{
  "id": 305391,
  "title": "I stand to defend vertical drinking. Is a pub that doesn’t allow it a real pub at all? | Simon Jenkins",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/07/i-stand-to-defend-vertical-drinking-is-a-pub-that-doesnt-allow-it-a",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-07T08:00:11.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Guardian Business",
    "slug": "guardian-business",
    "url": "https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/07/vertical-drinking-pubs-social-connections-soho-london"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "The time-honoured tradition of standing up with a drink, gossiping and putting the world to rights is under threat. If councillors ban it, we’ll all lose out It is unbelievable: unconscionable. Westminster Council is moving against “vertical drinking” in pubs , starting with Soho. It claims drinking standing up is noisy and disruptive. It makes pubs, the council says, boisterous places where…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}