Must-read piece here by Pete Robinson on the demise of The Publican magazine. His forthright, no-punches-pulled blogs in that publication are sorely missed. And he has been proved right, of course.
4 days ago
Sunday, 11 March 2012
16 comments:
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The Publican
ReplyDeleteGood riddance to a "Judas" rag,pity the other
Quisling organs have'nt joined it yet.
Such as the Pub chains (you know who),most brewers,the various luke warm campaigns including the Whiskers Guild and not forgetting
the cringing regiments of KeyboardKommandos.
Lets chuck in the dismal Working Mens Clubs,
Fraternal clubs,Night Club Shysters and other assorted back stabbers.Last but not least,the
remaining half wits who stand outside near empty pubs muttering 1 decibel anger.
One day reality and democracy will emerge from
their coma,but I for one will not be holding my
breath,we have to many in"reserved occuptions"
Asphalt Fusilier
Wonderful stuff! Completely beyond parody.
ReplyDeleteAnd the madness goes on.....
ReplyDeleteOn the hottest day in March I have known for over half a century, in a wonderful setting on the South coast with my coffers overflowing and the prospect of a huge rugby game on the 'big screen' just minutes away, I watched it in my kitchen.
The appeal of visiting my local, paying three times more for beer, sitting in an empty antiseptic room with one other person just didn't do it for me.
What's so special about the end of 2013, in the post?
ReplyDeleteLiterrally spilt my drink as I was laughing that much. Serious thanks for brightening up my Monday:)
ReplyDeleteI think he's living in cuckoo land if he thinks that a reverse on the smoking ban alone will bring the trade a 'near-full recovery'. The smoking ban, the beer duty escalator, the current economic situation, and general drinking trends are all helping to damage the pub trade, along with local council's petty enforcement of the rules.
ReplyDeleteYou're not getting this blog are you guys? Allowing cancer sticks back in pubs is the magic that will saves countless grot holes from closing. He cannot admit either that it is not possible or would make sod all difference if it was possible. It's a psychological knot or cognitive dissonance that would do the fella outright harm. We have to bring him back to reality slowly, lest we damage him.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who denies that the smoking ban has caused grievous damage to the pub trade really is living in cloud cuckoo land.
ReplyDeleteI'm not denying it has done damage, but I think there are many other factors too.
ReplyDelete"Allowing cancer sticks back in pubs is the magic that will saves countless grot holes from closing" - Cooking.
ReplyDeleteA population the size of the Netherlands could indeed save many grot holes from closing. I like grot holes and am happy to support them, what I do not like is to be have a choice of stay at home or give money to pubs that I would not go to if there were grot holes to go to.
If people want to go to grot holes , let them.
@Saga of Nails. From Dave Atherton
ReplyDeleteHowever the smoking ban has had a far more disastrous effect than all other government interference. My figures are from the British Beer and Pub Association and are the number of closures.
1999 +400
2000 100
2001 600
2002 700
2003 200
2004 400
2005 400 pubs
2006 400
Smoking ban.
2007 1,409
2008 1,973
2009 1,352
2010 1,466
We have lost 12% of our pubs to the smoking ban and 150,000 jobs.
Dave, those figs do look compelling, but all of the relevant data needs to be assembled before concrete conclusions can be formed. Is that pubs closing for good ? or does it include pubs closing for a few months and reopening.
ReplyDeleteWasn't 2007 also the height of Punch and Enterprise and their general indifference towards the fate of pubs.
A proper and thorough report should be done.
"I think there are many other factors too"
ReplyDeleteI have certainly never claimed it is a monocausal explanation. The long-term decline of pubs started well before 2007 and is due to a variety of factors. I would probably put it in the late 1990s that I started noticing pubs closing that weren't in areas of obvious depopulation.
Didn't CGA Strategy do a report a while back that sought to analyse what the "excess" level of pub closures was that could reasonably be attributed to the smoking ban?
Y'all. These grot holes had no future anyway. In 20 years when the last of the smokers wheezes their last, all the smoking grot holes of Hamburg & elswhere will shut.
ReplyDeleteSo the government shut 'em in Blighty 20 years early? I prefer Tesco Express.
By that time there won't be any non-smoking grot holes either, and Tesco Express will rule the world.
ReplyDelete"I prefer Tesco Express." Cooking.
ReplyDeletefair enough.
You go to Tesco Express and I will go to grot holes.