Has the Government Killed the British Pub?

If you cast your mind back to the dark ages of your past (if you are old enough that is) you may remember the good old British Pub. You know, it used to be the place where you drank with your mates Sunday to Thursday and where you partook in general conversations with people of the opposite sex each weekend.

Pubs were there for the working class of Britain to go to in order to chill out, meet their mates, avoid the wife (or in some cases husbands) smoke a few tabs and sink a few beers. They had great names like 'The Prince William of Orange, The Nags Head, The Kings Head, etc'.

These pubs were always busy, always smoke filled and usually had their fair share of drunks holding up the bar talking rubbish to you whenever you went to get in another round. The decor wasn't up to much, they used to have jukeboxes with 7" singles playing music at least 18 months out of date, the carpets were quite often sticky and the food, if indeed they sold it was either sausage, chips and beans, pie chips and beans or, if you were in a posh place, quiche, chips and beans, all choices £1.99 each.

Where do we have now in order to go out and sink a few pints? Well we have 'wine bars', these are places that you go for a quiet drink with off duty bank clerks and 30/40 something divorcees. There will be a handful of MX5s and maybe a few old VW Golf GTis parked outside and of course, the obligatory convertible Beetle or two. Music? Well there may be some but trust me you will neither know or like it. Do they sell food? Of course they do, usually 'foreign' dishes served in helpings that wouldn't satisfy the average hamster and at a price of £9.99 per main course. Do they sell beer? No, well, yes they do, small bottles of German beer, you will not see draught beer anywhere and if you ask for it, the 'waiter' will just laugh at your ignorance.

There are also the 'fun' or 'sports' bars that arrived on the scene during the 80s and 90s. These are places that you can go and either pretend to be in Ireland (the inevitable Irish Bar) or sit and watch football/cricket/rugby/whatever bone sport happens to be on TV at that time. At least most sell proper beer and in some cases edible food that you can eat whilst surrounded by the stag/hen parties in full swing thinking everyone in the pub is just there to see some fat chick in a veil act like a total slapper or some sad looking, skinny bloke who is trying to get drunk and forget said slapper..

So where are the 'proper' pubs? You know, the ones full of little old men in flat caps drinking their stout and bitter smoking 5 tabs an hour? Well unfortunately, the Liarbour Government has made sure that we have nowhere else like this to drink anymore. The government decided it was not healthy for these old men to smoke anymore so banned smoking from all licensed premises so everyone stays at home now. What has replaced them? The Gastro-Pub thats what. A Gastro-Pub looks just like a real pub from the outside and once upon a time it would have been a real pub, full of happy, content and relaxed people. Nowadays it is a restaurant (complete with kids play room) where you can go and eat plastic tasting food for about £7.99 - £12.99 a course. By 9pm, the diners and their screaming kids have gone home and the places are deserted. At any time of the day or night, 7 days a week, 356 days a year, despite the weather and tempreture you can walk past any pub in the UK nowadays and you will find little old men and women shivering on the verge of pneumonia just so they can enjoy a cigarette with their beer.

So where can you go and find a proper 'British pub' nowadays? Well Cyprus still has them, you can drink English beer served by English bar staff and smoke your English tabs at the bar. Germany has a lot of British theme pubs and in most you can still smoke. Belgium has some good British bars where you can still smoke. There are many other countries that still allow freedom of choice and their bars are still thronging with people enjoying themselves. So, if you want to experience a good old traditional British pub, go abroad. Sad I know but true.

You voted for Liarbour so you only have yourselves to blame!!!