Motorway Pubs: Good Idea Or Seriously Stupid Idea?

Soon enough, we'll all be able to stop mid-journey for a 'refreshing' beer. As stupid as it sounds?

18 May 2015

Thanks to the green light from our Government, we'll all be able to drink in motorway services. Image source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Thanks to a decision by Government, we're able to get drunk in motorway services. Image: www.telegraph.co.uk

It's official - the UK Government has been embezzling the tax payer's money to feed its rampant drug addiction. How else do you explain the fact that it's given the JD Wetherspoon brand the green light to open its first motorway pub?

The successful application by JD - which will see its motorway pub open on the M40 in Beaconsfield - allows the brand to serve booze to drivers and their passengers between the hours of 08:00 and 01:00. Luckily however, the UK doesn't already suffer from a plague of alcohol abuse and binge drinking. Actually, that's a massive lie - alcohol abuse costs the UK an estimated £6bn a year (NHS bills, drink-related crime etc) not to mention the 1.22m hospital admissions that were attributed to drink between 2011 and 2012. Recent figures also show that drugs prescribed to treat alcoholism in the UK have rocketed by 75 per cent in just nine years...you get the idea how bad we're afflicted here in the UK.

JD Wetherspoon pub in central London, the pub chain said today t

So what exactly must our Government have been smoking when it agreed to the motorway pub application?

My opinion on the subject of motorway pubs? This is a very stupid decision by the Government, despite the addition of (a measly) 50 jobs to our economy. I know people who can stick to the one-pint limit without feeling any effect. I have other friends however, who will slur their words after just half that amount - and this worries me when I think that they'd happily have a 'cheeky pint' mid-journey. Especially when they're travelling with thirsty friends.

When speaking about the move to motorway pubs, Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin commented: "The company has always been innovative and this is an exciting new development for us (...) Hopefully it will be the first of many Wetherspoons on the motorway." He would, of course back the move - he's hoping to make as much money from this as possible, and good luck to him. But do you really think that Martin believes this to be a clever idea? I'm not so sure...

What's your view of motorway pubs? A good idea, or simply too much of a temptation for some to resist abusing?