a hard-boiled egg crystallizes the passions before flaking

Is “scotch egg”, a hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage and breadcrumbs, a “hearty meal”? This question agitates the British and conditions their possible return to the pub.

With the end of containment in England, a new system will come into effect Wednesday: regional restrictions will now be imposed, depending on the incidence of the virus, under a three-tiered warning system.

In regions located on level 2, affecting 32 million people, pubs will only be able to serve alcohol along with a “hearty meal”.

But pub patrons are more used to drinking pints of beer with a packet of chips than with a real dinner. So will the “scotch egg” and other snacks popular among the British be enough for them? grant the right to order alcohol?

Called to allay concerns, Environment Minister George Eustice said on Monday that scotch eggs would be a meal if served at the table. But Michael Gove, minister in charge of coordinating the government’s action, seemed to him to relegate this British specialty to the status of simple entry on Tuesday.

Avoid alcoholic meetings

Downing Street, more committed to maneuvering the final Brexit negotiations and dealing with the economic damage of the pandemic, was asked to explain. “We have been clear,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s official spokesman Boris Johnson told reporters wearily, just weeks after he had to clear up a similar confusion over slices of pizza and salty slippers.

“Snacks at the bar don’t matter”, he added … without explicitly commenting on the question.

For lack of clarity, restaurateurs sometimes rely on instructions from local authorities, as the owner of a pub in the north of England confides. According to her, the food bill must exceed the price of the drinks.

“For an average pint of five pounds (5.60 euros), people will have to eat a lot of scotch eggs,” he said on condition of anonymity.

Never before has the modest “scotch egg” received so much attention. But behind this seemingly superficial debate hides a real argument for the government, which wants to avoid alcoholic gatherings to limit the risk of transmission of the virus that has killed more than 59,000 people in the UK.