I'm sure many struggling British pubs wondering when the promised post-ban influx of non-smokers was going to arrive could put up a sign very like this American one:
4 days ago
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A jaundiced view of life from the darkest recess of the saloon bar...
Beer and Pubs Forum
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Salient quotations
"If I see one more politician who voted for the smoking ban crying crocodile tears about the state of the pub industry, I may throw up." (Christopher Snowdon)
"The era of big, bossy, state interference, top-down lever pulling is coming to an end." (David Cameron, 2008)
"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." (H. L. Mencken)
"The final nails have now been hammered into the coffin of the freedom to smoke in enclosed public places. This piece of legislation must be one of the most restrictive, spiteful and socially divisive imposed by any British Government." (Lord Stoddart of Swindon)
"Raising taxes on alcohol to prevent problem drinking is akin to raising the price of gasoline to prevent people from speeding." (Edward Peter Stringham)
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." (C. S. Lewis)
"People who deal only in 'craft' beer do not care about some dirty old pub and the dirty old people who are in it and the dirty old community that it holds together." (Boozy Procrastinator)
"The simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies." (Robert Conquest)
"A Puritan is someone who lives in mortal fear that somewhere, sometime, someone is enjoying himself." (H. L. Mencken)
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'Wow! What a Ride!" (Hunter S. Thompson)
"No pleasure is worth giving up for the sake of two more years in a geriatric home at Weston-super-Mare." (Kingsley Amis)
"When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves,
For you will have lost the last of England." (Hilaire Belloc)
My other blogs
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The Lad in the Lane - The Lad in the Lane, Erdington, Birmingham A distinctive half-timbered pub situated on the Outer Ring Road on the north-eastern side of the city. It cla...
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The Cross Keys - *The Cross Keys, Penkridge, Staffordshire ST19 5HJ* An old pub standing by the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal to the south-east of the village cen...
5 months ago
Selected beer and pub blogs (may contain nuts)
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EAVESDROPPING ON BANTER IN BODLE STREET GREEN - November 2024. Bodle Street Green. East Sussex. Mrs RM jumped at the chance to tick the White Horse Inn; 5 minutes from where she used to visit her aunt in...5 hours ago
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The Exciting Entrancing And Almost Festive Beery News Notes For A Merry Month From Yuletide 2024 - Fine. Almost festive. Almost. But this is when the slide starts to feel greased. Five weeks to Boxing Day. Whoooo! The Boxing Day carols shall ring out lou...15 hours ago
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BRAPA in .... HORRORBRIDGE BOROUGHBRIDGE / IN THE BRUMMIE CRYPT (Hallowe'en Special Pt 1/2) - Boo! Prepare to be terrified as I take you on a journey (probably in a hearse) around the new GBG pubs I visit at that thrilling time of...1 day ago
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A Place In The Country.... - *A reflection on rural pubs, how things have changed over the years, and how some of them have adapted in order to survive in these difficult times....* ...1 day ago
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Clock this - I'm used to Irish breweries having a long gestation, from the first announcement by some ballsy entrepreneur to actually being able to drink a pint they br...1 day ago
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The Atlantic Company. Part II. - The Bock There is a general understanding among beer historians, I include myself, that American bock production ceased during the Second World War. I cite...2 days ago
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A birthday treat of pie, mash and liquor, sandwiched between a couple of London's finest heritage pubs - It was the lad’s birthday this weekend, and as well as going out for a meal, or perhaps ordering a decent takeaway, to mark the occasion, *Matthew* infor...4 days ago
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Brand codes and beer packaging - How is it possible to see an own-brand beer and know which mainstream product it is intended to replace in your basket? That’s the power of ‘brand codes’...4 days ago
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Harrogate Pubs - This trip was pencilled in months ago, when the cup draw was made. I knew... The post Harrogate Pubs appeared first on Jane Stuart - Writer.4 days ago
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It's Never Just One - I was in town for some shopping but it I couldn't resist visiting a pub which only opened yesterday, so I headed up Seel Street to 1936 Pub Co's newest o...1 week ago
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Trouble brewing for independents - Sitting at the bar in my local pub, the Great Northern Railway Tavern, earlier in the year, I noticed the regular guest lager produced by the brewery I co-...1 week ago
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Belgian Beer in Bishop's Stortford - In which I find myself with a couple of hours to spare in the Herts town of Bishop's Stortford, late on an Autumnal Saturday afternoon. I figured that shou...2 weeks ago
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Art Deco Pubs in the UK, Part 3: The Suburbs - This third and final part of the series about art deco pubs covers those in the suburbs of British towns and cities. For a general introduction looking a...2 weeks ago
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October: Cheerio GBBF, Finchley Festivities & The Man Who Tamed Britain's Toughest Pub - Brum Rush PANDEMONIUM, if press reports can be believed, broke out in the family room at the 1990 Great British Beer Festival. A rabbit leapt from a magici...2 weeks ago
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Garden Hermit Goes...To The Village Pub... - * ...The Black Horse, West Tytherley, Hampshire.* This could be a sub-series of 'Garden Hermit Goes...' blog posts, the number of which is unknown. It ...2 weeks ago
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Wuzza - AKA Wirksworth, Derbyshire - Morning Readers some of you may know that I had been trying to complete my post on myself and WK's trip to Liverpool back in May, but 2 weeks ago I ...2 weeks ago
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When September Ends – Green Hop Day - Increasing numbers of breweries celebrate the new hop harvest by producing Green Hop beers. The hops are taken straight from the bine into the brew. The re...2 weeks ago
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A couple of beers from yesteryear - I picked up a couple of beers from the supermarket the other day which were a common sight in pubs when I was younger, Newcastle Brown Ale and Mackeson's...2 weeks ago
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No Nonsense - You may remember the great lost pictures scandal that emerged when my flash disc went kaput and left me with a host of boozers going bump… However, on a cl...2 weeks ago
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30/10/24 - Redstone Caves, Shrawley Woods and Glasshampton Monastery - Good Beer Guide Pubs from Home My one man protest at the 50% budget increase for capped single bus journeys starts here. Instead of the ever reliable Kidder...3 weeks ago
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Benchmark - Back in the day, when pubs weren't structured and laid out as they are now, the best room and public bar were usually tricked out in bench seating. In f...3 weeks ago
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By the Wey - Or: what I drank on my holidays. In our perversely unseasonal family holiday in Swanage last year, I ticked off four of the town’s seven pubs and had beers...1 month ago
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No, the ‘Hymn to Ninkasi’ is NOT a recipe for making Sumerian beer - It’s a claim you will find repeated in dozens – possibly hundreds – of places: that the so-called “Hymn to Ninkasi”, a poem in the Sumerian language to t...1 month ago
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Farmer John’s - Streetly, Walsall: I’ve probably already upset the Streetly lot, who will be insistent they’re in Sutton Coldfield. Tough. I still think of Farmer John’s a...2 months ago
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A visit to Teeling distillery - *The last stop of the Irish study tour for me was Teeling distillery. *Most people went on to Whiplash brewery afterward but I had to meet my cousin's hu...2 months ago
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The Imperfect Individual Speaks - Had an insightful conversation with David about his book, The Imperfect Individual. We discussed the challenges of being a first-time author, the core th...2 months ago
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Decocting an Idea - At the beginning of this year, I made myself a couple of promises when is comes to my homebrew. Firstly I committing to brewing with Murphy & Rude malts ...2 months ago
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BV London Pub of the Year 2023-24 - the results - What takes place once a year and involves me drinking large quantities of beer? Well, OK, it could be practically anything, admittedly, but, more speci...2 months ago
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Now & Then, the Uplands Tavern, Swansea - The Uplands Hotel, Swansea has expanded into a neighbouring building since this picture was taken in the 1950s when it was a pub owned by Evan Evans Be...5 months ago
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WHEN CELEBRITIES DIE - THE INFINITY OF PUBS - Recently I was stood outside Huddersfield Railway Station waiting for my Replacement Bus Service. I was eating much needed food from a nearby fast ...5 months ago
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My Best of 2023 - I haven't written much cheerful content (or much at all) for a while, and there will I'm sure be plenty of unhappy events to comment upon in 2024, so a...10 months ago
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Czech beer at a crossroads? - Clock's barrel-aging outpost Fenetra has this Bretty sour cherry beerMost beer lovers who’ve tried a classic Czech lager rapidly become fans. So why is it ...1 year ago
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Small is Beautiful The End - By far the largest part of Schumachers book is in regard to the third world and this section really hasn’t aged well at all. The world is different place...1 year ago
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Guest Post : No Food For Lazy Man : Finding beer with a side of Art in South London - Thanks to my good friend Margaret Howie, our London correspondent, for this excellent review – Kirsty Peckham, the jewel of South London, is nicknamed “Lit...1 year ago
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Terroir - putting the locally sourced boot in - All beer geeks like to occasionally have something that reminds us of when we were first getting into craft beer, so I enjoyed seeing some proper Beer Di...1 year ago
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Reconnections - It's fair to say that the last few years have wreaked havoc on the way that we've lived our lives. People have lost their jobs. People have lost their b...1 year ago
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Paradise Garden - Timbo's Dream One thing you rarely encounter in a tightly-packed and traffic-addled city centre like Preston's is a pub with a proper beer garden. All th...1 year ago
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BRAPA in .... 'ERE WIG GO AGAIN : MORE FROM NEWPORT / LAST POST ON BLOGGER (Gwenty is Plenty Part 7/14) - (LAST BLOG ON BLOGGER, actually wrote this before Edinburgh when the photo upload was just about bearable). Join me on Wix from tomorrow (link at the bo...1 year ago
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Pinning for the Beer Hordes - After a very quiet August, beer sales picked up again but I’m going through pins like no ones business. Sales of 4.5 gallons were generally the sole preser...2 years ago
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Life’s great artefacts: The Three Stags’ Heads, Geoff Fuller and his pots - Master potter and master publican, the late Geoff Fuller (together with his wife, Pat) made a difference to more lives than he’ll have ever known. https://...2 years ago
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BeerDredge Beer Flavour Wheels - I've developed a set of six Beer Flavour Wheels and they are available on my other site: BeerDredge. The BeerDredge Beer Flavour Wheels present a lexico...2 years ago
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#291 The Navigation, Kilby Bridge, Leicestershire : 1986 to 2021 - Our first ever visit to The Navigation Inn was on the evening of *Wednesday 23rd July 1986*. This was our summer vacation and my first time along the Le...2 years ago
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SUNDERLAND AND SOUTH TYNESIDE ONLINE BRANCH NEWSLETTER ..DECEMBER 2021 - The December issue of our digital magazine “CAMRA Angle Online” is now available from https://sst.camra.org.uk/wordpress/?tag=newsletter I hope you enj...2 years ago
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Guinness Nitrosurge Device - Does it work? - Guinness sent this little gizmo to me along with two cans and a glass. I attended a zoom demo and then later tried it myself and made a video which I'...3 years ago
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PETER WALKER & SONS : PALE ALE 1930 - How Do All , Here`s a nice recipe for a PREMIUM Pale Ale from the noted Lancashire brewery of Peter Walker & Sons on Dallam Lane in Warrington , from t...3 years ago
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On writing, especially beer writing - Just write, gather and then scatter the words, like throwing seeds about on a field during the act of ploughing, a virtuous Piers-like act that is labour...3 years ago
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Burwell Brewery – “Judy’s Hole” - Burwell Brewery – “Judy’s Hole”. Spotted by @LouiseReeve13 years ago
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Cider with.....Ted and Janet - I don't know how we came to know Ted Jones and his wife Janet. It is almost certain, I think, that the introductions were made by the late Rhys Jones (no...4 years ago
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Living with cancer, chemo, lockdown and work - Moving from a position of being self-employed to working for someone else is something of an adjustment. Going from having control and responsibility of ab...4 years ago
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A Tale Of Two Weekends - The never ending tour of Manchester continues. With a lot of places either still closed completely or not opening early in the week, it's easier to do a ...4 years ago
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The Lockdown Chronicles #4 - Hundreds of destitute landlords across the uk are calling for the government to not have a #NationalTimeOut on rents for the hospitality industry as they d...4 years ago
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Salt Ikat - Not can conditioned Salt Ikat [baron rating 5/5] - 8% hazy orange ale,herbal banana smell,intense fruity pithy orange tropical bitter taste,sweet dry finis...4 years ago
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Hard Brewing Times in an Age of Coronavirus - “Part 1” (all disclaimers in that piece apply to this piece too) Such is the state of flux that Covid-19 is having that between the time the working day in...4 years ago
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Brown Cow – Ancoats - Corner of Butler Street and Woodward Street Ancoats. How now Brown Cow? No Brown Cow now. Tanning studio, former organic goods store and one stop shop now....5 years ago
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Remembering Alan Winfield - Remembering Alan Winfield I'm sorry to have to publish this, but unfortunately Alan passed away on Friday 27th July at 11:25am after his 8 month battle wi...6 years ago
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Pubpaper 886 – Festive Pub Time - I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year and got to visit all the pubs you wanted to and sample all the beers your taste buds desired. Looking at ...7 years ago
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Drop Forge, Greenside Street - Drop Forge, Greenside Street, Openshaw. (c) D.N. at ManMates Facebook.8 years ago
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Notes From Home - Part IV - *- The Lamb and Fountain (aka Mother’s)* 57 Castle Street, Frome, BA11 B3W * S*o much a part of the cultural heritage of Frome that long term landlady ...11 years ago
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Other blogs of interest
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Odd really - So John Prescott has left us and as I’ve said a number of times there was much to admire – and Fatty Soames c’n fuck off ‘n’ all. I did have one online i...3 hours ago
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Willkommen - Some of you will know that I have a small stable of websites that I look after. As part of that, I keep an eye out for traffic to those sites. In general, ...5 hours ago
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Down with ideologies! - This is the only slogan I find palatable. For, contrary to a common misapprehension, it’s not the economy but ideology that drives modern European governme...7 hours ago
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Do You Know Where it is Yet? - So Rolf Harris played a clever game. Sex criminal Rolf Harris moved his fortune out of his own name to prevent it going to his victims in [...]8 hours ago
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Well, Of Course We Will, Emma… - ...because judging each other is what social beings *do*. ...new research suggests *different social classes have stopped using different words* for the ...
14 hours ago -
Considerate smokers - *The Times reports:* Most smokers are “very considerate” when lighting up, the chief executive of Imperial Brands, the UK tobacco market leader, has said...1 day ago
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Even before the defence review has begun, five Royal Navy warships are to be scrapped - The Defence Secretary confirmed in Parliament today that five RN warships are to be scrapped as a cost saving measure. In a move described by the John He...1 day ago
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Numismatics - *Claudian Aureus in Great Condition* *As my regulars are well aware, I have an active interest in the history of ancient cultures, particularly ancie...1 day ago
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After 20 years, Guido Fawkes website changes hands: valete, Paul Staines - After 20 years of daily posts, Paul Staines, the main Guido of Guido Fawkes, is becoming Founding Editor Emeritus to pursue other interests. On Wednesday, ...2 days ago
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Midweek 20th November 2024 - The British Prime Minister – when challenged about the effect of his tax attack on farmers – cites the BBC to support his claim that ‘not many will be effe...2 days ago
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Triple layer tinfoil - I haven’t been keeping up with the news too well, what with all the book stuff, but a hell of a lot has happened. Including the imminent start of WWIII. Lo...3 days ago
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Dogs and Allotments Are Racist! - Welsh Nanny (aka the Welsh Labour devolved government) has her knickers in a twist over dogs and allotments. Apparently they are racist! Unsurprisng...
1 week ago -
Not Invented Here (2): alcohol - Doctors have been advising people to have several days without alcohol each week for decades. It is sound advice because, as the British Liver Trust says...1 week ago
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Trump Triumph Will Shake Media, Democrat Party To The Core, And Then Some - Wintonsblog Posted in Politics The Democrats face oblivion if they don’t shake off the current dominance by socialist extremists Southport, North Ca...1 week ago
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This will not end well - I still think Rod Carr had this stuff right two decades ago when he'd argued against having deposit insurance at all, and instead making very clear that ...1 week ago
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Trump's Highland Charge - There is a tendency in certain Scottish nationalist circles to obsess about the Scottishness of vegetables. If a bag of potatoes fails to have a Scottis...
2 weeks ago -
Frank Davis – another year gone. - Frank moved on – around this time – three years ago. To a better place, I hope; quieter perhaps. How he would survey the wreckage that surrounds us is not ...1 month ago
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More Projection Than The Local Odeon.... - Looks like crime's so low in the People's Republic of Caledonia that the McFilth have had to resort to policing hypothetical crime: Police have been accu...7 months ago
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Let’s just defund the UN and leave it immediately - Hidden deep below the headquarters of the United Nations’ aid agency for Palestinians here is a Hamas complex with rows of computer servers that Israel’s...9 months ago
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Lionising the lionesses - Football has kept me sane during a difficult part of my life. There have been weeks in the past two years when the only place I’ve left my home to visit ha...1 year ago
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Mark would have loved this - I think - 'where does money come from' - From the Cobden Centre https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cSyctENy3A&t=81s1 year ago
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Rage-Driven Tobacco Control Industry Stupidity Explained In One Tweet - It was once explained to me that there are thousands of students who start off aspiring to be doctors. Those not clever enough to become doctors drift in...
1 year ago -
Parliamentary NIMBYs in action: report on a depressing debate - Parliament held a 30-minute debate about housing targets and the planning system moved by Gordon Henderson, MP for Sittingbourne & Sheppey. It will come a...2 years ago
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Outta here… - As promised, I’ll no longer be updating this site. My new stuff will all be published at https://aljahom.substack.com Please do subscribe over there to get...2 years ago
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Alcohol labelling and rationality - The Sun reported yesterday that public health ‘nannies’ are planning on introducing calorie labelling on alcoholics drinks, including in pubs, bars and r...3 years ago
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Is the party over? - Following Paul Nuttall’s failure to win the Stoke-on-Trent Central by-election, the future of UKIP as a party has been called into question. Surely, if i...7 years ago
Urban life and exploration
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The Coventry Caper 2024 - Few explorational rules are set firmer in stone than my autumnal visits to Coventry, whereby the Sky Blue city usually registers one October or November ...1 day ago
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UMIST 2024 – Manchester - This may be the last time, may be the last time, I don’t know. I’ve been taking a look around for several years now, but now the writing is now on the wall...1 week ago
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In Pictures: Stockport’s New Bus Interchange - State-of-the-art transport interchange quantum leap on 1980 predecessor This Sunday saw the opening of Stockport’s bus and coach interchange. Situated on t...8 months ago
A Martin Scriblerus Blog
What's this all about?
See here for some background information on the thinking behind this blog.
Samples of beer and cider and review copies of relevant books will be gratefully received – e-mail me for address details.
To contact me directly, please send me an e-mail.
You can also follow me on Twitter at @oldmudgie.
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If you have a blog that links to this, and is at least vaguely on a political or beer-related theme, drop me a line and I'll add it to my blog list, even if I don't agree with you on everything.
Fellow Curmudgeons
Blog Archive
Links
- Alliance of British Drivers
- Beer and Pubs Forum
- Big Brother Watch
- British Beer and Pub Association
- British Weights and Measures Association
- Campaign for Real Ale
- Countryside Alliance
- Cyclops - beer tasting notes
- Daily Mash
- Directory of Draught Bass outlets
- Drinks Retailing News
- Dugs'n'Pubs
- FairFuel UK
- Fleurets - licensed trade estate agents
- Independent Family Brewers of Britain
- List of Wetherspoon Pubs
- Map of Samuel Smith's pub locations
- Morning Advertiser
- National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors
- Pub Cats
- Pub Curmudgeon website
- Pub Trails
- Pubs Galore
- R U Pissed?
- Sense on Drink-Driving
- Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood
- Society of Independent Brewers
- Sp!ked
- Stockport & South Manchester CAMRA
- Straight Statistics
- TaxPayers' Alliance
- The Conservative Woman
- The Country Squire
- The Free Society
- What Pub?
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