Pages

Events of the 1950's caused the current decline in pubs (Not the smoking ban)

Apparently 68 pubs have closed in Lancashire in the past six weeks.

Tony Halstead from the Morning Advertiser thinks he has the answer:
Northern correspondent for Publican Magazine’s Morning Advertiser, Tony Halstead, from Burnley, said the decline reflected a change in society.
He said: “The areas worst hit are those that historically had a lot of heavy industry. “Places like Lancashire, where there were lots of cotton mills, had a pub on every corner, and men would come out of the mills and factories and into the pubs.
I've heard many of excuses to ignore the smoking ban so far, but the decline of the Lancashire cotton industry has to be the most far fetched yet.

Society certainly has changed a lot since those days, many times. The pub scene has changed a lot too, but it wasn't until 2007 that the licenced trade began to take a nose dive. Some people just refuse to see the blindingly obvious. Maybe because the trade totally collaborated with the government on the smoking ban and now they are beginning to see the error of that choice.

Brewery prices also get a mention, and one landlord blames the weather, not because smokers don't want to stand outside in the rain but because apparently, nobody wants to leave their house in the wet weather.

At least the ban gets one fleeting mention in the article and some of the commenters do pick up on it.
It,s a crying shame that Landlords were not given the option of being a "smoking " pub.
That's where the most damage has come from and at a huge cost to everyone.
 Not everyone is buying it though:
If pubs were closing because of the smoking ban how come more coffee shops have been opening since the smoking ban came in?
Maybe because coffee shops are not pubs and don't cater for the same people? And if more coffee shops are opening, regardless of the easy availability of cheap supermarket coffee, maybe it isn't the supermarkets who are killing pubs either?

8 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Coffee shops are just McDonalds for the middle class.

Leg-iron said...

Coffee shops are places you go for one coffee and then leave. Not places you go to for the whole evening.

Incidentally, I don't go to those any more either. Sure, I could manage without smoking for the duration of one coffee, and I wouldn't object to doing that.

I object to being told I have to do it or the owners of the premises will be fined into bankruptcy. Seems to me that these days, going to a coffee shop is a form of giving in to terrorism.

So I bought an espresso machine...

Leg-iron said...

Coffee shops are places you go for one coffee and then leave. Not places you go to for the whole evening.

Incidentally, I don't go to those any more either. Sure, I could manage without smoking for the duration of one coffee, and I wouldn't object to doing that.

I object to being told I have to do it or the owners of the premises will be fined into bankruptcy. Seems to me that these days, going to a coffee shop is a form of giving in to terrorism.

So I bought an espresso machine...

Woodsy42 said...

"
So I bought an espresso machine... "

I wouldn't worry, they will no doubt soon get around to upping the price of the coffee to help nudge you off your caffein addiction. They just need to clear up cigs, booze, salt, sugar and fast food first.

Incidentally if you go cross border shopping do yourself a favour and buy some coffee in a french supermarket.

Anonymous said...

My local paper has had a few articles that have been throwing that line in - even if it is a somewhat weak connection to the story. I guess that a lie oft repeated becomes the truth eh!

Bucko said...

Henry - Mmm, McDonalds *slobber*

Leg-Iron - An espresso machine? So the circle is now complete. Home grown bacci, home brewed beer and now home brewed espresso. Public enemy no 1

MIB - Sure does. You don't even have to repeat it many times these days

Leg-iron said...

It's the machine that takes ground coffee, not the ones that need special cartridges. I have a manually-operated coffee grinder, but have yet to grow my own coffee... I bet that won't be easy!

Robert the Biker said...

It should also be noted that most coffee shops have outdoor seatingwith some sort of cover. Those that do not must do without my custom as Herself is partial to a gasper.