Enda Brady: UK correspondent on the London pub adding an extra service charge to all drinks

A Waterloo-based pub has raised eyebrows among Londoners after it introduced an extra service charge for all purchases. 

Drinkers at the pub will be expected to pay an extra 4 percent on their purchases going forward.

UK correspondent Enda Brady outlined the terms further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fourteen away from seven and Indo Brady as our UK
correspondent this evening.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hey, Inda, Hey Heather, great to speak to you again.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
So did Ki Stama interrupt a family holiday to go
over to Washington.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Yes, he did so. This is the second consecutive summer
that the Starmars have had their family holiday interrupted because
a year ago it was the aftermath of the Southport
stabbings and all those riots across the UK. This time
he has left the family in Scotland and gone to Washington.
That is how important he felt it was that the
UK be in the room or in the room next
door while Zelensky was meeting Trump. This has been a huge,

(00:34):
huge meeting last night. But I think there's still a
lot of concern in European capitals that Putin categorically cannot
be trusted. So we're talking and hearing about you know,
America providing a security guarantee for Ukraine. Putin is not
going to accept foreign boots on Ukrainian soil to keep

(00:55):
back Russian forces. So let's see what happens next. But
I guess the next step will be a meeting a
trilateral between Putin, Trump and Zelenski.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, so what is it. I mean, Putin's gonna have
to give some ground, though, isn't he. If he's asking
Zelenski to give up all that land, He's gonna have
to give up some stuff too. Both sides have to
give stuff up.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, I think what Putin will have to give up
is give up fighting. That will have to be an
immediate end to the war. But everyone in Europe, I
mean people in the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,
they're very, very nervous about what Putin does next. And
you know he's got this meat grinder mentality that he

(01:34):
will just push men. He will push them over the
front line and keep going inch by inch, week by week,
kilometer by kilometer, until he has the whole of Ukraine
and then what So it's fascinating that the show of
strength from Europe last night. I think we need to
really understand that all those European leaders, in the middle
of their summer holidays suddenly getting their act together and

(01:56):
being in that room next door monumental.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
So do you not think this occurred to me today?
Do you not think that Putin has to settle this time?
Because what's happened is Trump has gone out, He's got
all of this media coverage. It's been just wall to
wall across the world. Right, So Trump a lot of
his reputation is pinned on this. If Putin DICKX him
over now, it will be humiliating for him. And then

(02:20):
surely he's incentivized. This is Trump, He's incentivized to come
after Putin and make life as hard as possible and
crush the economy. So does Putin now not have skin
in the game to actually settle.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
It's a very good point. But look, I think what
Trump wants most of all is the Nobel Peace Prize.
We know that much. And if leaders were serious about
hurting Putin, how this could have been and should have
been done a long time ago was massive secondary sanctions
on people who are buying Russian oil and gas and
keeping the Russian economy going, and that is China and India.

(02:53):
And for whatever reason, people have not shown the willingness
to go after those two countries economically as well. Putin
feeling in Europe from speaking to European leaders, politicians, diplomats
for the last three and a half years, they do
not trust him, They cannot trust him, and even as
Zelenski was walking into the room, Russia was launching drawn
attacks on Ukrainian civilians last night. That's all we need

(03:15):
to know about what putin is.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Okay, Now, explain something to me as the London bar
adding a four percent like a tep when you go
up to the bar to order the drinks or for
all drinks.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
So it's all drinks. This is a pub that's brought
this in in Waterloo in London four percent. So you
go up, you buy your beer, wine or whatever, and
then you pay, or you go to tap with your phone.
They've already added the four percent and then the only
way you can get this off is if you object,
and then the member of staff has to then go
back into the transaction and remove the four percent. And look, okay,

(03:48):
it's not going to break anyone, but it's about sixty
cents on a pint of lager, and a lagger in
London these days is sixteen New Zealand dollars. So my
question is are we now stealthily heading towards an American style,
you know, bar economy, where we're tipping people for absolutely everything,
because normally you ask someone for a tip in a

(04:09):
pub in London, they'll give you the who's going to
win the next race at Lingfield? You know with the horses,
are we slowly inching our way towards America? Kind of
tipping absolutely everyone and yet people would say, oh, it's
only four percent and what they're doing it's very clever
because pubs in London are packed, it's busy. Do you
want to be the guy or the girl at the

(04:29):
bar going oh I object to that, take that off
and suddenly you got someone behind you saying come on, Paul,
hurry up.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
Yeah, no one wants to be there, Dick, Hey, thank you, Inda,
I appreciate it. That's Into Brady, UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
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