The ‘banter ban’ for pubs has been included in Labour’s Employment Rights Bill, threatening to turbo-charge the Equality Act and bring the joyless, Stasi-like atmosphere of modern workplaces into leisure time. Toby has written about the latest free speech threat in the Telegraph.
According to the Campaign for Real Ale, 37 pubs close every week in Britain. This is a rate that shows no sign of slowing. Judging from the actions of this Government, though, pubs aren’t disappearing nearly fast enough. Say hello to the Employment Rights Bill.
I’m not just talking about increasing business rates, hiking National Insurance and outlawing zero-hours contracts. The measure I’m most concerned about is clause 18, which will amend the Equality Act to force employers to “take all reasonable steps” to insulate their staff from “harassment” by “third parties”.
In other words, this will mean publicans can’t tell their customers risqué jokes or express heterodox opinions in case they are heard by a member of staff who may take offence. Why? Because according to the employment tribunal, “harassment” includes remarks that a person with one or more “protected characteristics” might find upsetting.
It’s not clear how the Government expects publicans to comply with this new duty, but it is bound to cost more than the official estimate of £17 per pub.
Not only will they have to seek expensive legal advice, but it may mean employing “banter bouncers” to eavesdrop on customers and eject them if they say anything a pink-haired barmaid (they/them) might object to.
Lists of banned words will have to be displayed on walls – “mothers”, “breast-feeding”, “woman” – and regulars may be asked to undergo unconscious bias training.
Customers may even have to prove to a doorman that they have attended a full complement of diversity courses before they are admitted. Perhaps certificates showing the holders have received the relevant “training” can be included in a digital wallet on your mobile phone alongside your ID. Or maybe a Labour Party membership card will suffice.
Worth reading in full.
All is not lost: the Conservatives have tabled an amendment to delete clause 18 and the Free Speech Union has created a template email you can send to your MP urging him or her to vote for the amendment.
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Can’t we put Angela Rayner through unconscious arsehole training?
She’s consciously what she is.
That would be a Next Tuesday.
Would you be referring to the 8 billion pound black hole? Perhaps I misunderstood.
I thought it was red?
Or at least ginger
This applues to all businesses whether their customers are the general public or rich and distinguished clients.
Just as well the staff at our club don’t spend much time in the men’s changing room or the sauna then, though in the main I think they wouldn’t bat an eyelid.
Pubs are where the hated whities meet, and, horror of horrors, talk freely. Thus the fundamental problem of pubs for the Anti-white Party is in the “talk freely” element of them. So of course our verminous anti-white government seeks to eliminate freedom to talk. And as usual they dress up the abolition of freedom as helping the “victims of oppression”. But this is merely to introduce a new oppression in order to “end oppression”.
I certainly think there is an element of truth in what you are saying.
First of all, all marxo-fascist leaders view the working class with suspicion: the great unwashed masses who don’t embrace their noble ideas.
Then of course pubs are a place where these people socialize – this in itself is dangerous. The marxo-fascists much prefer an atomized society, ideally with lockdown-type controlled movement.
Then there is the danger of beer flowing leading to uncontrolled ideas coming up for discussion and people may divert from the prescribed narrative.
Let’s not forget the puritanical instinct of the wokeraty: how dare you laugh and have fun when our world is on fire / women are oppressed / there is racism / social injustice?
The pub is a dangerous environment as far as our leaders are concerned.
Next they will be opening mad houses for the sane.
The Left already has form on this, though. In the Soviet paradise the opponents of mass-murder and tyranny were locked in asylums.
Indeed. The idea was that an individual must be insane if he does not perceive the Soviet Union as paradise on earth.
Or a selfish hoarders regarding the Kulaks.
“From the towns all Inns have been driven: from the villages most…. Change your hearts or you will lose your Inns and you will deserve to have lost them. But when you have lost your Inns drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England.”
Hilaire Belloc.
I have been quoting these words since 2020. Kneel’s mob are going to close ALL our watering holes incrementally via laws such as this and minimum wage regulations. Other measures will be introduced before the year is out. We won’t be able to pin the cause of the demise of our pubs on one single thing it will just be an accumulation of pettiness such that Kneel can raise his eyebrows, shrug his shoulders and proclaim “not me guv.”
From pubs, sports and working mens’ clubs up and down the land, thousands to be brought before Lord Chief Justice NobRayner by the Banter Police for a show trial. You’d think Adswood Ange would know better.
National Sense of Humour transplant urgently needed.
A decade or so ago, people would think an article like this was fake news because it stretches absurdity. Can’t see it working though, and a great way to deal with that is to encourage Chubby Brown or Bernard manning jokes.
I think it’s time to seek asylum somewhere. Russia is beginning to look pretty good!
In all honesty, I wouldn’t recommend it.
It is not woke but criticizing Vlad is not advisable.
Sorry, I don’t believe the propaganda. Apart from that the EU is effectively a one party state and the UK is fast degenerating into a totalitarian dump which is making Vlad look very appealing.
Fee free to try if you like, but believe me, my understanding of Russia is not based on propaganda.
I totally accept that mass media in the West is extremely biased and the cultural marxist dogma is everywhere.
I totally agree that the UK is a soft totalitarian society and increasingly resembles my country of birth in the last years of communism.
But… just because this is bad, it doesn’t mean that Russia is good.
A lot of left-wing politicians emigrated to the Soviet Union in the 1930’s, thinking it was the workers’ paradise. Very few survived Stalin’s purges.
But if you want to give it a go, good luck.
Yes too many confuse not wanting to fund Ukraine as support for Russia, not mutually exclusive.
Well I’ve been to Ukraine a few times and I would definitely not recommend it.
But a few facts from the world bank. On PPP, GDP the Russians are doing better than the countries which joined the EU.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.PP.CD?most_recent_value_desc=true&view=chart
Tbh, italy isn’t bad they’re slightly more immune to this shit, the food is great and the ladies are hot (not for me obviously, I’m married) as us the weather.
There are very few places left in Europe to escape. The lefties have just about screwed everything up. The ones I know live in nice areas, go into town in the day and crawl back to their holes before dark.they think everything is wonderful.
Perhaps when pub workers are made redundant and can’t find another job they might think their complaint might not have been worth it. But then hey, they can sign up for benefits and get paid nearly £50k a year if you know how to play the system.
In the past may be there was some encouragement for the workers to drink. As the chorus for a song goes “as soon as this pub closes (sung 3 times) the revolution will begin”
Learn Cockney rhyming slang or Polari.
odsay hetay olitayicianstay, heytay allay ucfay offay.
I’ve given you an uptick, but I don’t know why
BISH BASH BOSH I DON’T GIVE A F***
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN-0QquCzIk
Free Speech Banned in Pubs
Hi Will,
Can Toby tell us what is the research evidence behind this proposal demonstrating this is a problem?
There is likely none.
Also, more information is needed. I have been struggling to find this proposal in the Bill [draft legislation].
Eventually I found this Baker McKenzie law firm article:
United Kingdom: What employers should know about the third party harassment duty17 Oct 2024 7 minute read
Also the bill is promoted by Jonathan Reynolds in the Department for Business and Trade.
Jonathan Reynolds is the Minister who committed a criminal offence by lying about his qualifications – claiming he was a solicitor when he never has been. Odd he is allowed to keep his job as the provision making this a criminal offence is to protect businesses and the public from people falsely claiming to be qualified as solicitors. Even retired or non-practising solicitors are not allowed to call themselves solicitors.