Smoking, drinking and the buying of pubs

Had a long discussion yesterday evening – fuelled by beer and whisky – with neighbours in the village about The Fleece, which is sadly lacking a tenant at present. Now this isn’t an idle conversation – the local pub is an important institution and some residents are seriously considering taking on the tenancy. The pubco are keen to talk with us and there are maybe a dozen or so villagers who might be up for the project.

The first community run pub was the Old Crown at Hesket Newmarket in Cumbria and there is a growing interest in such initiatives (to the point where politicians are clambering onto the bandwagon). Here in Cullingworth there’s a little more thinking to be done yet (probably with a little less drinking involved) and I guess that there are big differences between pubs and between communities.

However, none of these initiatives and the apparent government support changes the fundamental truth about the pub trade. Over the past ten years or so, the licensed trade has been subjected to the most comprehensive and deliberate attack from the agents of the state. It’s not just the smoking ban where Labour reneged on their 1997 election promise, nor the blaming of pubs for binge drinking - it is the indulgence of the new prohibitionists – men like Ian Gilmore (President of the Royal College of Physicians and militant prohibitionist) and pseudo-charities like Alcohol Concern – that is driving an anti-pleasure agenda.

And when I see Labour MPs getting all weepy over the demise of pubs, I want to scream at them – “It’s your fault, you stupid, opportunistic twit.” Putting up £4 million for community owned pubs is welcome but set against the billions the Labour government is taking in taxes from the business and the damage done by Labour’s smoking ban it is a drop in the ocean.

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