Drinkers at Moseley’s famous Prince of Darkness faced a ‘sobriety’ test by police – with fines and warnings for anyone committing the crime of being ‘drunk in a pub’ according to yesterday’s Sunday Mercury (sorry, last online story on the Mercury site is 30 Dec). Keith Marsden, the landlord, had to get his regulars to walk along a chalk line – to prove they were sober enough (in November, but the Mercury have just caught up).
They pub had already been sent a letter warning them that “there is clear evidence in the premises…of numerous people who are drunk/intoxicated” (The Stirrer).
To my mind a pub isn’t doing its duty if people aren’t tipsy, and the patrons of the Prince aren’t any drunker than elsewhere, and Moseley’s more cerebral drinkers (Councillors, MPs, er me sometimes) might be a bit of an easy target for this bizarre law – I’d like to see the police take this line in the Australian bar up Broad St of a Saturday night.
