IT is a sad reality of 21st century life that the Great British Pub is becoming something of a threatened species.
Watering holes are closing at the rate of 25 per week, as high alcohol taxes, cheap supermarket drink and the smoking ban continue to hit the takings of struggling landlords the length and breadth of the country.Notice that the smoking ban comes third in the Yorkshire Post's little daydream. So how do we solve this epoch that has, bizarrely, came into being since 2007 in England and Scotland a year earlier? Oh, and I didn't forget Ireland either.
Well, give them a prize for agreeing to get rid of their best customers, the smoker.
So it is fitting that Welcome to Yorkshire and the Yorkshire Post today launch a search for the region’s finest pub. This, after all, is an industry in desperate need of a boost – and worthy of genuine celebration. From John Smith’s to Black Sheep and Samuel Smith’s, Yorkshire’s ales have long been a vital part of culture and nightlife.Look, you arshole lickers from the YP, while I was going about my daily life I frequented the local boozer but had one eye on an 'outside the sink estate' pub that pampered me and Mrs Yin with good wholesome food, fine beers and wine, sod the expense, (beers for me and wine for the Mrs.) I gave not a jot that they had 'won a prize' but reveled in our 'time out' from the daily grind in blandland.
When will the masses realise that the smoker was the lifesblood of the great British pub, without their patronage the only way is down.
