tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post1565422675055166532..comments2024-03-28T17:11:52.333+00:00Comments on The Pub Curmudgeon: Taste the differenceCurmudgeonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02558747878308766840noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-41941355963571033822011-09-24T09:29:02.715+01:002011-09-24T09:29:02.715+01:00Sorry PC if this should'nt be posted. Its from...Sorry PC if this should'nt be posted. Its from a local Devon paper.<br />'MPs have called for the appointment of a “Pub Tsar” to halt the “alarming rate” of pub closures which have blighted many rural Westcountry communities.<br /><br />An estimated 14 pubs in the UK close each week, with many blaming the closures on the stranglehold large pub companies have on landlords.<br />Although numbers have tumbled since the peak of the crisis, when 52 pubs were lost each week, time was called permanently at 49 South West pubs in the first six months of this year.<br /><br />A Parliamentary group set up to resolve “deep-seated problems” within the industry has finally lost patience with the “glacial pace” of reform.<br /><br />The Business, Innovation and Skills Committee has told the Government to appoint an adjudicator with powers of sanction “as a matter of urgency”.<br /><br />The Campaign For Real Ale (Camra) has welcomed the committee’s scathing report, which criticised the pub industry’s “half-hearted” efforts to regulate itself.<br /><br />Camra chief executive Mike Benner said twice as many “tied” pubs were shutting as “free” houses and warned that only a statutory code backed by a powerful adjudicator could halt the decline.<br /><br />He added: “Too many of the UK’s pubs are blighted by the actions of the large pub companies whose business model has been so reliant on exploiting a position of power to the cost of pub licensees, communities and the consumer.”<br /><br />Some pub landlords claim they are being put out of business by the so-called pubcos, from whom they lease the buildings.<br /><br />These companies dictate which drinks the pubs sell, set the price at which the pubs buy those drinks and can push through rent increases at short notice.<br /><br />Terry Burrows, CAMRA secretary to the North Devon branch, said some of the pubcos were “hatchet men” who needed “reining in” with new laws.<br /><br />Mr Burrows said landlords operating under large pub companies often faced Big-Brother-style scrutiny with centralised electronic tills.<br /><br />“A pub is very much part of the local community and if it closes down the village is very much the worse for it,” he added.<br /><br />“We have got to look at sustainable communities and a lot of people are now coming at it from that angle.”<br /><br />Adrian Bailey, MP for West Bromwich West and chairman of the committee, said: “We fully realise the implications of our recommendations and we have not come to this decision lightly, but we see no other alternative for an industry which has failed to put its own house in order. “<br /><br />The British Beer and Pubs Association (BBPA), which and was described as “impotent” in the report, said that it was “deeply disappointed” with the conclusion.<br /><br />Brigid Simmonds, the BBPA’s chief executive, called for “less tax and less regulation, not more”.<br /><br />The GMB union said “sky high” rents charged to “tied” pub tenants had driven the price of a pint of lager up by an extra 80p.<br /><br />Enterprise Inns, which runs a number of South West pubs, said its evidence showed that the industry code of practice was effective.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-64122233556867069242011-09-23T22:05:31.293+01:002011-09-23T22:05:31.293+01:00Of course,way back then, beer cost 5 cents(America...Of course,way back then, beer cost 5 cents(American) a glass and the ladies would sit together at tables and drink stuff like Elderberry wine.<br /><br />I can remember being given the money to get pack of cigarettes for my Dad and was never refused service.<br /><br />Gary K.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-28198501131846795582011-09-23T21:55:09.991+01:002011-09-23T21:55:09.991+01:00"Pub food was more in its infancy"
Yur ..."Pub food was more in its infancy"<br /><br />Yur joking?<br /><br />Before your time; but, bars/taverns/beer-halls in small town America used to(40-50 years ago) provide all manner of free food for their customers.<br /><br />I can remember:<br />hard boiled eggs<br />real cheese and bread<br />pickled eggs and pork hocks<br />platters of beef and ham<br />apples and tomatoes<br />fried fish caught locally<br />cakes and pastry for the ladies<br />candy for the kids<br /><br />But; then,especially on the week-ends, these places were the social centers of the rural areas.<br /><br />Gary K.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-4841528506756959292011-09-23T21:06:58.061+01:002011-09-23T21:06:58.061+01:00Can't argue with you, PC. Pub menus are as rou...Can't argue with you, PC. Pub menus are as routine as they have ever been IME. You'll find gammon, steak pie, ham egg and chips, burger, chicken burger etc etc etc on every menu apart from lah-di-dah pubs which charge the earth. And even then, I've still seen such pubs describing their burgers differently, with a nice fonted menu ... it's just that it costs a tenner for the damn thing.<br /><br />The upside is that food is incredibly cheap now. Has to be I suppose, as few go for the beer anymore. ;)Dick Puddlecotehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01481866882188932892noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5623537812609722663.post-36709571840893806462011-09-23T19:36:16.431+01:002011-09-23T19:36:16.431+01:00Curmudgeon:
As posted on your other blog, Campaig...Curmudgeon:<br /><br />As posted on your other blog, Campaign for Real Pubs, my local, the Post Office Tavern, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol specialises in pizzas. In addition to this, The Victoria, about 10 minutes' walk away, also does them.Billnoreply@blogger.com