The Pub Curmudgeon

Well, it's only a modest proposal, and falls far short of the complete repeal of the public smoking ban which I would advocate. But anyt...

I can’t help thinking that this article entitled Cask Ale Bouncing Back represents a large dose of special pleading. The overall market for...

On occasions, such as family social gatherings, I have tried canned versions of premium beers such as Abbot Ale. However, compared with bott...

Yum, yet another post about food! In many ways I’m a staunch defender of the traditions of the English public house, but I would not lif...

While we are often told that food has been the saviour of the pub trade, I am more and more coming to believe that it has ruined it. The ori...

Writing in the Daily Mail , Richard Littlejohn pulls no punches in this scathing attack on the government's plans to reduce the drink-d...

So the much-vaunted advance of pub food has ground to a shuddering halt . This is hardly surprising, really, considering the overall recessi...

According to today's Daily Mail , the government are set on reducing the drink-drive limit. This will mean the end of the country pub an...

I was thinking the other day how I drink markedly more at home and less in pubs than I did ten or twenty years ago, something that must be r...

The licensed trade were widely criticised for making overly pessimistic forecasts about the effect of the smoking ban. However, new figures ...

I don't always see eye-to-eye with Simon Heffer, as he is basically a conservative while I would regard myself as more of a libertarian,...

What a disgusting decision by Alastair Darling, to raise beer duty by a punitive 4p a pint. This will do nothing to reduce problem drinking,...

Yesterday I had a trip out to Chester, and was most encouraged to come across three pubs with unequivocal "no children" signs on t...

Went in what I've always considered to be a fairly decent traditional pub today, albeit one that because of its remote rural location ha...

Excellent article here from Chris Maclean. I have a real affection for traditional pubs. Pubs that understand their origins. Pubs that unde...