⁍ 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 says, per Reuters. “It doesn’t mean a packet of crisps or a plate of chips or a bag of pork scratchings.” Cornish pasties, he adds, may also include sausage rolls. The confusion stems from government advice that says pubs can stay open in areas “where they operate as if they were a restaurant—which means serving substantial meals, like a main lunchtime or evening meal.” The British Beer & Pub Association, a lobby group for brewers and pubs, says more than 1,000 pubs will be affected by the new rules. “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/health-coronavirus-britain/update-2-making-a-meal-of-it-englands-pubs-ponder-pasties-to-beat-lockdown-curbs-idUSL8N2H414U