To think MPs shouldn’t be drinking while at work?

[greywildoceans]

There’s a big debate going on after new Green MP Hannah Smith has come out and said that you can smell the alcohol on MPs after lunchtime.

https://x.com/politicsjoe_uk/status/2048323140804100487?s=46

Of course all the usual lot are coming out saying it’s a British tradition to drink at work and she’s being “anti British”. I’ve worked in the public sector and the private sector and I have never encountered anyone who thought it was appropriate to drink while working. I’m confident that if anyone did, they’d be fired.

AIBU to say MPs should be banned from drinking while working?

I think it highlights everything wrong with this country. My mum is, for all her sins, very extreme in some of her views. Even she held her hands up and said the Greens were right on this.

So many have swallowed the US style politics where you cannot agree with someone on the opposing side to you, it’s quite scary. I miss the 2010s when politicians worked together to try and make the country better, and our biggest political scandal was how Ed Miliband ate a bacon sandwich.

That’s absolutely abnormal.

Yep. NHS here and you can bet that if a story came out about NHS managers having a drink at lunch then the same lot defending this would be up in arms and saying all NHS managers should be sacked.

Agreed...

There are plenty of bars and pubs within a very short walk of Parliament so shutting the in-house facilities won't stop the determined drinkers nipping out and then nipping back to the HoC for a vote..

Maybe there needs to be a breathalyser at the doors of the division lobbies..

You realise decrimilisation of drugs if done alongside support and in a controlled manner ends up with less deaths and more people entering rehab.

It also takes money out of hands of traffickers, as well as stopping people entering a criminal world by consuming drugs.
Given that alcohol is the number one drug killing people. And resulting in the most antisocial behaviour, I would have thought you would be all for more control on it..

I was a teacher from the mid 1990s. It did happen, on the odd occasion, that we would go to the pub on a Friday lunchtime. Have a pint of lager or glass of wine with our pub lunch.

But this was back in the day when Friday afternoons in primary schools were Free Choice or Golden Time. Those days are long gone.

The drinking culture in the HofC is outdated and not fit for a workplace. It’s all part of the Old Boys Club.

It’s ridiculous that MPs have subsidised food and drink. In the time of a cost of living crisis, we pay for them to drink cheaper alcohol during their working hours.

Lunchtime drinks are still very common in the city. Personally I can’t get upset about this. But maybe it’s because I’m in an industry where socialising is very much considered part of the job.

If you can’t socialise without alcohol during work hours, you have a drinking problem.

It definitely was more normal (in some industries it was very much the norm until the noughties) but that doesn’t mean it was OK.

Smoking was once normal.

I also think people who are literally making the law should be held to a higher standard.

Totally agree with her, and that if the rest of us did it, we’d get the sack.

Especially other public sector workers!

MPs have been elected to do a job and represent their constituents, not have boozy subsidised lunches. It’s really disgraceful and they shouldn’t need to be forced to give it up, they should realise for themselves.

Alcohol at lunch was definitely normal into this 2000s. I imagine it still happens in the City (insurance was famous for getting pissed all the time).

Oh if bankers are doing it, it must be OK then. Bankers have never put a foot wrong and have always had the UK's best interests at heart.

Reports of hard drugs, specifically cocaine, being found in toilets within the House of Commons and the wider Parliamentary estate have emerged multiple times over the past decade. Seeing as there has pretty much only been one Green MP in Parliament over the past decade, it's highly likely that MPs from other parties are responsible for the drug taking in the House of Commons.

It was absolutely the norm to have a drink at lunchtime when I worked in the city. Especially on a Friday.

I can’t get too worked up about it. A glass of wine at lunchtime isn’t going to affect anything. It isn’t as though they wander into the chamber undecided how to vote anyway, is it. They pretty much all toe the party line and file through the door the whip tells them to.

If somebody were actually drunk or habitually drinking heavily, then yes, that would be an issue. But the odd glass with lunch is neither here nor there.

Their work hours can be until after midnight.

It was very normal in my industry as we regularly took clients or contacts out for lunch and always drank a glass or two of wine. However I worked abroad and stopped work about 20 years ago so I imagine things have changed a bit since then although I can't imagine that the practice has entirely died out.

I'm sure that lunchtime drinking must increase the incidence of alcoholism and should not be encouraged. Alcoholism was common amongst professionals and was no doubt a result of the daily drinking culture that prevailed at the time.

I don't think alcohol should be available in the Houses of Parliament because MPs and the Lords should be setting an example to the rest of the country by choosing to restrict drinking during working hours.

On balance I wouldn't do it but I agree making a fuss about it is a depressing sign of the times (they 100% have lunch wine in Brussels and lunch beer in the reichstag too).

So? Does that mean night shift workers should get a drink? Maybe doctors on call on a Friday night should be given shots at 2am, because it’s night time of course!

Yanbu. It would be a disciplinary action in most workplaces. I've not worked anywhere that this would be tolerated for years.

I think you seem like you have a problem with alcohol.

They should not be drinking. What industry allows its workforce to drink during working hours these days? Those days are over. No wonder they make so may cock ups.

I don’t, I can go to work without needing to have a drink.

We pay lots of people's salaries doesn't mean we control what they do.

Subsidized bars is wrong tho

It’s not controlling what they do though, is it? They’re free to drink as much as they want while not working. It’s just saying that they should adhere to the same standards the rest of us have to.

Mine would be too if there were a series of subsidised bars within my place of work....

Lots of handwringing here and excuse making 'normal to have a drink on Friday lunchtime' and 'we had a pint at lunch time'

She's said people are coming back smelling of alcohol and she hasn't said its just a Friday issue. I work a job where I could have a pint at lunch, but if I came back to the office smelling of alcohol I would be questioned.

Personally these people are paid a lot of tax payers money to do their job, allegedly they work until after midnight, why are we subsidising booze for them? Maybe they could just do their jobs and go to the pub on the weekend like the rest of us?

I miss the 2010s when politicians worked together to try and make the country better, and our biggest political scandal was how Ed Miliband ate a bacon sandwich.

That wasn’t a political scandal, it was the media ‘banter’ deciding it was ok to tear him down.

We need our MPs and the PM to be able get on with the day job, without being harassed on social media, or being called out by colleagues via social media about what they do on their lunch break and what their breath smells of, FFS. If you miss politicians working together, perhaps don’t spend so much time endorsing these attention-seeking types, who are intent on causing disruption and division at Westminster.