Moves to stop 'vertical drinking'

[TinTrump]

I welcomed the relaxation of opening hours, extended licences etc. The frustrating thing is that pubs are not supposed to serve people who are drunk. My local in Brum, with 12 real ales, used to be a great place (I put in 20 years service) but went down hill after a change of management. Local competition, including the opening of a Weatherspoons nearby, further reduced trade and meant that they'd accept drunks coming in after other places had shut and would continue to serve them. So the atmosphere deterioates, decent patrons, esp. women, who aren't big drinkers are driven away and the place begins to become a hole.

Enforce the law that exists; don't serve drunk people. Let me have my 6 pints of ale over a long session and walk home at 2am without disturbing anybody.

[Platypus]

The frustrating thing is that pubs are not supposed to serve people who are drunk...Enforce the law that exists; don't serve drunk people.

Very well said - people forget that there are already laws in place to deal with this.

[Sysman]

My local in Brum, with 12 real ales, used to be a great place (I put in 20 years service) but went down hill after a change of management. Local competition, including the opening of a Weatherspoons nearby, further reduced trade and meant that they'd accept drunks coming in after other places had shut and would continue to serve them. So the atmosphere deterioates, decent patrons, esp. women, who aren't big drinkers are driven away and the place begins to become a hole.

Enforce the law that exists; don't serve drunk people. Let me have my 6 pints of ale over a long session and walk home at 2am without disturbing anybody.

That happened in my local nearly 20 years ago. A lovely country pub which did excellent food had a change of management and went downhill in a similar way. In came the strong beers and microwave food and the couples and women stopped coming.

[HairyArsedBloke]

When I first came back to the UK in 2004, I was chating to an old boy in a pub that was closing down. He blamed much on the problems on the way that some pubs go for the youngsters rather than all ages, “There is nobody to teach them how to drink and behave themselves. They need the old people to tell them they are being stupid and to grow up”. I think he was right.

All the laws on standing up, sitting down, where and when bars open, price, size of glass, or even the colour of the bogs is never going to fix the problem of dickheads.

[RichardCranium]

pubs go for the youngsters rather than all ages, “There is nobody to teach them how to drink and behave themselves. They need the old people to tell them they are being stupid and to grow up”. I think he was right.

So do I.

the problem of dickheads.

Don't blame me. I do my drinking at home. I'm too fraidy to go out to drinking establishments of an evening.

[d000hg]

It is not the pubs fault, nor is it my fault.
It is the fault of the individual concerned and a failing of whoever you would like to blame for the lack of proper policing of tese kinds of people.

This is another example of the nanny state interfering in our private freedoms.
Instead of a sweeping catc all policy the "system" should be targetting those who abuse it.
It is about time people were made responsible for their own actions and punished accordingly.

Well, my ideal situation is that drinking laws are relaxed AND we didn't have a culture which meant pubs and streets are awash (literally at times) with drunken chavs on a weekend. But I don't know how that can be achieved and if we have to choose one, I'll pick the one which makes me feel safe to walk home through the town-centre and which means I don't find someone has pissed against my front door.

It's not ideal. But to me it's the better option... I mean I live in a pretty civilised town but even here it's a nightmare Saturday night. Police everywhere to break up fights, people shouting and singing you can hear from several streets away.

[norrahe]

Pubs just aren't the same.

It's all cut price, pile em high, bring em cheap.

What's wrong with decent ale and good pub grub

[HairyArsedBloke]

What's wrong with decent ale and good pub grub

Nothing, except that it is far more profitable to charge a premium price to youngsters who you can encorage to drink more, will be happy with crap over priced food and the only extra you have to provide is really loud music.

With that, I'm off for some ale (Young's I think tonight) and what is more, I'm going to stand up.

[BoredBloke]

Pubs just aren't the same.

It's all cut price, pile em high, bring em cheap.

What's wrong with decent ale and good pub grub

The margins on pubs are pretty small which is why so many are closing. It used to be the case that a pub with a good reputation for food made more from the food side of their business than it did from the beer. In the village I live in there were a few pubs who did really good food. There isn't one now. The breweries latched onto the food side but outsorced much of it. So now it microwaved meals charged out at restraunt prices. People don't eat there so a big earner goes. All that is left is to pile the pub with kids drinking lager. Friends of my mum and dad owned a pub in the sticks for a few years. They focussed on the food and spirts drinkers - but they had a free house and could do what they wanted