WHY DO THEY EVEN HAVE A FUCKING BAR?! - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

soozuk.bsky.social • 40 days ago

WHY DO THEY EVEN HAVE A FUCKING BAR?!

New - The Speaker has ordered the House of Commons authorities to close Strangers bar - for MPs and guests - for an indefinite period after an incident of drink spiking was reported to police. A safety review is being carried out.

Comments

shirleman.bsky.social•40 days ago

Because they don't take this shit seriously. They are politicians, not representatives...

soozuk.bsky.social•40 days ago

So what, I didn’t take my archiving job in a legal firm 2012-2017 remotely seriously, we didn’t have our own cheap bar in the office.

shirleman.bsky.social•40 days ago

You also didn't have public money to spend on it 🤣 if you didn't have to pay for it or do any of the logistics, would you have set one up?

lidiaferrari.bsky.social•40 days ago

This reminds me of how the people of Toronto found out there was a bar at its police headquarters because it was shut down due to too many cops driving drunk after being there.

adeencityartsboard.bsky.social•40 days ago

You can do at least a 9 hole pub golf session in there without leaving the building...

gordonwright.bsky.social•40 days ago

If you had to work with them, you'd probably insist on a bar as well.

mikethelefty.bsky.social•40 days ago

So they can bare being near each other

jimboinlimbo.bsky.social•40 days ago

The percentage of police investigations into sexual assault by MPs is alarming. Westminster would be deemed a very unsafe for a woman to socialise or work.

kumimono.bsky.social•40 days ago

I blame Winston.

oatmaster.bsky.social•40 days ago

Where else are they going to drink?

mrkeithtaylor.bsky.social•40 days ago

For attempted rape reasons, apparently.

laotianrockrat.bsky.social•40 days ago

It's so that certain MPs can get shitfaced and abuse foreign looking people with impunity

alanpbourke.bsky.social•40 days ago

Where a pint is less than £4 and a glass of wine less than £3, cheers taxpayer subsidy!

woolfianjosh.bsky.social•40 days ago

If they want to get smashed at work they should do it like the rest of us. Keep a handle of Tesco value vodka stashed in the bottom drawer of their desk and surreptitiously neck it when the boss isn’t looking

darrenm1973.bsky.social•40 days ago

Absolutely. It's the 21st century, stop treating it like a 19th century gentleman's club.

jsnfra.bsky.social•40 days ago

oh no they don't have a bar. if i remember correctly they have three.

gavinmit.bsky.social•40 days ago

introducing a bill to rename it dangers bar

edpoole1975.bsky.social•40 days ago

I don't particularly have an issue with MPs and staff being able to get a pint away from the wider public. But they shouldn't be subsidised and they shouldn't be open before, say 6PM.

gruffthedog.bsky.social•40 days ago

They could just go to a local pub though, like everyone else.

edpoole1975.bsky.social•40 days ago

They could but that would obviously be a potential security risk. Two MPs have been murdered in public recently.

gruffthedog.bsky.social•40 days ago

Maybe they could just go home then?

I mean, given the instances of various types of assault in the commons bars, it's hardly a safe place to be anyway.

I get your point but being able to have a drink metres from where you work is nothing more than a convenience. A perk, not a right or a necessity.

edpoole1975.bsky.social•40 days ago

As I say personally I have no problem with there being bars or people wanting a drink after work.

gruffthedog.bsky.social•40 days ago

Fair enough. Nor me. I just don't think the public should provide a pub for them to drink in.

bee-moh.bsky.social•39 days ago

I'm pretty much on board with this way of thinking. (I'm even ok with subsidies to a certain extent)

My current employer doesn't force people into the office, but the office they do have has a well-stocked beer fridge, and non-desked seating space, but it's *very* much only for specific times.

bee-moh.bsky.social•39 days ago

They're also not the first firm I've been at that's done it. I've never had anything as formal as a 'bar', but that's clearly a scale thing, not a type-of-work thing.

suddenstars.bsky.social•40 days ago

Teachers used to go down the pub on Friday lunchtimes and then teach in the afternoon. Seems absolutely ridiculous now. How about MPs keep with the times, eh?

ajayesharma.bsky.social•40 days ago

Wait till you see the prices

soozuk.bsky.social•40 days ago

I'm aware.

amyfromiacon.bsky.social•40 days ago

You expect them to run the country sober?

deepstatepotato.bsky.social•40 days ago

Look, they need a safe place to get wasted and wash away the taste of shame.

carltbarker.bsky.social•40 days ago

Don't they have a massive wine cellar, full of vintage, highly expensive booze?

monkeymanbob.bsky.social•40 days ago

"bars"

soozuk.bsky.social•40 days ago

It’s not 1872 or a student union. They don’t need their own special bar.

designerscott.bsky.social•40 days ago

This is why God invented drinking at home by yourself!

brokeshealds.bsky.social•40 days ago

I want to know more about this drink spiking.

tagishsimon.bsky.social•40 days ago

Sources differ on the number of bars in the Palace of Westminster and Portcullis House. Somewhere between 9 and 30. All subsidised.

treehuggerdave.bsky.social•40 days ago

How else would Kemi dream up all that shit if she wasn't off her tits?

verypeeved.bsky.social•40 days ago

A slippery slope. What's next, taking away the snuff box?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_snuff_box

yourdiscodad.com•40 days ago

I’m just imagining if every employer had a company bar

jennymckinnon.bsky.social•40 days ago

but… but… where will they go for their subsidised booze perk…

theangelremiel.bsky.social•40 days ago

the practical reason I could think of, and it's a bad one, is to make sure whips can corral the drunk MPs back into the Commons for votes instead of having to hunt the nearby gin shops.

alexstaniforth.bsky.social•40 days ago

Funny story, while most of them don’t function anymore a lot of the bars in the area around the House of Commons used to have a bell that was rung when MPs were needed back in the Commons to vote.

alexstaniforth.bsky.social•40 days ago

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68232558.amp

kolokythaki.bsky.social•40 days ago

god i love paying tax money for these wastes of oxygen to sexually assault people

martysm.bsky.social•40 days ago

Exactly , Sooz , In the NHS we haven't had social clubs since the 90's, it's a blooming place of work .

leeaci.bsky.social•40 days ago

This will suffice 👍

cwashington.bsky.social•40 days ago

Cheap beer too...

mikeoutwestuk.bsky.social•40 days ago

I'm sure there's a wetherspoons in Whitehall...

soozuk.bsky.social•40 days ago

Yeah! If you want cheap pints go there!

climohu.bsky.social•40 days ago

Because without that bar there's no explanation for the drunk school kids behaviour during every house of commons debate.

nh42.bsky.social•40 days ago

I imagine being completely hammered makes it easier to forget the atrocities.

timmcnulty.bsky.social•40 days ago

And why is it massively subsidised?

badguitarist.bsky.social•40 days ago

“Strangers Bar”? What kind of weird 70s swinger name is that?

alanpbourke.bsky.social•40 days ago

'Strangers Bra' hyuk hyuk etc

soozuk.bsky.social•40 days ago

Hahahaha

vaguebiscuit.bsky.social•40 days ago

You wouldn't want half the House to get the shakes come lunchtime would you?

richarda6.bsky.social•40 days ago

Agreed. My office had a bar.. 30 years ago!

oldhobbit.bsky.social•40 days ago

They need a bar so they can subsidise it, otherwise they would need to subsidise something else, like table tennis or air hockey.

turnedtofire.bsky.social•40 days ago

Misread it as "Stranglers Bar" and was surprised at the forthright honesty re: the clientele until I looked a bit closer.

xenosinfinity.bsky.social•40 days ago

I think the Lloyd's building only stopped having one a few years ago. I remember reading a load of complaints when it changed into a coffee shop that they'd have to go over the road to drink on their lunch breaks...

valkyriekaren.bsky.social•40 days ago

More to the point, why do they need 30 of them? https://observer.com/2016/10/booze-at-the-palace-british-parliaments-30-bars-for-thirsty-mps/

didiusfalco.bsky.social•40 days ago

I think more workplaces should have bars to make it fair.

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