Talk about over the top

Got a feeling mein host may have mentioned something about this to me a coupla weeks ago. Not that I was paying much attention. Pretty much par for the course with our conversations.
He says something. I don’t pay attention. Or I don’t hear. Amounts to the same thing really. Then I say something and he ignores me. Bastard Nordic oaf. Dunno why we bother talking at all really.

Anyway, got a sneaking suspicion he said something about this. About High Street pubs in the arse-end of the Universe that’s known as Bedford demanding to see ID before they’ll serve anyone with alcohol that they think may be under… wait for it… 30!

Yep. That’s what I said. 30. Three bloody zero!

As I say, I didn’t pay too much attention. Well, I wouldn’t, would I? What with me being way past that anyway.
Until I spotted this sign in the Bankers Draft (a pub just over the road from where I happened to be at the time).

Not quite believing what I was seeing I bunged on the long lens just to get a better look…

S’pose I could have gone across the road… but, dammit, that would have entailed walking!

Sure enough. If you look under 30 they’re gonna ask to see ID.

Now correct me if I’m wrong (and I’m sure mein host will, what with him being a bit of a know-it-all on things licensed trade related) but last time I looked I’m sure the minimum legal alcohol purchasing age was 18. In the good old U Nanny State K at least.

Now for alcohol-flogging establishments to check IDs up to say 21 I can understand. But 30? That’s just taking the piss.

There’s a coupla points here:

1) If I were, say, 29 years old and went into a pub for a drink and the idiot behind the bar asked for ID I’d likely as not tell him (or her even) to bugger off and I’d vacate that establishment for somewhere much friendlier (before being thrown out of course). And likely as not I wouldn’t go back there ever again. And if I were a moderately heavy drinker or regular pub goer then they would have lost a damn good customer. And money!
And I’d make sure to tell all my friends not to frequent the bloody nosey-parker place as well.
So a bit of an own goal really.

2) By implementing a policy such as that what they’re actually saying is that their bar staff can’t tell the difference between someone aged 17 and someone aged 30.
Now being unable to discern whether someone’s 17 or 19, or 20, or even 21 I can sort of understand. But 17 and 30? Oh get real. If they can’t distinguish between a 17-year-old and a 30-year-old then they should be bloody sacked. No right to be behind a bar in the first place.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised, either, if someone with the balls and the inclination could probably mount some sort of legal challenge to this stupid, utterly stupid, policy.

And as for Bedford’s Bankers Draft, and all the rest of the pubs of that ilk, well, they can just sling their hook. Hope they all go bust! And hope their stupid sodding bar staff that can’t tell someone who’s 17 from someone who’s 30 never work in a pub again.

Bloody idiots.