FOLLOWING THE SCIENCE: Unhealthy Secretary Matt Hancock has made one of the great intuitive leaps we have come to expect of libertarian regimes. Alcohol kills the virus, the argument goes. Pubs sell alcohol. Therefore opening pubs is a good idea during a viral pandemic.
Thirsty people up and down the country are desperate to escape their other halves and get blind drunk with their mates. Now there’s the added bonus of a miracle cure.
There is a word of caution, though. Hancock took to the airwaves to clarify Boris Johnson’s weak plea not to over indulge.
“The cure works better the more alcohol you consume,” he advised. “Hand sanitiser is about 80% proof. So you need to drink enough to make your blood alcohol level the same strength.”
This is not a problem for the die-hard alcoholics, but what advice does Hancock have for the rest of us?
“Stick to hard spirits,” he said. “No mixers or water or any of that weedy rubbish. Drink it straight, and drink a great deal of it. Do your patriotic duty. Protect the virus, control the NHS, or whatever the fuck this week’s message is. Drink for Britain!”
Alcohol impairs decision making and reduces inhibitions. What measures are being taken to ensure social distancing and sensible consumption?
“Did you not hear?” he said, incredulously. “Going to the pub cures the virus, so there will be no need for social distancing. What is more, our new Pub Tsar, Tim Wetherspoons, will refuse to let anybody leave a pub while they are still capable of doing so.”
Emergency supplies of industrial strength, weapons grade Russian vodka are being made available, in case punters try to leave pubs before sufficient inebriation has occurred.
And although pub toilets will remain closed, every pub will be given a memorial so that satisfied customers may urinate next to it.