Three Colts pubs, told Tom Swarbrick: "It is what it is really. How are we going to go forward in life if every time a country announces a new variant, we’re scared what our government will do?"

"I think there’s a lot of people, especially in hospitality, that fear the government more than the virus at the moment and that really shouldn’t be the case". 

'Are we going to see vaccine passports to go to the pub, Secretary of State?'

Mr. Brooks told LBC that policies don’t consider the "millions" of livelihoods that would be affected by more restrictions to hospitality. 

"A lot of people who advise the government have no idea what some of their policies do to hospitality, or do to the supply chains…when the pubs, the bars and the restaurants suffer: everyone suffers."

He later added: "We haven’t had restrictions since July, Scotland and Wales have. We’ve fared better in certain areas. So we can conclude that a lot of these non-pharmaceutical interventions, they don’t make much difference". 

"If you’re scared to go to the pub at the moment, please don’t go. But don’t call for other people not to be able to make that choice."

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