When is a pub not a pub?
When it can't sell beer or any alcoholic drink.
That is the astonishing plight of Wales' 2,190 pubs after first minister Mark Drakeford imposed drastic restrictions two weeks after giving the country a taste of freedom. Worse, the pubs must close at 6pm.
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| Licensed - but soft drinks only |
Wales will be as dry as the Atacama desert. And the rule applies also to restaurants and cafes.
He has taken the historic step to counter a rise in infections in parts of the country,
The already shell shocked hospitality industry is bewildered.
Pubs with no beer! They warn that it will devastate the whole industry and guarantee closures and job losses.
It is seen as just as idiotic as prime minister Boris Johnson's edict that restricts English pubs to serving customers only if they have 'a substantial meal'. No dawdling over the starter or desert. Drink up!
But will it work? It harks back to the long gone days when Wales' pubs were shut on Sundays.
To escape the ban. drinkers in border towns and villages slipped over into England for their pint, sometimes only yards away.
The same will happen again.
It's not just pubs that have been hit; indoor and outdoor entertainment - cinemas, bingo halls, museums, art galleries and tourist attractions - must also shut from Friday.
Mr Drakeford insists that without the changes there could be 1,000 to 1,700 more deaths this winter.
'We continue to face a virus that is moving incredibly quickly across Wales,' he said. 'Infection rates have increased from 187 per 100,000 to 211'.
To soften the blow he has given £340 million in support of the hospitality industry, the most generous in the UK, he claims.
But there is despair. It could be last orders for many Welsh pubs.
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