A Contribution to Pub Week

The Pub is a rapidly declining tradition.  There can barely be a town in the country that has not lost some, or all, of its Pubs.  And, this is happening at a time when Nanny State is becoming increasingly concerned at the level of alcohol consumption.  To my simple mind, the correlation between the decline in Pubs and the increased concern over drinking can only mean that the Pub carries out a regulatory function and when this is removed people resort to buying cheap alcohol from the Super-markets and getting totally wasted in the privacy of their homes.

In part this is due to over pricing by the Breweries and Pub Landlords, and in part by over-taxing the Nanny State to pay for the medical problems brought on by drink

Now I do not expect them to get back to prices like this, even I cannot recall such prices; a pint of Bitter when I first started frequenting Pubs was just over a shilling (about 5 & 1/2 pence in today's money) and relatively weak, probably under 3% - And, if I'm frankly honest, not very well kept more often than not.