It’s often claimed that there’s a singular lack of association between venues majoring on real ale and alcohol-related disorder, and indeed the experience of many beer festivals seems to bear that out. However,
things seem to be rather different along the main Transpennine railway line:
Unruly real ale lovers searching for high-octane beer are losing their heads and giving fellow rail travellers and staff a hangover with anti-social behaviour.
Now British Transport Police have warned real ale fans taking the Transpennine Real Ale Trail from Batley to Stalybridge, stopping at Dewsbury, Mirfield and Huddersfield, to keep their celebrations on the right tracks or face prosecution.
They could end up walking home if banned from the railways.
The trail, featured on the BBC’s Oz and James Drink to Britain, is described as a “unique voyage to a selection of Yorkshire and Lancashire best real ale pubs”.
Some drunk trail-followers are running across crowded platforms and railway lines, compromising safety, say police.
Stag and hen parties are downing a range of strong ales, beer glasses are taken on trains, people urinate on platforms, train doors are held open, disrupting services, and trains damaged, added police.
In reality, I suspect to a large extent the Real Ale Trail is being unfairly blamed for this. Given that the line connects the nightlife capitals of Manchester and Leeds, and runs through a number of major urban areas, most of the bad behaviour is likely to be associated with the normal lads’ and girls’ nights out. Indeed, it’s not usually known for stag and hen parties to be swigging real ale. However, the problem is that mud is likely to stick...
I agree, on the couple of times I have done it the behavior in the pubs was impecable. The only roudyness I saw on the trains was by a group of footy fans travelling to a match. And that happens everywhere.
ReplyDeleteYes, a tenuous link to real ale at best. The times I have been on that line, any rowdiness was confined to the usual suspects and the real ale swiggers were all asleep!
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha. Ha. You CAMRA bores are next in line for persecution and you think silly little things like facts are going to matter.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to 2012; hope you had a nice sleep.
Smoker: any person who brings his obsession to a blog even though it is completely irrelevant to the post is tedium personified.
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary, I would say that the suggestion that the anti-smoker witchhunt is increasingly metamorphosing into an anti-drinker witchhunt is an entirely valid point.
ReplyDeleteThe question is...having seen what the witchhunt did for smoking, how do you defend against it now that it has moved on to drinking?
ReplyDeleteThe tactics seem to be the same - a constant drip of negative stories that gradually change people's perceptions of drink and drinkers. Fortunately, there isn't the equivalent of passive smoking which eventually did for the smokers, but the general trend is to try and show that drinking DOES affect other people.
I don't know how you fight this sort of 'war' as it is not based on fact but on a slow, creeping campaign of negativity.
Smoker and PC are correct. It is obvious, blindingly so for anyone who has bothered to research TC tactics. Any real ale lover who can't see that must spend a lot of time asleep (possibly including alcohol-related naps on trains).
ReplyDeleteThe scientific evidence for harmful effects from "passive smoking" ranges from unconvincing to non-existent.
ReplyDeleteThe victims of drunk drivers, street brawlers and wife-beaters might think the evidence for harmful effects from "passive drinking" was rather more solid.
Absolutely, they have a substantial head start re passive drinking. And imagine how they could very easily target those who skip work due to 'wine flu'.
ReplyDeleteAh Curmudgeon, you've slipped up badly. Validity and relevance are not synonymous.
ReplyDeleteCAMRA ale drinkers obsessed with leftist cultism are such pompous boring arses. God hating, arrogant and self-righteous in every respect of the definitions. So much fun watching them make an arse out of themselves in public on a regular basis. Hah - such fun! But, God loves them just the same as it takes all kinds to make the world go round.
ReplyDelete“Fortunately, there isn't the equivalent of passive smoking which eventually did for the smokers”
ReplyDeleteYet.
“Validity and relevance are not synonymous”.
Yet.
Oh, God. I could cry sometimes when I see how deeply so many non-smoking drinkers are burying their heads in the sand. Do I support you (the support of we non-drinking pub-lovers probably being the most valuable support you could ask for when the storm breaks – because the rest of you are just hopeless addicts. Or didn’t you know?), or do I leave you to fight your own battles, just as you left smokers to fight theirs? Still haven’t made my mind up. Yet.