Photo: Getty Images Europe
Grabbing a pint in a pub is one of the great charms of traveling or living in the United Kingdom. One of the prevailing reasons why is the size of a British pint, twenty ounces, as compared to sixteen in the States. However, the tradition could be upended, as the UK may be considering shrinking the size of a pint in an effort to combat alcoholism. ABC News London correspondent Tom Rivers knows British pubs well, having been stationed in London for more than thirty years. He appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program and explained why the Brits may be raising a big stink over raising a small pint.
“They want to cut down on alcohol and they’re saying let’s make this smaller, about a third smaller,” Rivers told Berman and Riedel. “So, you’re not going to get twenty ounces, you’re going to get probably about thirteen ounces, and that’s gone over like a lead balloon over here. The government says it doesn’t want to be fun police, but they are actually looking at the research. It’s part of this wave of kind of woke mentality in the [Prime Minister Keir] Starmer administration. They’re looking at it and I think if they touch this one- boy, you’re going to have an uprising in the country.”
Rivers found out first-hand about the program at one of his favorite watering holes. “Cambridge wanted 1,700 pubs to participate in their pilot study, and this is the take-up rate- thirteen pubs said yeah, we’re going to go down that road and check this out. That’s it, thirteen. Actually, one of my pubs [near the office] is one of the thirteen, and I don’t think it’s going to fly. I really don’t think it’s going to fly.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images