Saturday 28 September 2024

The Last of England

The past three months have seen a deluge of policy proposals being floated that, either directly or indirectly, would be damaging to the pub trade. While it’s likely that most of these ideas will never be implemented, some of them will be, and the desired direction of travel is all too clear.

There is a well-known quotation from Hilaire Belloc, reproduced in the sidebar of this blog, that: “When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England.” This has prompted this particularly apposite and poignant article from Madeline Grant entitled When the last pub calls last orders it will be the last of England. I don’t propose to reproduce it in full (although I can send you the text if you send me an e-mail), but this excerpt is especially relevant.

Yet even here there is a melancholy sense to the average pub that has lingered since Covid. A pincer movement of cultural changes – the death of lunchtime drinking, the rise of clean living – now coupled with a government of an obvious puritanical bent, has created a perfect storm for pub owners.

Courtesy of the Government and their like-minded pals in public health we have heard pitches for two-thirds-sized pints and shorter pub opening hours – all within the last week. Rachel Reeves is reportedly considering an alcohol duty hike to plug the famed £22 billion “black hole”. Before that proposed smoking bans in beer gardens prompted ire from landlords…

…Indeed, Sir Keir and his acolytes seem unable to grasp why anyone would frequent a pub at all, ignoring their important social purpose. People come there to gossip and to moan, to make jokes and let loose, for conviviality and companionship. None of those are things the Starmers and the Gwynnes of this world can understand.

Undoubtedly many government policies, in particular the smoking ban, have damaged the pub trade, but the reality is that it has been undone by long-term social change. Pubgoing was never a specific destination social event, it was a habit that was woven into the fabric of everyday life. As I wrote last year:
In the past, a lot of drinking in pubs was centred around ritual and routine, often linked to the workplace. But all those Friday lunchtime drinks with the office team, after-work unwinders, Sunday lunchtime sessions and “I always go out with Bill and Frank for a few on Friday night” are now much diminished if not virtually extinct. If you’re no longer going to the pub out of habit, but have to make a positive choice to do so, you may well decide not to bother.
Added to this, there has been a growing trend to stigmatise even the moderate consumption of alcohol in social settings, which inevitably reduces the range of occasions on which people will consider a visit to the pub.

Some commentators may make the point that specific pubs are thriving, but that doesn’t mean that they can be taken as an example for others to follow. Within an overall declining market, the effect will not be even across the board, and it’s entirely possible that some venues that happen to be particularly well-located, or that cater for a specific niche, will continue to do well.

Many pubs have turned to food to keep alive, and indeed food has always been an integral part of the pub scene. However, there comes a point where it becomes so dominant that the pub has ceased to fulfil its original function and has become to all intents and purposes a restaurant.

Some industry representatives are keen to point the finger of blame at the rise of the off-trade, but in reality that is just the other side of the coin of the social changes that have led to the decline of pubs. Any moves to impose further curbs on the off-trade are unlikely to bring a single extra customer back into pubs. Both camps should realise they have a common interest in opposing anti-alcohol Puritanism.

It’s probably apocalyptic to talk of pubs completely disappearing by 2084. There will remain some demand for them. But it is clear that the tide is currently running strongly against them, and any moves by the government to impose new restrictions on them are only going to accelerate this trend.

23 comments:

  1. Pubs are haram. Kier is our boy.

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  2. Only one party leader loves pubs, uses pubs, understands pubs. Nigel Farage.

    The rest hate pubs.

    Face facts, wokies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Doesn’t Nigel Farage prefer wine bars?

      Delete
  3. I'll be honest with you, Mudge, I was expecting Kier to make a better stab at it than this shower of s***. Sing it. Things can only get worse...

    With Rishi, this rubbish came out once the lad had realised he'd failed miserably and wanted something he could pin as a last ditch "legacy" The man that banned fags.

    Kier is off on this puritanical idiocy straight off the bat.

    He had a chance to prove Labour might not be as bad as you think, but instead we got all the worst prod nosed puritanism we feared.

    LOLz at the CAMRAs that cheered this shower into office, Don't think your Corbyn micropub is safe from Kier.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's Keir not Kier you nincompoop.

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    2. Easily confused. The well-known construction company is "Kier Group".

      Delete
    3. It's Keith.

      Delete
  4. Public houses have had their day. Most people have better things to do than frequent them. If drink must be consumed it can be done at home thus avoiding the saddos,bores and the dreaded "seekers of conversation" that one is in danger of encountering in public houses.

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  5. The same people who want to legalize hard drugs want to ban tobacco and alcohol. What rank hypocrisy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Are we talking about the LibDems here?

      Delete
    2. I'd observe, from popping into Manchester city centre a couple of days a week, that cannabis has effectively been decriminalized by the police choosing not to police it.

      Delete
    3. I am in favour of legalisation of Cannabis as it is a soft drug.
      Oscar

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    4. Is that one of them high status opinions that collapse under any scrutiny, Oscar lad, so must be protected?

      Anyone that has visited even a small set of European cities will notice the difference between high trust and low trust societies. Low trust societies all smell of cannabis and have needles in the kids play area. Britain has allowed itself to become a dump by turning a blind eye to drug use, aggressive vagrants and low level criminals.

      If you want to live in a sh*t hole long enough to get stabbed, continue to vote for gormless liberals happy to pay the price of you getting mugged so they can feel smug.

      NIge will fix this.

      Delete
    5. @Oscar - not saying this is you, but supporting the legalisation of cannabis while at the same time being happy to ban tobacco is hypocrisy in the extreme.

      Delete
    6. I do think supporting the banning of tobacco while supporting legalisation of cannabis is hypocritical.
      Oscar

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    7. OSCAR: One of the many bad things about cannabis is that it absolutely stinks; it has a very unpleasant smell. Whilst the smell is probably the least bad of its bad effects, what would your opinion be, if cannabis were legal, of anyone reasonably complaining about the all pervasive smell? What other legal activities create such a disgusting smell?

      Delete
  6. And yet the government will talk about the need to support the NHS as it tackles a mental health emergency, without realising that years ago the mental health support, particularly for men, was available from the community pub.

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  7. Offices started cracking down on office workers having a glass or pint of lager/ale/stout during lunch and plenty conduct substance tests. In addition the ability to have an hour and a bit lunch break away from the desk is less common.

    Add increased living costs from utilities, housing, insurance etc and you have the perfect storm, soon the off trade will start to decline.
    Oscar

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    Replies
    1. Office workers should not be entering public houses and consuming intoxicating liquor during lunch breaks. A disgraceful practice which thankfully is becoming increasingly rare.
      Edward Peterson

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  8. Pubs are Far Right, anyway. Like this blog.

    We want inclusive vegan collective community hubs, not far right pubs.

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  9. Once more with feeling.
    Pubs aren't closing.Only shit badly-run pubs are closing.
    Good pubs thrive and always have done.
    Both my UK local and my old one here in Ireland where I'm temporarily sojourning have never been busier.
    One is food-orientated the other is wet-led.
    Like chalk and cheese.
    But the common denominator is that both serve good beer and both attract a mixed-aged crowd.
    The only pubs that close here are dives

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry, Prof, but this is a totally fallacious argument. Obviously within an overall declining market, it will in general be the less well-run places that close. But the reason pub beer sales have fallen by two-thirds since the 1970s is only marginally due to pubs being poorly run. Indeed the average pub is probably a lot better-run now than it was in 1977.

      Are you going to be suggesting that it is only the shit bank branches that close?

      Delete
    2. If you apply logic and an absence of sentimentality, you see the writing on the wall and instruct your accountant to wind up a business as and when the business model is no longer viable.

      It’s what I do, wind up with money in the business account my accountant can figure a legal tax free way of me taking. Don’t let operations burn through it in hope over expectation. You can always spin a new company up, clean, if you close ‘em clean and don’t get disqualified.

      Pub landlords tend to be a sentimental sort and continue long after it’s clear its going down the pan, pouring good money after bad and by the time the thing collapses, they are broke, owing the tax man and walk away with nowt.

      So yes, by the time pubs shut, they are usually a dump, but it usually takes a long enough decline to become a dump.

      As Kenny Rogers sang,
      You've got to know when to hold 'em
      Know when to fold 'em
      Know when to walk away
      And know when to run

      Delete

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