There has been an alarming decline in people going to nightclubs and Rachel Reeves growth-killing, fun-banning Budget is partly to blame. Fortunately there are some simple solutions to bringing back the big night out, says James Price

The philosopher Ted Mosby, in his magnum opus How I Met Your Mother, once opined that: “Nothing good happens after 2am”. Wisdom like this must be hard-earned, with pounding hangovers, deracinated bank balances and occasional walks of shame.

I say this as someone for whom all the punishments of youth – early bed times, staying in, friends cancelling plans – are now the best things to happen to me. But it took many years of engaging in the scientific method of replication and analysis to confirm that I was indeed Too Old for big nights out anymore.

Crucially, it is not a lesson that should be imposed on anyone by the state, either directly or indirectly. And yet that is what is happening. The Night Time Industries Association has recently come out with some terrifying numbers about the decline in people enjoying nights out.

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