Stupid ID requirements in bars/pubs
Take one bar in Leicester, visiting a friend. They have an over-25s policy for serving alcohol. This in itself is deserving of a twattery award, as much as the supermarkets who ID anyone who looks under 45.

I am 24, but look 30; I work too hard, don't sleep much during the week, don't really shave, and spend most of my pub time with 30+ year olds. I have even been called 40 (perhaps another, less interesting story for twattery...).

I ordered a pint of beer. The barman - who looked about 14 - started pouring, then contorted his face and said "do you have any ID?". I never have ID on me; I don't drive, and my passport is left in the office as I need it for some bank transactions at work.

I put up a (polite) protest, and the barman then asked his supervisor, who accepted I looked 24, and was, beyond all doubt, 24 years old (and this, one would assume, over 18) for the purposes of any transaction. The twattery begins in full now; they refused to serve me on the basis that their policy was 25+. TWATS!

Moral of this story: I should have lied about my age.

tl;dr: the increasingly stringent policies pubs put in place in the hope they will curb underage and/or binge drinking.
(retrac fumble in the jungle, Sat 14 Apr 2012, 17:35, 25 replies)

i get your point but...
Police do set landlords up with seventeen year olds that look old for their age. If you get caught out its a big Fucking fine. My boss made me Id everyone, I was not aloud to judge by myself regardless how ridiculous I felt asking customers. They're just covering their back.
(shezam slouching towards nirvana., Sat 14 Apr 2012, 17:47, closed)

Indeed.
You can blame the cunts in government and councils for this kind of thing.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Sat 14 Apr 2012, 18:51, closed)

yep.
I read this in father teds voice.
(shezam slouching towards nirvana., Sat 14 Apr 2012, 18:54, closed)

I believe those kids aren't allowed to lie about their age, though
It's more the kids that lie themselves, get caught, and dob you in that are the problem.
( Ungersven would support SpankyHanky's patreon, Sat 14 Apr 2012, 20:20, closed)

the police pay them.
They work as a team. Copper enters bar, buys a drink and sits in the corner. Then the seventeen year old enters and orders an alcoholic drink. If they are served the copper stands up and fines them then and there.
(shezam slouching towards nirvana., Sun 15 Apr 2012, 14:31, closed)

Yeah, I don't doubt it.
The thing is, if you say "How old are you?" and the kid is with a copper they have to say 17, otherwise it's entrapment. If they say 18 and they're really 17 you can still be done, but only if the kid dobs you into a copper later on. For me it's the kid that has committed a crime, and he should be the one in trouble, not the licencee.
( Ungersven would support SpankyHanky's patreon, Sun 15 Apr 2012, 21:13, closed)

ahh thats interesting
I didn't know they where not aloud to use entrapment.
(shezam slouching towards nirvana., Sun 15 Apr 2012, 22:34, closed)

Valid point
I can see that being a concern (especially if you're not a big pub/bar chain), but that means I'll always go somewhere else; I have a few locals where they never ID.

Perhaps it depends on the type of bar/pub, too? Everyone knows of at least one pub with a reputation for serving underage drinkers in their town, don't they?
(retrac fumble in the jungle, Thu 19 Apr 2012, 12:16, closed)

Dos Homs is crap. It's for posers and ex-Leicester City players of the footballs.

Drink over the road at the continental bar, the beer is better though you may have to put up with some old men.
(Wilton Mitrowserz, Sat 14 Apr 2012, 17:55, closed)

bah, the clarendon is better
full of old spunkers, but at least it's a proper boozer.
( flapmeister knows where your mum lives, Sat 14 Apr 2012, 19:22, closed)

Old spunkers
are the universal sign of a decent, reasonably priced pub.
(retrac fumble in the jungle, Thu 19 Apr 2012, 12:19, closed)

It is
entirely crap. Used to drink in Olive's (before they got a Subway below it) quite a bit - underage, as it happens.

Prefer The Globe in town if I'm ever down there - miss my Everard's Tiger living up north!
(retrac fumble in the jungle, Thu 19 Apr 2012, 12:18, closed)

The over-25 thing infuriates me.
I'm 42 and look every day of it. And I still get refused entry to some places because I don't have a driving licence on me.
While I'm at it, queuing to get into a pub - not a nightclub, a fucking high street boozer - is just bullshit and I will have none of it.
(Big D, Sat 14 Apr 2012, 18:16, closed)

Challenge 21 didn't work. Nor will Challenge 25, for much the same reasons.
But I will bet £20 that there'll be an even more stupid Challenge 30 scheme in the near future.

Besides being completely fuckwitted, these schemes have set a dangerous legal precedent: the licenser assumes you're guilty and the onus is on you to prove your innocence. Wonder how long it'll be before other potential crimes are treated this way?
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Sat 14 Apr 2012, 18:59, closed)

fuck the challenge whateveryourage thing
And fuck the law on drugs, neither are getting anywhere
(shezam slouching towards nirvana., Sat 14 Apr 2012, 19:09, closed)

I went to a challenge 30 place in yankland
When I queried why I didn't get IDed the barman said "Yeah, you're obviously over 21". Brilliant.
( Ungersven would support SpankyHanky's patreon, Sat 14 Apr 2012, 20:21, closed)

Oh, if it's in place in America it'll DEFINITELY be introduced over here.

( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Sat 14 Apr 2012, 20:55, closed)

Just get a proof of age card.

( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Sat 14 Apr 2012, 23:35, closed)

I do not need
more shite in my wallet!
(retrac fumble in the jungle, Thu 19 Apr 2012, 12:19, closed)

Simply drink in decent boozers that don't cater for the drunken chavvy muppet market.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Mon 16 Apr 2012, 12:44, closed)

Not sure that
chavvy muppets could afford that bar (in Leicester, the Wetherspoons on the High Street seems to cater for that crowd). It is, however, the last time I let that friend (who is teetotal) pick a pub/bar!
(retrac fumble in the jungle, Thu 19 Apr 2012, 12:20, closed)

I never get ID'd
Because I have cunningly fashioned myself to resemble a paunchy, greying man with an advanced case of male pattern baldness.

My cunning is even more cunning because I resemble such a creature in every aspect of my being, most particularly my age and hormone levels and follicular sensitivity.

I haven't thought of it as an advantage since I could pass for 25 when I was 15. But that was a long time ago, so it's nice the years of slapheadedness are paying a dividend other than reduced hairdressing bills.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Mon 16 Apr 2012, 13:20, closed)

I'm working on that
Give me a decade or so
(retrac fumble in the jungle, Thu 19 Apr 2012, 12:16, closed)

depends on whether it's an over 25 policy or a think 25 policy
they're very different things. at 24 you are too young by a year to drink there.

if it's think 25 then they just wrongly administered a fairly sensible policy
(Clashrock is being stalked by his brother on, Mon 16 Apr 2012, 14:20, closed)

In my mind
either policy is stupid.
(retrac fumble in the jungle, Thu 19 Apr 2012, 12:21, closed)