LONDON (AP) — A proposal to limit “vertical drinking,” a bureaucratic euphemism for having a pint while standing, has turned into a political headache for one local government council in London.
Politicians from Prime Minister Andy Burnham to London Mayor Sadiq Khan have piled in to decry the idea from Westminster City Council, which is responsible for licensing pubs and restaurants in the West End, a nightlife hub popular with tourists and locals.
A feature of many of those pubs is the crowd of drinkers who mill around sharing drinks with friends, often spilling out into the street on warm spring and summer evenings. Lesley Lewis, who has run the French House pub in Soho for 37 years, said discouraging that tradition would only drive customers to other parts of the city.
“We rely on those people standing up with the rents and the rates (taxes) put upon us,” she said. “People want to enjoy themselves in Soho, they want to have a drink outside, they want to dance. They don’t want to sit down and just be where they are, they want to meet people and chat.”
With British newspapers filled with headlines such as “Sitting room only at pubs?” and “Soho’s pubs won’t take clamp down on ‘vertical drinking’ lying down,” the Westminster council hit back at “confusing” news stories that misrepresented its plans.
Council leader Paul Swaddle issued a press release stressing that the proposal was part of a draft policy that is still open for public comment. The council’s goal is to reduce noise and disorderly behavior by encouraging bars and restaurants to serve more people at their tables, not bar anyone from having a drink while standing, he said.
“Let me be clear about what we’re trying to achieve,’’ he said. “This is about safety, not stopping anyone standing at a bar with a pint in their hand.’’
The council’s draft licensing policy includes a proposal to discourage “excessive drunkenness” by encouraging business owners to provide more opportunities “for people to sit and enjoy a drink and order food by table service in place of open bar space that caters for high volume vertical drinking.”
Westminster has more pubs, bars and restaurants licensed to sell alcohol than any other local authority in the U.K.
While the council’s policy statement stresses the important role the hospitality industry plays in the local economy, it also says local leaders must ensure Westminster is “a great place for residents to live.”
That didn’t stop the criticism from more senior government officials, who have been focused on bolstering a hospitality industry that still hasn’t recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.
A spokesman for Burnham said pubs full of people standing around sharing a pint isn’t a nuisance, it’s a part of “British life.” The prime minister is encouraging local leaders to work with the hospitality industry so that pubs can thrive, he said.
“The pubs that we’ve got are at the heart of high streets, and I think it’s really important to signal at the start of my time in office that I will be a defender for them,” Burnham told reporters last month while visiting a pub called the Hare in Harlow, Essex. “I will speak up for them and act.”
Khan suggested he would use new powers that will be granted to his office later this year to review the Westminster policy.
“You can’t run a world-famous nightlife district with a village-hall mindset,” Khan said on X. “London’s hospitality and nightlife support jobs, culture and growth.”
FILE - People stand drinking outside the Coach & Horses pub on Saint Patrick's Day in the Covent Garden district of central London, which is a popular tourist area, Tuesday, March 17, 2020. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, file)
NONTHABURI, Thailand (AP) — A student shot several people at a high school outside Bangkok on Friday morning, killing at least five and wounding several others, according to authorities, who said the gunman also appeared to have separately killed his two grandparents.
The shooter then took his own life, officials said.
Five school staff members, including teachers and administrators, died in the shooting around 10 a.m. at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province northwest of Bangkok, Deputy Interior Minister Polapee Suwunchwee said at the scene.
The shooter also killed his two grandparents at home prior to the school shooting, Polapee said.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, speaking after touring the school, confirmed reports that the shooter was 14 years old and killed himself. He said the boy, who lived with his grandparents, had shown signs of stress connected to school.
The gun, described by police as small and compact, was legally registered to his grandfather, he said.
About an hour after the shooting, people stood outside comforting one another as police and first responders walked around the co-educational state school, which has an enrollment of about 3,000 students ranging from 12 to 18 years old.
A witness told reporters that students hid inside a classroom while they heard gunshots from another building before police officers knocked on the door and cleared a way for them to leave the building.
Amporn Niamfuang, who owns a restaurant roughly 50 meters from the school, said the narrow road outside her shop quickly filled with fleeing students after the shooting started.
“At first I heard just one gunshot, and there was a pause,” Amporn said. “And then there were multiple continuous shots.”
“Students were running scared and pouring onto the street. Young girls were holding each other’s hands and crying. I went inside to hide."
Bangyai Hospital, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the school, said 23 people were wounded and 10 were in critical condition, with most suffering gunshot wounds. Earlier reports gave conflicting casualty numbers.
The school said all classes will be suspended from Aug. 10-14, and school staff are instructed to work from home in that period.
After the school shooting, police went to the home of the shooter’s grandparents but the door was locked and there was no response to their calls, regional police Commander Wattana Yeejeen said.
Officers broke the door lock and found both the grandparents had died of apparent gunshot wounds, Wattana said.
Police spokesperson Trairong Piwpan said the boy appeared to have shot his grandparents first before attending school as normal. After the class had started for a while, the boy began shooting from inside his classroom, before walking out and continuing shooting.
He said the boy fired more than 20 shots and more than 30 rounds were found on him after he shot himself.
Several family members of the alleged shooter, including his uncle and sisters of the grandfather who were at the family home while police investigated, said he usually kept to himself and was a good student.
The family members said they were unaware of any troubles he faced at home or school.
Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Asia, second only to Pakistan but far surpassing its Southeast Asian neighbors.
Data collected in 2017 by the groups Small Arms Survey and GunPolicy.org in their last extensive international study found civilian gun ownership in Thailand was about 15.1 guns per 100 people, compared with less than one per 100 in neighboring Malaysia.
Thailand had 3.49 deaths by firearms per 100,000 people, according to 2023 statistics published by World Population Review. That puts it well behind parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, but relatively high in Asia. Only the Philippines is higher in Southeast Asia.
In February, a 17-year-old stole a gun from police and opened fire at a public high school in southern Thailand, briefly taking people hostage in a two-hour attack that killed one person and injured two others.
A 14-year-old boy was accused of a 2023 shooting at a major Bangkok shopping mall.
Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok and Kaweewit Kaewjinda in Nonthaburi, Thailand, contributed to this report.
A parent leaves after picking his child after a shooting at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Thailand's Nonthaburi province, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
First responders and others stand inside after a shooting at the Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Thailand's Nonthaburi province, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
A schoolgirl cries outside her school where deaths and injuries were reported after a shooting in Thailand's Nonthaburi province, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
A crowd gathers outside a school where deaths and injuries were reported after a shooting in Thailand's Nonthaburi province, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
A schoolgirl cries outside her school where deaths and injuries were reported after a shooting in Thailand's Nonthaburi province, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
