Georgia L Gilholy is a journalist.
Following the passing of his monumental Second Reform Act in 1867, Benjamin Disraeli gave a rousing victory speech at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange:
“The question is not whether you should resist change, which is inevitable, but whether that change should be carried out in deference to the manners, customs, laws, and traditions of a people, or whether it should be carried out in deference to abstract principles.”
Today we found ourselves subject to a government which not only fails to adapt to change but which recoils at it. For evidence, we need look no further than Leicester Square.
Throughout Disraeli’s lifetime, the area was reshaped from a rundown residential quarter to a centre of entertainment frequented by the artists of the day. Today it is a favourite haunt of clueless tourists seeking M&Ms and street dance, at the edge of the bustling West End, which is alive most evenings with theatre, music, and partygoers.
Yet apparently one more food outlet in such an area is too much for central London to stomach. Indeed, baked-food giant Greggs is preparing for a legal fight after the Metropolitan Police banned it from selling fresh hot goods at its flagship shop.
The company, regarded so fondly by so many Brits that it boasts its own Primark merchandise range, was refused permission to trade hot food 24 hours a day after police claimed long opening hours could fuel “crime and disorder”.
The story becomes even more laughable when one reads that the Met have said the shop would be within its rights to sell reheated pasties and sausage rolls – just not fresh ones.
Moreover, Greggs has stressed that its late-night Newcastle branch has been running smoothly, and that revoking certain menu items after a certain hour would, in fact, be more likely to spark disagreements.
And in any case, the district will continue to be a busy and loud one, given its proximity to swathes of pubs, clubs, casinos and restaurants, making the decision all the more baffling.
This perverse decision is a slap in the face of the workers and consumers who keep London moving.
According to the ONS, over a quarter (27 per cent) of Britain’s workforce, around 8.7 million people, were night workers in 2022. Some of the most overworked and under-appreciated people in the country are out and about in central London every night of the year; why should they be refused the option of a midnight pasty for their troubles?
Sacha Lord, co-founder of Parklife and night-economy advisor to Andy Burnham, was on the money when he accused the Met of narrow-mindedness on LBC earlier this week.
Justifying their objection, the Met’s complaint argued that Greggs has “failed to demonstrate exceptional reasons as to why the application would not have a negative impact on the West End”.
This is a demonstration of this scandal-hit authority’s fuzzy thinking; hospitality was one of the industries hit hardest by Covid restrictions and now is not the time to subject it to further unnecessary hurdles.
This may just be one restaurant, but it represents a fundamental flaw in our system. Namely, how businesses must first prove “exceptions” in order to be permitted to operate in an already-busy area, rather than the Government stepping in if there is a genuine risk to safety and life.
It is as if the state viewed businesses as inconveniences to be granted some slim freedoms, and not engines for prosperity to be harnessed for the wellbeing of the nation and its economy.
While our drizzly climate rules out the Mediterranean café scene for most of the year, our state’s evident thirst for clamping down on attempts to expand options in one of Britain’s most well-known hospitality districts speaks to a wider refusal to build and grow.
Our top politicians seem to have forgotten that disruption is often a necessary precursor to opportunity.
Just last Saturday, the Times revealed that a plan for 165 new homes in the Kentish countryside has been blocked by a housing minister, despite Michael Gove declaring his commitment to the manifesto pledge of 300,000 new homes a year.
Voters in the red wall who lent their support to the Tories before 2019 are disillusioned with the Government’s failures on multiple fronts. Without them, the Tories will continue to rely on a property-owning middle class, largely outside of the North and Midlands.
But this bloc is ageing and not replicating, as housing and living costs rocket and birth rates slump.
If the Conservative Party cannot muster enough willpower to allow a respectable business to cook sausage rolls after dark, never mind building houses or revitalising industry, it can kiss goodbye to a prosperous and optimistic future.