I do my best. I drink far more than the Government say I should be doing (The way I see it is - the British Pub is a threatened institution, and if I have to go to them and drink lots of beer to keep a great tradition alive, then it's a sacrifice I'm prepared to make). But even my unwise alcohol intake cannot keep even Lancashire's pubs going by itself.
They say it's the smoking ban, or the recession, or the pubco beer tie. These things don't help. But in my opinion (and why else are you here if you don't want to hear it), the main reason is increasing social disapproval of public alcohol consumption.
As I've said before, a lot of bad things happened in the past. We think we're better than we were even 30 years ago (we're not, but that's another story). For most adults in the 1970s, the pub was a major recreational destination. Pints were mere pennies. Everyone socialised and they were happy, at least until enough booze was sunk to make people maudlin or fighty. But with increased social and employment mobility, people simply knew fewer people nearby. Certainly not well enough to go to the pub with them. Would you want to risk being seen at your drunken worst by your barely-known neighbour?
No, best stay in and watch the TV. And there's plenty of that these days (hundreds of channels as opposed to 3 in 1979). Sure, you still want a drink. Could go to the pub, but you work long hours and your wife would prefer you to be at home with her. Hooray for the £4 bottle of supermarket wine or slab of Carling.
So we reach the 21st Century, where pubgoing is an "event" rather than an automatic happening. Beer is now lots of pennies rather than a few. When you do go, you have two or three. Don't want to risk being caught over the limit in the morning as your job is 25 miles from your house. Can't go for a lunchtime pint even if you did have the time (presenteeism is everything). Disciplinary offence now.
Everyone drinks a few less pints in the pub on average than they used to. Pubs now are a wafer-thin margin business, and are being caught by increasing costs and decreased custom. Of course the most marginal will go to the wall. Welcome to Capitalism.
It goes without saying that the Upper Class Government we have does not approve of the plebs drinking, but who needs prohibition or even exorbitant taxation when you can simply create a social climate that frowns upon drinking with other people?
I care not what others think of me. Anyone who has seen what I wear will attest to that. But humans are creatures of fashion and herd mentality. Who wants to be seen doing what is simply not done?
