⁍ Pubs across England’s COVID-19 hotspots are pondering a question that could decide if they survive or sink due to the coronavirus lockdown.
⁍ The question has sparked a bizarre discussion about some of England’s favourite snacks.
⁍ fries, chips and pork scratchings do not count as a meal, according to a government minister quizzed on the status of the delicacies.
⁍ But Cornish pasties, a much-loved meat and vegetable pie that dates back to England’s ancient tin mines, do count as a meal.
– Pubs in Liverpool, England, have been told to close because of an outbreak of bird flu, but it turns out that Cornish pasties, chips, and pork scratchings don’t count as meals—at least according to the UK’s housing secretary. “A substantial meal means the kind of meal that you’d have for lunch or the kind of meal you’d have for dinner—a proper meal,” Robert Jenrick tells Sky News, per Reuters. “It doesn’t mean a packet of crisps or a plate of chips or a bag of pork scratchings.” Jenrick adds that “people who actually run pubs and bars will be familiar with this and know how to operate this,” but the British Beer & Pub Association isn’t so sure. “Singling out pubs for closure and further restrictions is simply the wrong decision and grossly unfair,” the group’s CEO says. “If the government is really going to go ahead and force much of our sector to close, then a far stronger financial package of support is going to be needed.”
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain/making-a-meal-of-it-englands-pubs-ponder-pasties-to-beat-lockdown-curbs-idUSKBN26Y0P1