On 21/06/15 12:04, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) pretended :
More likely those who attempted to do so closed down. Most who liked pubs
and the culture don't want screaming kids around.

I've never been a serious drinker, but I've always enjoyed a pint or
two. I never drink at home, I would never dream of buying a few tins or
bottles in, its just not the same - not the same drink, not the same
atmosphere.

I think the closedown of pubs began before the smoking ban, the ban just
seemed to add to it. In part it was brewaries wanting too big a profit
from their pubs.

Two things trashed pubs in the country - clamping down on drink driving
and the smoking ban.


I do like to see well behaved families in pubs, I don't like to see kids
running riot in them screaming - but that is down to the parents and
parents don't see control of their kids as any sort of priority these
days, unfortunately.

I don't feel the urge to vape, where smoking is banned, but for those
who want to it should be encouraged in moderation. The one good thing to
come out of this, is that most pubs now cater for food and some of them
quite good meals.


For once I can agree with you, but unfortunately it was the profit on
alcohol that had the pubs there in the first place.

But pub closures are mot a new thing: at one place I lived my landlord
then was born around 1910 or so, and he pointed to the fields and said
'there were 3 churches, five pubs and several hundred houses here when I
were a boy' today there are a few scattered houses none of which are
anything to do with agriculture, and the rest are derelict or ploughed in.

That was the impact of mechanisation on farming in the 20th century.

Likewise today more people socialise by twitter and other internet
things, than by chatting at the pub, home entertainment killed cinemas
largely, the microwave killed the pub snack, and changing attitudes to
smoking and drinking sounded the death knell.

Throw in huge amounts of populations on the move who have little sense
of community either, and there is as much reason for pubs to exist today
as - say - Bradford.


Of course the tendency ios to try and stop the changes because change
itself is tough on those who are involved, but you cant hold back the
tide of the future.

Pubs simply don't need to exist anymore, and that's why they are closing.


--
New Socialism consists essentially in being seen to have your heart in
the right place whilst your head is in the clouds and your hand is in
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