Can Britain still be Britain without its pubs?
Comment: Wow Floridave's a wanker.
Comment: A real shame. If you're new to an area, pubs are one of the best places to get to know people of the community. There are few places where it is easier to meet people (and if you don't know the language, they're also one of the best places to learn). Part of the problem is that governments don't have the same restraints about raising excise taxes as they do regular taxes.
As to pubs and smoking--though I think that there should be some room for smoking, I remember as a kid being afraid to go to the bathroom in a restaurant because they were always in the bar and the smoke was ridiculously thick. A smoking ban may force a shift in the clientele, but I don't think that it would force a decline.
Comment: What a shame!!! I lived in England for 2 years, longer ago than I care to mention, and pubs were the most English part of England. Wherever I went with my friends, we would visit a pub and have a pint or two. It would indeed be a shame for this venerable British institution to be destroyed.
Note: I was in England just as the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) made good headway, with the result that many local brews were available. Ahh, what a time to be a beer drinker...
Comment: It's not the beer you nitwit. It's the ridiculous non smoking policy. Smokers are staying home. There is no need for an anti-smoking law. In a democracy, businesses should be able to welcome smokers and advertise that fact. If the public wants to boycott smoking pubs, they will go out of business. Instead, the government has forced non smoking on everyone and many will go out of business.
Comment: Nonsense. With that logic the government shouldn't be allowed to enforce health issues, either. Smoking is the grandfather of ALL health issues. Smokers are hurting the people around them. Beer drinking doesn't do that. Keep the beer, lose the smokers. Smokers can go out in the parking lot with the other exhaust fumes.
Thank you. You know I'm right.
Floridave
Comment: I think the UK and the US have alot in common when it comes to bad debt, but our debts(UK) are quite big relative to the size of our economy.
Comment: I cant believe there aren't many village pubs in New Scotland? If old Scotland is anything to go by.
Comment: Bentli, "Crazy taxes!". I dont know much about UK economy, but I bet the country is not over ten trillion pounds in debt like the US. "Thats crazy debt!"
Comment: Try living in Nova Scotia, there's hardly a Village Pub to be found!!!! Lots of Root Beer though......
I've just moved here from Scotland and saw the smoking ban as hugely positive for pubs. I'd chose to eat there or take my kids without the fear of smoke.
Comment: For more than 30 years of my traveling to London, the pubs are my favorite thing there. The people, the beer and conversation make it a truly unique place in the world. Sadly, no bar here in the U.S. can begin to capture the essence of what makes a pub great. It's a shame that their increasingly socialist government is destroying the local pub. It's bad enough that they pay almost ten bucks a gallon for gas due to crazy taxes. crcrzcrcrazytaaaaa ta
taxes
Comment: And by the way, coffee and tea shops? I guarantee there's not a pub in the U.K. where one cannot already buy coffee or tea, but I hate to break the news that first of all anything containing huge amounts of caffeine are most certainly NOT healthier products, and also most villages already have establishments specializing in those beverages. Economics says that they will lose business as more places sell the same products. The solution is to crack down on investors who are making financial killings without working for their money. We need to make the attainment quick riches by means of futures trading illegal.
Comment: I ll drink to that.
Wait I dont drink do you have Root Beer. No damn it.
Wait maybe I will light up a smoke.
No wait I dont smoke.HHHHMMMMMM
Comment: I ll drink to that.
Wait I dont drink do you have Root Beer. No damn it.
Comment: I ll drink to that.
Wait I dont drink do you have Root Beer. No damn it.
Comment: This news breaks my heart. Some of my favorite memories of England are the hours spent in pubs, both for the company to be found there and also for the feeling of being tied to the past history of my paople, my disappearing culture. But it's also the buildings trhat matter. These sometimes ancient structures were built to be nothing but pubs, and have served faithfully in that capacity for, in some cases, a thousand years. It seems that, as western culture is bending over backwards to make sure everybody else's culture is honored, respected and preserved, ours is the only one truly in imminent danger of extinction.
Comment: Enter Your Comment
Comment: This news breaks my heart. Some of my favorite memories of England are the hours spent in pubs, both for the company to be found there and also for the feeling of being tied to the past history of my paople, my disappearing culture. But it's also the buildings trhat matter. These sometimes ancient structures were built to be nothing but pubs, and have served faithfully in that capacity for, in some cases, a thousand years. It seems that, as western culture is bending over backwards to make sure everybody else's culture is honored, respected and preserved, ours is the only one truly in imminent danger of extinction.
Comment: Well, score one for the anti-smoking crowd. What is the world coming to when a person can't even sit down for a beer and a smoke, without some yahoo interfering?
Fact: Many, if not most, people who drink also smoke. And for those that don't, let's just say that if you're in a bar, you aren't exactly a model for health consciousness in the first place.
Where will it end? These health Nazis have had their way for too long.
Comment: Smoking is a thing of the past. If you smoke in public now you are a self centered tool that doesn't deserve a seat in a restaurant and should be denied a low rate on healthcare. Smoking kills, and costs non-smokers a fortune. You expect the government to make sure your restaurant obeys health standards, but you think you should be able to exhale used smoke on other patrons? That's how pigs think, dumbass.
Comment: Pathetic and sad. It's getting so it is no longer any fun to just be a human and lead your life. One has to make sure they live "right, healthy and safe" from cradle to grave. Borrring! Good way to become a hermit.
Comment: Where's Bob Geldof and Bono when you need them? It sounds like it's time for Pub-Aid!
Comment: Whee's Bob Geldof and Bono when they need them? It sounds like it's time for Pub-Aid!
Comment: £3 is actually $6, not $5. And it is sad. Ive seen the decrease and the impact left and right. Its no surprise this is happening, esp. when I once paid $12 (£6) for a simple glass of wine. The publican even said "Its 6 im afraid". My sister worked at that pub; which has seen 3 different owners in a 6 month period. Excessive managerial turnover coupled with the credit crunch and the smoking ban has altered the demand to visit the pub frequently. Its depressing
Comment: Its a sad day when pubs of yesteryear are shutting their doors with such great frequency. Also, while tea and coffee are fine they are no replacement for a local pub where you can enjoy a pint of brew and the laughter, stories, and lies of friends and new aquaintences. It also has health values to impart.
Comment: "Why not coffee and tea shops? Healthier products. Also communitarian in nature." Because they're not bloody pubs, you blithering idiot. They're coffee and tea shops. And 3 pounds a pint??? What sort of bloody nonsense is that? I left there five years ago, and I'm still in the process of becoming a citizen. When I do, in about a year, I shall burn my British passport in protest at the galloping death of England. Evidently, the idiot socialists and the cretinous liberals have succeeded in doing their worst there, and there's nothing at all left of the country I knew in my childhood. I'm glad I left when I did.
Comment: "Why not coffee and tea shops? Healthier products. Also communitarian in nature." Because they're not bloody pubs, you blithering idiot. They're coffee and tea shops. And 6 pounds a pint??? What sort of bloody nonsense is that? I left there five years ago, and I'm still in the process of becoming a citizen. When I do, in about a year, I shall burn my British passport in protest. Evidently, the idiot socialists and the cretinous liberals have succeeded in doing their worst there, and there's nothing at all left of the country I knew in my childhood. I'm glad I left when I did.
Comment: £3 is actually $6, not $5. And it is sad. Ive seen the decrease and the impact left and right. Its no surprise this is happening, when I once paid $12 (£6) for a simple glass of wine. The publican even said "its 6, im afraid" My sister works at a pub which has seen 3 different owners in a 6 month period. Excessive managerial turnover coupled with the credit crunch and the smoking ban has altered the demand to visit the pub frequently. Its depressing
Comment: It's even more expensive in Ireland-high prices(and promised higher with d new budget) don't seem to hurt drinker habits from as much as i can tell on a friday night! generall almost $6 (E4.20)just for a short of rum!
Comment: We at Macclesfield Pubwatch have started a petition Save Our Pubs, we are getting the pubs of macclesfield to say No we have had enough ,we need the smoking ban reversed in pubs giving the licencee the option and the other thing is the flooding of the market by the cheap alcohol thrown out by the supermarkets. We will be sending our petition to Nicholas Winterton. We need every pub in England to sign one of their own
Comment: This is sad indeed. Nothing says British like a pub. I've always wanted to visit one.
Comment: I visited England about 12 years ago and my fondest memories are of the pubs and sometimes staying in rooms above them. My hustband and I traded t-shirts and rocks(!) for stuff like pub towels and coasters with the owners. The atmosphere was absolutely medievil and it was wonderful. What a shame.
Comment: Is the Dove Pub still alive up in Hammersmith? I think it's supposed to be 500 years old.
Comment: Why not coffee and tea shops? Healthier products. Also communitarian in nature.
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