• The post you are reporting:
   
  With all the fairly grim things on the political agenda these days it surprised me to see that the Conservative Party has launched a campaign to save the Great British Pub. Its a peripheral thing surely in these dire days of dire economics, where families havent got enough spare cash in their pockets to even consider for a moment the idea of going to the pub. However launch this campaign they have, and who would argue with the motives...its a worthy cause after all and sure to be a vote winner.
  
  I feel sure David Cameron is a regular down at his local spit and sawdust Dog and Duck. You can bet on it. That notion is as safe as banking shares !
  
  The Conservatives are calling on the government to cut taxes on beer and lager in an effort to get the oul traditional drinkers back into the pub. They would balance this by raising taxes on popular drinks, or perhaps I should rephrase that...drinks popular with young people, however young people are the people really going to the pubs these days.So not sure how welcome the shift would be.
  
  However something needs to be done to stem the tide of closures. The figures are shocking...
  39 Pubs closed per week in the tail end of 2008.
  1,973 pubs shut overall in 2008 getting worse as the recession worsened. Thats up 40% on the previous year. However the closure rate was still alarming even before the recession.
  
  Perhaps the market has just moved away now from the traditional pub. Times change, new ideas take hold, new flavours of the month in commercial terms move into the high st. Despite the high profile coverage active community pubs get on mass media shows like East Enders and Emmerdale..the crowds are still drifting away.

Report Post

Your Name

Reason