COVID-19 Prohibition-style speakeasies, shebeens, lock-ins, etc.

When people make rules, other people will try to break them, often successfully. Not surprisingly, we have Prohibition era-style phenomena such as illegal drinking venues, although this time because of a prohibition of contact, not because of a prohibition of alkyhol. Inevitably, some of these incidents would be funny if they weren't potentially so serious.

To me, the interesting thing here is that the law is, in theory at least, designed to help us govern the way we live together as a society, but in a pandemic situation the need for social distancing and limiting contact, and the laws and regulations designed to bring these aims about, can feel like the worst kind of prohibition--with the law keeping us apart rather than bringing us together. It's not at all surprising that, for whatever 'reason'--'the people I meet are all safe'; 'Dominic Cummings broke the rules and was let off'; 'it's a hoax'; 'I've already had it'; 'my uncle had it and it was no worse than a sniffle', etc.--people will seek to overcome them. I'm convinced that some people would still be flouting the rules if a virus was confirmed to be 100% fatal.

I'm not suggesting that pub lock-ins ever went away completely following the Licensing Act 2003, which was supposed to get rid of them by liberalising licensing hours (much of which has been rolled back at Licensing Committees), but this indicates the Queen's Head that was caught here is probably not the only one doing lock-ins at the moment:

Pc Chloe Corder said through a gap in the blinds she saw “two females of large build sat at the bar, drinking.” Barrister Sarah Le Fevre, on behalf of the pub, said the women were cleaners but told the committee it could not produce CCTV evidence to prove it.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/e­astenders-pub-queens-head-licence-review­-karaoke-b153333.html

Gardaí in Ireland have been raiding shebeens (at least in counties Cork, Limerick, Meath, Kildare, and Carlow) on such a scale that you can't help but imagine there must be loads of similar set-ups in Britain:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-an­d-law/covid-shebeens-all-set-to-pour-hun­dreds-of-pints-when-raided-1.4379950

https://www.irishpost.com/news/gardai-di­scover-fully-operational-pub-with-bar-be­er-on-tap-and-full-size-pool-table-in-ki­ldare-raid-196096

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/g­arda%C3%AD-find-15-people-in-co-kildare-­shebeen-on-new-year-s-eve-1.4448222

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2020/121­9/1185489-covid-breaches-gardai/

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/court­andcrime/arid-40193940.html

Here's a dominoes speakeasy at the back of a restaurant:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/d­ominoes-police-covid-restrictions-east-l­ondon-b651626.html

Apart from more or less permanent set-ups, there have also been major parties--although this isn't something I find nearly as interesting, here are some links from the above Standard article:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/co­vid-breach-restaurant-basement-party-bel­size-park-b632672.html
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/po­lice-new-year-illegal-rave-london-b60927­2.html
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/p­olice-london-covid-new-year-parties-b613­678.html
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/new-year­-raves-london-covid19-fines-b595286.html­

Or this:

Enforcement officers then visited the premises on Saturday 8 August at 3.04am following a noise complaint, but were declined entrance to an obvious party. However, officers witnessed about 200 people leaving the premises after the event had been closed down by the manager, Mr Yahye Ahmed.

(My emphasis.)

https://www.lbbd.gov.uk/news/east-london­-council-shuts-down-shisha-bar-flouting-­coronavirus-rules

I'm sure there are lots more like these, including in other countries.

Some of these events are perhaps worse than others:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/es­sex-church-trash-nye-b617799.html

Imagine the thinking behind coming up with the conclusion that this would be a good idea, or the portaloo company thinking that this would be a kosher event to supply loos to.

A local(ish) football club was dinged recently for having lock-ins at their ground: https://brownhillsbob.com/2020/12/09/wes­t-midlands-police-statement-illegal-lock­-in-broken-up-at-football-club-in-walsal­l/

Thanks. I suppose if the Titanic's going down, you might as well:

While [police were] attempting to cut through various padlocks the people inside starting chanting, they switched the lights and music back on and continued to defiantly party.