Five brewers in Greater Manchester have released a joint statement against tier 3 restrictions, saying they would be a “deliberate political act of wilful economic destruction”.
Photograph: Pixabay/musaraja92
The message comes from bosses at Joseph Holt, Hydes, Thwaites, JW Lees, and Robinsons as the city awaits a noon deadline today on an agreement between national and local government on a path forward.
The statement reads: “Our breweries and pubs have been an integral part of Greater Manchester communities for hundreds of years. We are on the ground — we are not running our pubs in a theoretical intellectual and political bubble 200 miles away in Westminster.
“The current government policy to single out pubs for closure in tier 3, with inadequate support, is a national disgrace. It is clear, and the statistics show, that transmission of the coronavirus is happening in education, care homes, hospitals, and the home.
“Already, we have been trading with severe restrictions since 31st July in Greater Manchester, but we feel that the government is now going too far and we stand by the stance that Andy Burnham, mayor of Manchester, is taking, that our pubs cannot be closed down in the manner proposed with tier 3 restrictions and only very limited compensation.
“The government is not able to produce any evidence that pubs or the hospitality sector is a significant factor in coronavirus transmission — because there is none.”
