Stephen Byers : MP suspended and referred to parliamentary commissioner for standards after dealings with Tescos and others

MP Stephen Byers : suspended and referred to parliamentary commissioner for standards over secret dealings with Tescos and other lobbyists

Tescos Refuse Alcohol To Parents and Others

On St Patrick’s Day 2010, a Tescos Express store in Manchester refused to sell beer to a 24 year old friend of mine, even after she had produced ID. She had spotted a promotion – three 4-packs of beer for £10 – and I made the fatal mistake of helping her carry two of these to the checkout. At 29 years old, I was asked for ID by 19 year old checkout assistant RJ. As I did not have any ID with me at the time, Tescos refused to sell the beer to my friend J. We were so upset we stood and argued with the acting manager, AM until long after the store had closed.

At the time I was quite upset, as I had no intention of drinking the alcohol myself,  but after searching the Internet for: “Tescos alcohol policy” I was astonished to see just how far the supermarket giant had taken the issue.  Both the Telegraph and the Daily Mail ran the headlines: “Tescos refuse alcohol to parents” and were filled with hundreds of similar anecdotes from disgruntled customers.  This claim was verified by a friend M, who was refused both alcohol and scissors after bringing her daughter to her local Tescos.  What made this outcome even more puzzling, was that she was not asked for any ID when repeating this experiment at the self service checkout of another store.   In fact, an entire Facebook community has grown up around Tescos alcohol policy.

Tescos Alcohol Policy & Steven Byers Lobbying Connection

Last Wednesday, the government proposed an increase in alcohol tax, a move which almost all supermarkets openly opposed – saying such moves would restrict their ability to deliver good value to their customers.

Tescos was the only supermarket to welcome the move, and last week a spokesperson told a Channel 4 News reporter that the supermarket chain had already been in discussions with the government over this issue “for the past two years”. In February 2008, Tescos openly announced they would “work with the government” to ‘play an active role’ to limit the sale of cheap alcohol. Interestingly, the government has also employed Tescos help to force some the legislation through! Mysteriously, Tescos recent won the right to sell alcohol at their St. Marys store at Cardiff County Council. So just how did this cosy relationship develop? At what point did Tescos start to become an unelected branch of our government?

Tonight, rogerdavies.com can reveal that Tescos have been in secret discussions with Steven Byers – an MP who was this week suspended over allegation he was taking ‘cash for favours’ along with Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt after the trio were filmed by an undercover sting operation for Channel 4 : Dispatches, disguised as a US lobbying firm.  In the footage, the MPs boast about how they would be able to exert influence in Parliament if the price was right. The final piece of the puzzle fell into place when it transpired – not surprisingly – that Tescos corporate affairs director, Lucy Neville-Rolfe had approached Stephen Byers. You know what they say, where there’s smoke there’s usually fire.

Something which only caught my attention as a minor Paddy’s Day mishap, lead me to this startling discovery which will affect the public scrutiny on the relationship between government and private commerce. When U.S. president Barack Obama took office, he started to tackle this exact issue. Perhaps it is time for the UK to follow suit?


Petition Against Tescos Alcohol Policy Today!


We the undersigned, order Tesco to change it's ridiculous alcohol policy with immediate effect. No supermarket has any kind of right to decide how you behave once you have made your purchase and exited the store.

Mothers and Fathers should NOT be refused alcohol simply because they have small children with them. Equally, no checkout assistant should be encouraged to play 'detective' in making judgements and assumptions about the familiarity and intentions of the groups of people they serve. Tesco is a supermarket, not a governing body or some kind of thought police investigators.

As a market leader, Tesco has a duty to the British public to act ethically and fairly and in the light questionable meetings between Stephen Byers and Tescos corporate affairs director Lucy Neville-Rolfe, we wish to express our concern that Tescos is not an executive branch of the UK government, and that Tesco needs to alter it's policy IMMEDIATELY to reflect this.

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I agree with the sentiment but as a licencee we face huge fines and possibly losing our licence for what is called proxy selling i.e. selling to those who supply underage people. It has got the whole industry in turmoil. We also get conflicting advice from the various related bodies. The sooner more indviduals are prosecuted for purchasing t sell on to minors the better. Pus if it is an illegal offence to attempt to buy alcohol if someone is under 18 why are there so few prosecutions? As traders we are expected to police the selling of the alcohol and anticipate the motives of the consumer. An impossible task.

Alasdair King,

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I really hope that this new coalition government can clean up all of this corporate lobbying mess. It would be too easy for them to fall into the same pit of shame. Tesco should be dragged before the monopolies and mergers commission immediately. Minimum pricing on alcohol is just not going to work!

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I'm 27 and the exact same thing happened to me when I was trying to buy myself a couple of pints, I had my id with me which I was happy to show them, however my sister (22) was with me. I too got really upset, but after 10 minutes arguing I went to Sainsbury's.

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my daughter was refused a bottle of wine at the tesco stare in Heswall, she is 24 and had id with her, her boyfriend is 20, yrs old, 6'5" tall, balding with a beard!!!!! he didnt have id so they refused to sell it to her incase it was for him!!!! I ended up going to get it myself and the person turned out to be a 4' high trumped up manager who looked about 13 years old, who failed to justify her position by creating a new national law which made her descision valid. Tesco, get real and use common sense!!!!!

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I was refused a bottle of wine last night because I was with my 16yr old sister. I am 30 and my brother who was also with us is 27 and we both had ID. How dare Tesco judge me to assume I am supplying an under-age with alcohol.

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As a 48 year old man with grey hair I don't need an ID card to buy alcohol. But I was refused alcohol because I was with my 17 year old son and 2 of his friends.....The old hag of a cashier with called over a 12 year old looking manager who also refused me, saying that if I want to buy alcohol not to go to the checkout with my son in future......!!!!!!!!....????? It’s another sign of a company having to much power ..... what next ....Tesco police .... Tesco courts .... or will it be ... Tesco firing squad, just look at the way they treat there suppliers !

Chris,

Michael Wharton,
Tesco suck teh balls!

Roger Davies,

 

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