The Pub Curmudgeon

Excellent article in today's Sunday Times by Simon Jenkins. Voltaire and John Stuart Mill insisted there should be an ideological chas...

In the past week an academic study into drinking levels has received much media exposure . The highlighted a supposedly frightening level of...

It’s good to see at least one member of the medical profession inhabiting the real world. Professor John Ashton, Chief Medical Officer for C...

Alcohol consumption in Britain has fallen for the second successive year and is now lower than it was five years ago. Clearly the recent li...

The licensed trade seems to be under attack from all sides at the moment, the latest being a scheme to put undercover cops in pubs to catch...

I can’t say I have much time for style bars, but it had always been assumed that their trade would withstand the smoking ban better than tha...

After originally puffing the smoking ban to high heaven, it’s good to see reality breaking out in October’s issue of What’s Brewing : Sm...

The recent lack of postings is explained by the fact that I have just come back from a holiday in Northern Ireland . Despite its reputation ...

The Publican newspaper was widely criticised for seeing the smoking ban as an opportunity for pubs rather than a threat. But its contributo...

I’ve written before in praise of York, and Shrewsbury deserves praise too. Although on a smaller scale than York it’s a very atmospheric his...

I’ve written to What’s Brewing myself on the subject before without my letter being published, so it was good to see the following appear i...

It's been widely reported that the removal of tobacco smoke from pubs has uncovered a variety of unpleasant aromas such as sweat, stale ...

I was heartened today when I was sitting in the main lounge area of a pub and a couple came in with a small boy about four years old. The ...

If anyone was still in a state of denial over the fact that the smoking ban is the thin end of the wedge of the campaign against alcohol, se...

There have been a number of opinion polls such as this one suggesting that people are more likely to visit pubs following the smoking ban. ...