Clause 73 - Prohibited conditions: associate members
Licensing Bill [Lords]
5:15 pm
Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight, Conservative)
My hon. Friend the Member for North-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Moss) referred in an earlier sitting to an absence of a definition in the Bill of the word ''guest''. I thought about that when I considered the clause. I shall refer later to clause 191, which contains a large number of references to definitions, but the clause is not terribly helpful in this case. In the left hand column, headed ''Expression'', it refers to ''guest'', and in the right hand column, headed ''Interpretation provision'', it states ''section 67''.
If I introduced someone, as my guest, into a club of which I was a member, I would not expect them to pay me for the privilege, nor would I expect them to pay me or to pay across the bar for any of the drinks, other refreshments or entertainments that they enjoyed while they were my guest in that club. On the other hand, the expression ''guest'' can be used by an hotelier to describe someone who would indeed pay for the entertainment, food and drink that he enjoyed while on the hotel premises. What is the definition of guest? Clause 67 is even less helpful than clause 191. The definition in clause 67 forms a perfect circle, saying:
''Any reference . . . to a guest . . . includes a reference to . . . a guest of an associate member of the club.''
That is not what I would call a definition. What is a guest? Is it someone introduced on payment of a fee to the member providing the introduction?
Dr. Howells indicated dissent.