Labour's smoking ban killed the British pub

[AtW]

Bollox.

[Mich the Tester]

Nobody wants to sit in the pub these days listening to some pish stained half cut life long failure dribbling tulipe about what he would do if he were in charge of the country. People would rather have twitter on the ipad, reading the drivel produced by thousands of pish stained half cut life long failures dribbling tulipe about what they would do if they were in charge of the country.

ftfy

[Gittins Gal]

And people that go into pubs for the social aspect are usually dull fookers like yourself who cant build up any friendships where booze is not involved, my local is filled with them, once you know the barman's name it is time to get out and get a life

As it happens, my local pub is largely used by professionals and successful business people.

Hardly people who can't maintain relationships without alcohol.

Don't assume that you can compare the foetid little slum in Glasgow from which you hail to the rest of the country.

[BoredBloke]

I don't think the smoking ban helped, but as the number of people who smoke is only 1 in 5, I fail to see how making things a little more difficult for this minority has killed the pub trade. The single biggest thing to have killed off the pub trade is the cheap alcohol sold by supermarkets and the way people pre load their drinks before going out. Back inthe day, if we were going to go out for a piss up, you'd do a few pubs, starting early and end up in town in a club. This meant that the pubs all had a busy period in the evening. It wasn't uncommon for your local pub to suddenly empty of kids heading into town at 10pm. Compare that with what my daughter and her mates do. They go to a house to get ready, which involves getting tanked up. Then they head into town and hit the town centre pubs, often heading out at the time when most local pubs have closed for the night. They completely miss out the local pubs. Its the removal of this huge chunk of customers that's killed the trade, not making 1 in 5 people stand outside for a bit while they have a smoke.

The only way to reverse the situation would be to recognise that the local pub is an asset the the community and tax it accordingly. I'd also make it illegal for people under 21 to buy alcohol in supermarkets and the like while keeping the drinking age for pubs at 18. This would reduce (not stop though) the sale of booze to very young kids to drink on the street and encourage younger people to actually use their local pub.

[OwlHoot]

The single biggest thing to have killed off the pub trade is the cheap alcohol sold by supermarkets and the way people pre load their drinks before going out. ...

WHS

Plus on a saturday night most young people would rather pay a trifle for an E and go straight to a club.

[TestMangler]

Nobody wants to sit in the pub these days listening to some pish stained half cut life long failure dribbling tulipe about what he would do if he were in charge of the country.

It's a bit unfair to blame the decline of the pub on MF, is it not ?

[Mich the Tester]

The only way to reverse the situation would be to recognise that the local pub is an asset the the community and tax it accordingly.

This. I dont agree with all you said, but this should be recognised. Here in NL there's a similar problem (local pubs closing, especially in villages), certainly not helped by the smoking ban but that probably isn't the whole story. Part of the problem is that many people get home from work later in the evenings as so many people have mobile jobs nowadays. Part of it is that village pubs are often tulipe and people would rather drinks at the village or small town sports clubs where the booze is cheaper due to tax arrangements for non-profit organisations and where they feel welcome with their kids.

The reaction has been a succesful campaign by pub owners to force sports clubs to close their bars at 11pm in the hope the members will then go to the pub. This has had one effect; lower revenues for sports clubs. The same people who frequent the sports clubs don't want to go to tulip pubs. The tulip pubs won't invest in redecorating and often won't try to accomodate changing social patterns by providing good food choices (just the usual deep fried processed snacks in most pubs), and many can't invest because they haven't got any money because their business has been going to the dogs for years, so you get a downward spiral. Some just don´t have the skill to make their pubs more attractive; after a pub's been in a family in a little village for generations there cn be a resistance to change on the part of the owners AND the regulars (who are dying out) that stifles any hope of improvement.

The most logical answer would be to reduce the tax on the booze in pubs so they can be competitive again, but of course that would go against the idea of government ' promoting health' (in other words, patronising us all) and of course the government is desperate for money and can't see that just raising all sorts of taxes is probably counterproductive for the treasury at the moment.

[MyUserName]

It's a bit unfair to blame the decline of the pub on MF, is it not ?

Something not MF's fault .... sorry I am not following you?
Not your fault obviously, it is MF's.

[VectraMan]

Separate smoking rooms would have meant non-smokers being pressured to go in anyway to be with their mates, as would the pub staff. Same applies to going outside, but a) it's outside, and b) it's cold.

Don't forget the attitude to drink driving has also hurt the pub trade, but I don't think anybody would argue that's bad. I agree with the idea that pubs should be recognised as important, and given a big tax break. If the government wants to cut alcohol use, then encouraging people to drink in responsibly run pubs rather than with cheap supermarket booze at home has got to be a good thing.

I wonder if the next generation will grow up seeing alcohol in the same way that we now see smoking.

[Gittins Gal]

I wonder if the next generation will grow up seeing alcohol in the same way that we now see smoking.

Well that's certainly the way central control want it. Smoking was the thin end of the wedge.

Promoting healthy living is one thing but the utopian vision that some of these health quangocrats wish to impose on us is leading us down a one way street to eugenics.

Yes, we should eat healthily and get a bit of exercise but maybe we should enjoy a few of the things that are bad for us from time to time. Because it's good for the soul.