Roundhead Reeves is effectively banning nightclubs through tax
There has been an alarming decline in people going to nightclubs and Rachel Reeves growth-killing, fun-banning Budget is partly to blame. Fortunately there are some simple solutions to bringing back the big night out, says James Price
The philosopher Ted Mosby, in his magnum opus How I Met Your Mother, once opined that: “Nothing good happens after 2am”. Wisdom like this must be hard-earned, with pounding hangovers, deracinated bank balances and occasional walks of shame.
I say this as someone for whom all the punishments of youth – early bed times, staying in, friends cancelling plans – are now the best things to happen to me. But it took many years of engaging in the scientific method of replication and analysis to confirm that I was indeed Too Old for big nights out anymore.
Crucially, it is not a lesson that should be imposed on anyone by the state, either directly or indirectly. And yet that is what is happening. The Night Time Industries Association has recently come out with some terrifying numbers about the decline in people enjoying nights out.
Specifically, since the damaging Covid lockdowns, activity in the sector has fallen by nearly a third. That’s a third fewer nights out and chances to make mistakes, yes, but also a third fewer chances to meet the love of your life, discover your favourite song and let your hair down.
And now, thanks to Rachel Reeves’ growth-killing punishment Budget, the industry (along with the many thousands whose livelihoods depend on it, and the millions who enjoy it) faces a bigger threat. The NTIA says that Labour’s tax hikes are creating “unsustainable” cost pressures and that “the uncertainty heading into 2025 is more concerning than anything we saw during the pandemic”.
Reeves the Roundhead is banning nightclubs debilitating taxes
So, Reeves the Roundhead is banning fun through debilitating taxes. On top of all the other misery her idiotic Budget is causing, to farmers, to children, to the elderly, she is now going after those few Britons who still want to experience joy in Labour’s bleak Britain.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The Adam Smith Institute has a plan. Beyond an admirably cavalier attitude to boozy drinks receptions and parties, the ASI proposes a raft of shockingly simple solutions. Slashing the costs for the sector, specifically alcohol levies, beer duty and VAT would at least give clubs, pubs and other institutions a fighting chance.
Beyond that, reforming our planning and licensing regime to give hospitality venues more control over what services they can offer, and when, would lead to an explosion of exciting new nights out that could supplement the great British 14-pints-and-kebab experiences of my youth.
And I can’t believe I have to say this, but forcing Sadiq Khan to actually take crime seriously is crucial. That so that many of us don’t feel safe after dark is ludicrous in 2025. An expansion of the Night Tube, killing off the harmful ‘taxi tax’, and greater police presence around major transport infrastructure are other sensible policy suggestions.
Plan a big messy night out with your mates. Do it for Britain. Cheers!
The ASI is too polite to suggest my own idea, which would be to name and shame all of those miserable Nimbys who move to Soho, or even just opposite a pub, and then make it their life’s mission to force those establishments to shut down by campaigns of constant complaints over noise.
If you move to the centre of what should be the most thriving city in the world, you should expect that people will want to go there and enjoy themselves. The attacks on, for example, the historic Sekforde pub in Clerkenwell are nothing short of puritanical, and must be opposed.
The night time economy is a microcosm of the wider economy. Fixing planning and regulations, cutting taxes and having a sufficiently brutal response to crime would fix many of the problems facing the sector. Unsurprisingly, these three things would also fix most of the issues afflicting the rest of our economy too.
But until we get some leaders who actually give us something to raise a glass to, it is your patriotic duty to eschew dry January, ignore Ted Mosby and plan a big messy night out with your mates. Do it for Britain. Cheers!
James Price is a senior fellow at the Adam Smith Institute