West End problems stem from new consumer appetites and crime

West End problems stem from new consumer appetites and crime

It was a lovely photograph, the Mayor, Chancellor and Deputy Prime Minister at Ronnie Scott’s making a harmonised “last orders” call on “red tape” the government proclaims is “choking” restaurants, pubs and clubs such as Ronnie’s, a Soho institution since 1959. Scott himself, a saxophonist and compere, would urge audiences to “join hands and contact the living“. A sceptic might invite last week’s politician line-up to get in tune with West End r…