By Tony O’Riley-
Social distancing in pubs will be impossible without adequate resources to enforce it. The idea of social distancing in pubs as part of moves to ease the lockdown was presented by Eyal Winter, an economist who has been advising the government over how to ease the national lockdown . So far he has suggested the re-opening of pubs, shops and restaurants , provided there was mandatory physical distancing and fines for those abusing the rules.
Winter also suggested that British ministers could allow a broader resumption of activity if it was accompanied by a stricter level of enforcement, whilst expressing concerns that pubs would get very full. The economist from Lancaster University is widely experienced and one of the team of experts advising the British government. A former director of the Center for the Study of Rationality, Eyel is also an elected council member of the International Game Theory Society, and also the former director of the Center for the Study of Rationality.
Winter told the Uk Guardian that Landlords and shop owners should be tasked with enforcing these new rules and to monitoring customer numbers, he said. His professional area of expertise is wide, but it still calls for examination. Estel’s suggestion can work if pubs will be able to able to stick to a clear structure of operation designed to maintain social distancing and slow the spread of the virus. The idea sounds probable but impractical in a pub setting. The back up plan of fining pubs for potential breaches of enforcing social distance sounds a bit faulty too. Faulty purely by thinking of the atmosphere of a pub on a working day.
There is a hot chance that many people will avoid pubs if they were to open soon, but also a high probability that many pubs will be rushed by frustrated individuals who have been waiting to descend on one for a long time. All those who have been breaching lockdown rules at their mates will suddenly congregate in pubs and almost certainly require strict monitoring to ensure compliance with social distancing rules.
The weakness of the idea is particularly clear when we think of pubs opening during weekends. Expecting social distancing on a normal Friday or Saturday night is not being practical. It won’t work unless people are employed to closely supervise it. Gradual opening of pubs that includes social distancing for weekends will be difficult to enforce. It may mean closing pubs on weekends when they make most of their money, an unattractive proposition, but one which could work logistically in the day time within tightly regulated hours. It is going to be very hard to create a new norm for pubs that include social distancing over the weekends or late evenings.
It would mean opening pubs in the daytime but closing it up on several nights including weekends. The alternative would be to open pubs on weekends too but ensure social distancing is enforced and impose fines to pubs that fail in their duty to enforce it. This scenario has as its weakness a condition that completely ruins the social element of human engagement in the Uk. Criminalises or fining people for deviating from behaviour that is normal in those types of setting, will be a strange new norm. Strange also for creating a situation in which many will fail, then to punish them for it.
The re-opening of pubs should be an in or out deal, even with the difficult balance between protecting the health of the nation and economy of the nation. Social distance will be too difficult to enforce in pubs except the financial resources to monitor the enforcement of the rules can be made for each and every pub.