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?

Whilst I think the Greens have lost the plot, I agree with her on this.
Lunchtime drinking used to be a thing (along with smoking in offices) but times have changed. It shows the HoC and many MPs are out of touch.

Broadly agree with her, but she could say we should stop kicking puppies and some people would claim she is wrong.

The House of Commons is an extremely anachronistic workplace. Votes can sometimes be very late into the night and, due to the division system, they have to remain onsite to get to the lobbies in time. I don’t think it’s terrible that politicians have a place to socialise out of the public eye, but they should have to follow strict codes of conduct and I agree that they shouldn’t be turning up for business pissed (or high for that matter).

FWIW, a lot of the ‘food subsidies’ are due to the operational hours and costs of running catering at HoP being unsustainable for a business. Essentially they are covering the losses of the catering.

Yeah it’s really not appropriate is it? And they know it!

You genuinely think it’s okay to get pissed up at work?

We go out as a team monthly and a pint is fairly standard with lunch.

Then if I'm away hosting a client, drinks at lunchtime are also the norm

Can a teacher do this? Can a train driver do this?

Most of the socialising is waiting for a division (vote on an issue). Debates go on for many hours, late into the night. An MP might have been contributing to a debate at 7pm but the vote may not be until 10pm. People argue you should be there for all of it but with a few exceptions on contentious issues, the contributions become extremely repetitive and often parochial (eg something on schools will involve scores of MPs standing up and saying “this issue particularly affects Anytown Primary in my constituency…”. This is the point where MPs waiting for the vote will go to the bar.

Is it ok? It’s not ideal.

This is what I’m saying - NHS managers? Civil servants? Or is it just MPs?

This is what I’m saying - NHS managers? Civil servants? Or is it just MPs?

😂😂😂 Are you having a drink now or is your autocorrect putting in an extra shift? 😂😂😂

In the 90s we had a subsidised bar on site (civil service) and most people used it.

Times have changed!

Bankers, insurance brokers, sales people, accountants. I would say half the offices I go into have beer taps in the communal kitchen!

I can guarantee if I hadn't had a drink with clients at lunch over the years I would have been far less successful and made the company far less money.

Should you be pissed? Certainly not
Would a middle aged man turn down a deal because you refused a drink? Yes
Have my most lucrative deals been done with alcohol involved? Mostly

I get it, you're outraged but let's simmer down on the denial it happens, because it does. A lot.

I totally agree. The days of the 'liquid lunch' are mercifully long gone in other industries, so why are MPs any different? These people are voting to decide our future laws, they should bloody well be sober when they do it!

The main company I work for still has drinks at lunchtime and when taking clients and prospective clients out for lunch, I always wait to see what they order and then follow with that (usually about 50/50 between alcoholic and soft drinks). Churchill helped win the Second World War half cut so I can’t be too wound up about it. The last thing this country needs is more Cromwalian Puritanism.

DS2 works until after midnight in A&E. If he came into your cubicle, to treat you, reeking of alcohol you’d have something to say.

Work is work. No one should be drinking while they’re working.

You’re basically just admitting you’re bad at your job and can only persuade people after plying them with alcohol - not quite the effect you intended on I think.

Just because something is ,was common doesnt make it right.
Drink driving was common in the 70s
Didn't make it right to do.

If you were having heart surgery, a post-lunch slot, would you say the same about the surgeon?

I will assume no.

So that begs the question ‘why?’

my guess is ‘I’d be worried the alcohol would impact their judgement and put my life at risk.’

which would be sensible.

So then what about pilots? Nurses? Bus drivers? Nursery workers?

You’d probably say the same.

So then it would be a question of which jobs need you to be sober most? Are any jobs so unimportant and easy that you can do them drunk - so your ability to make good decisions, your inhibition and your reaction times are compromised?

Id guess that we’d all hope that the people running our country and making decisions that impact us all have their critical thinking skills at their best and are not disinhibited.

The Green Party want to decriminalise drugs, not make them freely available. So they see it as a ‘public health’ concern. They want to do this to break the control of organised gangs. The policy treats addiction as a health issue rather than a criminal one.

Woah, that’s a bit harsh.

Why so angry about this, of all the things?

It’s just truthful.

I am sick to death of the overpaid arseholes in parliament swanning around treating the job like it’s just a little joke, that they’re entitled to do this sort of thing. It’s symptomatic of the deeper rot in parliament and this country on the whole.

I've been a civil servant for 30+ years. Lunchtime drinking was very normal back in the late 80s early 90s. We would regularly go to pub for a couple of hours at lunch time more than once a week. I was a non drinker then, but still used to go otherwise I'd have been in the office by myself🤣

It still happens now, but less frequently. Not a big deal, and not a sackable offence...

The price list.

https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/foi/141344-Strangers-Bar-Tariff.pdf

Is it? It’s not in any job I’ve ever had.
It was dying out and frowned upon when I entered to workforce 25 years ago.
If I had an alcoholic drink at lunchtime and went back to work I’d expect to be sacked. And rightly so.

It doesn’t matter what her other views or proposed policies are. She’s right in this one.

There are a number of bars and restaurants within the HoP estate. All subsidised by the tax payer.

I'd reduce it to food only and within HMRC expenses guidelines.

Mind you is also reduced the holiday they have.

Good grief - it’s like a school tuck shop but for booze! It’s far cheaper than a student union bar. Surely there is no need for it at all, much less during working hours.