Pub Patrons Will Drink to This

Britain plans to scrap its quaint liquor law dating from World War I that requires English pubs to close in the afternoon, the government announced today.

“The time has come for the law to be brought up to date,” Home Secretary Douglas Hurd said. A bill on extended pub hours will be announced Thursday at the state opening of the newly elected Parliament. “Cheers!” headlined the Evening Standard. In its victorious campaign for the June 11 general election, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party promised pub reform as a way to “increase consumer choice.”