Liked this so much that crossposted it from Fido the Dog at the
Lone VoiceNew Labour - Destroying our pub heritage.
First up we have this
http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news.ma/article/80878Where the Morning Advertiser a pub trade magazine says that the number of pubs is in decline, due to taxes, paperwork and duties from the government.
They had this to say on the poor situation facing the nations publicans:
“The pub market embodies everything you could hope a successful business to be — it is competitive, innovative and delivers a great experience to British public in pubs up and down the country,” said ALMR chief executive Nick Bish. “But its very future is now being threatened.
“What we have now is a perfect storm. On one side the industry is being hit by the credit crunch, just as everyone else is. There is little we can expect or do in this area. But on the other side it is being hit by the culmination of 11 years of unwanted and unwarranted attention from its own Government.
“Our figures provide the clearest evidence yet that the market is being restrained by a sea of red tape, whilst being hit with alcohol duty rises and pestered by unnecessary Government interference.
“Pubs are part of our way of life; a uniquely British institution. They make a hugely positive social and economic contribution to the nation. More needs to be done to remove the barriers on growth imposed on the sector by Whitehall. Our industry is willing but not able to grow.
“It’s time the Government sits up and listens to licensees. If adopted, our Pub Manifesto proposals would create an environment where pub and bar entrepreneurs can really prosper.”
I would also add that I have seen a lot of the pointless expenses at first hand, here in my home city we have some bizarre rules with regards glasses.
During the day one can stop off and have a drink in a proper glass, however come the evening and certain pubs at the top end of the city near the train station switch to polycarb glasses. Unless you choose wine or spirits as your tipple of choice in which case you still get a tradition glass to drink from, also should you like to drink from the bottle as many do then you still can.
Now note here that it is the pint glass that is seen as the danger, the weapon to be used by the so called "feral youth" and yet we are allowed such dangerous weapons during the day? How strange, a knee jerk reaction to binge drinking rather than promote responsible drinking the majority are punished for the actions of the few.
But you can not take the bottle outside of one of these polycarb pubs if you fancy a quick intake of lung cancer. Some places stop customers taking out even the polycarb glasses whilst others seem to have no idea if that is okay or not.
A quick pop to another pub finds that customers inside can still drink from a proper glass like a grown up, but you need a polycarb if going outside.
After all rules are rules, 'elf n safety Gov...
Walk a bit further outside this polycarb pc zone of hell and normality resumes. A pub a few hundred yards further away had customers outside smoking and holding the evil glass glasses.
Now all these polycarb and normal glasses have to be paid for and its another expense on the retailers, costs then passed onto the drinker.
Still that's what happens when the socialist brothers and sisters get involved...
Aside from the tax and state fuckwittery that under Labour that has buried pub owners/managers with a mountain of paperwork and reduced profits, there is another cost and one that is started very slowly to be noticed - the cost to our culture.
Pubs used to be the heart of a town, city or village yet look around our towns today. More and more of them are closing down and where pubs are opening we are seeing ever more of them as part of corporate chains.
Every JD Wetherspoon is almost the same, minor differences but you could transport one from London and one from Aberdeen and the customers would hardly notice the difference.
If the small pub owner is not support, given some form of help then we will have a desert on the high street filled only with corporate chains and nite-clubs selling major brand name drinks only & designed to part the chav from his fortnightly benefits as fast as possible.
Now nite-clubs have a place - hell sounds like a good spot - but for social interaction other than a fight or random sexual encounter they fail.
The pub is a meeting place, a place of social events a bond to the local community and for all their talk of communities Labour fail to see the pub in any other aspect than that of "cash cow".
Each time a "local" closes the nation is that bit poorer as a result, the Communities minister Sadiq Khan talks of "Ensuring social cohesion" but talk is cheap and action costs money. I am actually amazed when one considers the money they make through the assorted taxes that Labour have not worked this out yet, after all its only been eleven years in power.
We have heard much of the "binge drinking culture" and in part there has always been an aspect of that to our culture, yet previous generations survived the odd binge weekend(or longer) and learned their drinking habits down local boozers.
Much the same can be said of social interaction, young people learn from their peers and get to meet new people outside of their small social circle of people their own age.
There loss will make the perceived problem of binge drinkers a lot worse as the youth will have no pub to go to at the age of 18(or a bit younger in many cases) and learn from their peers. The supermarkets and corner shops will sell booze with little care as to the results and the costs to society as a whole will be huge.
Add to that the loss of meeting places, many a back room is opened for clubs and suchlike, darts teams, snooker teams, chess clubs, even the old chaps playing domino's in the corner find they have no place to go.
Oh and just look at the money raised through raffles, pub quizes and such like for charities/local causes. Another thing that vanishes with the pub.
I would also add that I picked up my knowledge of darts, snooker, even chess and domino's down at the local with folk I would most likely have never met or spoken to in any other place.
Last point is that of real ales, largers, porters, ciders etc which this nation produces in large amounts, the less pubs we have the more difficult it gets for the smaller brands to edge their way in and we all lose out as a result.
Labour will leave this land a much much socially poorer nation than they found it, if all we have are the uber-chains we will have lost the clubs, skills and traditions passed down through generations.
