WHAT'S THE POINT OF THE PUB MINISTER?

Dick Puddlecote writes a great piece HERE about new pub minister John Healey and his record at work since taking on the role.

I'm still smarting at Healey's refusal to speak to one of our representatives, Simon Clark from Forest. A better candidate for this role would be anyone once NuLab has been shown the back door by the electorate.

BNP IS A WASTED VOTE

This election is likely to be one of the most close run we've ever had. Odds are on for a hung parliament. Some voters are changing allegience because they are angry at MPs expenses, others because of the sense of oppression they feel under the weight of NuLab's new laws, others just hate the party's policies and feel stabbed in the back. Some, however, will be registering a protest vote.

The "other" parties are very likely to do well out of this. As a former Labour supporter, I have now aligned myself with UKIP because it is very much about common sense at a time when I am very angry. Labour has done nothing right in my eyes in 13 years. I feel conned.

Other Labour voters are turning to the BNP. This party is a real and present threat to the stability of the UK. People refer to the party as right wing when it is, actually, more socialist than Stalin. The BNP cannot be ignored and if voters are thinking of playing with fire, THIS analysis of the party's policies by the Angry Teen blogger should make them think twice.

The BNP vote is a dangerous protest vote. The party will never get enough support in this election to make a difference and, as voters, we need to make a difference if we want true freedom back to control our own lives and shape our own future.

The Angry Teen also does a grand job of analysing The Green Party which he says would ruin what's left of the economy and drag us further into the financial mire with "unsustainable" ideas.

UKIP is the largest of all the "others" and will field enough candidates in the election to win if the voter gives the party it's support.

* H/T Anna Racoon who featured the link on her Saturday Posts Worth Reading spot.

WE'RE ALL DOOMED ...

Doomed, I tell ye ...

Well, according to the Daily Mail's list of things that cause cancer. Funny how smoking is not on the list but the third hand smoke scam is included.

AGE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-449783/Women-birth-age-30-double-risk-breast-cancer.html 
AIR POLLUTION http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-358875/Pollution-cars-linked-child-cancer.html 
AIR TRAVEL http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-200443/Frequent-fliers-raise-cancer-risk.html andhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-591109/Cancer-risk-frequent-fliers.html 
ALCOHOL http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-147083/Drink-day-increases-breast-cancer-risk.html andhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-471910/Bowel-cancer-danger-just-glass-wine-day.html 
ALLERGIES http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-324732/Child-allergies-raise-cancer-risk.html 
ARTIFICIAL FLAVOURS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-55023/Cancer-causing-chemicals-soy-sauce.html 
ARTIFICIAL LIGHT http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-391267/Artificial-light-increases-breast-cancer-risk.html 
ASBESTOS (as if it wasn’t bad enough already)http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1170584/Asbestos-schools-kill-pupils-warns-teacher-dying-lung-cancer.html 
ASPIRIN http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-205490/Asprin-link-cancer-risk.html BABIES http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-157683/Birth-size-link-breast-cancer.html 
BABY BOTTLES http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1038697/EU-rejects-ban-baby-bottles-linked-early-puberty-breast-cancer-miscarriage-infertility.html 
BABY FOOD http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-199887/Baby-food-cancer-alert.html 
BACON http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1102368/Additives-used-bacon-ham-chicken-make-cancers-grow.html 
BARBEQUES http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-326153/Australians-warned-backyard-cancer-risk.html 
BEEF http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-393666/Alarm-beef-link-breast-cancer.html 
BEER http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1161843/Just-pint-beer-day-raise-risk-prostate-cancer.html 
BEING A BLACK PERSON http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1064547/Black-men-times-likely-prostate-cancer.html and http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-508753/Black-women-develop-breast-cancer-decades-earlier-white-women.html 
BEING A WOMAN http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-63976/Cancer-risk-higher-women-smokers.html 
BEING A MAN http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-306543/Men-twice-likely-die-cancer-women.html 
BEING SOUTHERN http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1027331/Why-affluent-women-South-likely-die-breast-cancer.html 
BISCUITS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-126342/Cancer-foods-avoid.html 
BLOWJOBS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-453843/Oral-sex-cause-throat-cancer.html BRAS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-182370/Is-bra-bad-you.html 
BREAD http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-411506/White-bread-increases-cancer-risk.html 
BREAST FEEDING http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-178756/Whos-risk-breast-cancer.html 
BREAST IMPLANTS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-41443/Breast-implants-cancer-scare.html 
BROKEN HEARTS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-450049/How-heart-broken-grief-send-early-grave.html 
BUBBLE BATH http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-403703/Is-bubble-bath-safe.html 
BURGERS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-467360/Cancer-scare-food-colour-added-sausages-burgers.html 
CAFFINE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1127473/Coffee-raise-child-cancer-risk-New-evidence-caffeine-damage-babies-DNA.html 
CALCUIM http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1052127/Fatal-cancer-risk-men-high-blood-calcium-levels-say-US-researchers.html 
CANDLE-LIT DINNERS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1207726/Candles-release-scents-laced-cancer-chemicals-warn-scientists.html#ixzz0dufFps6a  CANNED FOOD http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-44676/Gender-bending-chemicals-tin-cans.html 
CARBOHYDRATES http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-313227/Low-carb-diets-beat-breast-cancer.html 
CARS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-358875/Pollution-cars-linked-child-cancer.html 
CEREAL http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-115696/How-safe-favourite-foods.html 
CHEESE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1002424/Italy-shuts-mozzarella-production-toxin-fears-spread.html 
CHICKEN http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-429303/Families-risk-toxic-imported-foods.html 
CHILDLESSNESS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-474820/SUZANNE-MOORE-Im-sick-told-fault.html 
CHILDREN http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-506501/Prostate-risk-having-family-according-new-study.html 
CHILDREN’S FOODhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-201390/Health-warning-childrens-food.html 
CHILLIS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-347287/Cancer-checks-spices-new-food-dyes-alert.html 
CHINESE MEDICINE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-75547/Warming-cancer-risk-Chinese-medicines.html 
CHIPS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-487571/Parents-told-chips-cause-cancer.html 
CHLORINE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-431777/Chlorine-bathwater-linked-cancer.html 
CHOCLATE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-386625/Cancer-fears-chocolate-snacks.html 
CITY LIVING http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-496495/City-life-blamed-higher-risk-breast-cancer.htmlCLIMATE CHANGE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-452789/Warmer-climate-mean-thousands-deaths-skin-cancer.html 
COCA COLA http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-337178/Carrot-day-reduces-cancer-risk.html 
COD LIVER OIL http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-379918/Cancer-fears-cod-liver-oil-capsules.html 
COFFEE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3027/How-healthy-cup-coffee.html 
CONSTAPATION http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-193698/Atkins-diet-cancer-risk.html 
CONTRACEPTIVE PILLS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-181273/Cancer-risk-45-higher-Pill.html 
COOKING http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-382571/Frying-increase-cancer-risk.html 
CORDLESS PHONES http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-515970/After-cancer-warnings-mobiles-home-phone-putting-health-danger.html 
CRAYONS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6706/Safety-alert-best-selling-crayons.html 
CURRY http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-342632/Cancer-dye-Grossman-curry-sauce.html 
DEODRANT http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-205705/Deodorants-linked-cancer.html 
DIETING http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-73056/Is-diet-lifestyle-putting-risk-breast-cancer.html DOGS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-490581/Can-dogs-breast-cancer-Bizarre-medical-theories-experts-claim-actually-true.html 
EGGS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-50995/Cancer-chemicals-eggs.html 
ELECTRICITY http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-449679/Power-lines-link-cancer-new-alert.html 
ENGLISH BREAKFAST http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1049142/Traditional-English-fry-raise-risk-bowel-cancer-63-cent.html 
FACEBOOK http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1149207/How-using-Facebook-raise-risk-cancer.html 
FALSE NAILS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1174768/Having-nails-skin-cancer-doctors-warn-women.html 
FATHERHOOD http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-506501/Prostate-risk-having-family-according-new-study.html 
FIBRE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4903/Fibre-cancer-risk-warning.html 
FISH http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-117840/Fish-cancer-scare.html 
FIZZY DRINKS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1249305/Two-fizzy-drinks-week-raise-chance-getting-pancreatic-cancer-87.html 
FLIP FLOPS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1025915/Wearing-FLIP-FLOPS-skin-cancer-doctors-warn.html 
FLY SPRAY http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-459938/Using-pesticide-sprays-home-double-risk-brain-tumours.html 
FRUIT http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-371260/Breast-cancer-drug-cuts-death-risk.html 
FRUIT JUICE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254534/Fruit-juice-cancer-warning-scientists-harmful-chemical-16-drinks.html GARDENS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-326153/Australians-warned-backyard-cancer-risk.html 
GRAPEFRUIT http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-468559/Eating-grapefruit-increase-breast-cancer-risk-third.html 
HAIR DYE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1017259/How-using-hair-dye-increase-risk-cancer.html 
HAM http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-490845/Is-safe-eat-Cancer-report-adds-bacon-ham-drink-danger-list.html 
HEIGHT http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1064454/Bigger-taller-baby-girls-higher-risk-breast-cancer-says-study.html 
HONEY http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-429303/Families-risk-toxic-imported-foods.html 
HOT DRINKS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-115696/How-safe-favourite-foods.html 
HRT http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1214782/HRT-increases-risk-dying-lung-cancer.html#ixzz0dueJ7qOY 
INTERNET http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-312505/Cancer-patients-risk-websites.html 
IVF http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-148228/How-IVF-raises-cancer-risks.html 
KIDNEY TRANSPLATS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-459097/TV-prize-kidney-carries-risk-cancer.html 
LAMB http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-446559/Red-meat-link-higher-risk-breast-cancer.html 
LARGE HEADS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-370870/Big-headed-babies-prone-cancer.html 
LEFT-HANDEDNESS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-363477/Left-handers-likely-breast-cancer.html 
LIPSTICK http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-499967/Is-lipstick-giving-cancer.html 
LIVER TRANSPLANTS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-207838/Cancer-liver-transplant-killed-husband.html MENOPAUSE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-395201/Weight-gain-menopause-increases-breast-cancer-risk.html 
MENSTRUATION http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-68946/Do-women-need-periods.html 
METAL http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1081692/The-metals-daily-glass-wine-linked-cancer-Parkinsons.html 
MILK http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-328863/Milk-linked-ovarian-cancer.html 
MOBILE PHONES http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-473553/Orange-remove-mobile-mast-tower-doom-cancer-rate-soared.html 
MODERN LIVING http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-474157/Modern-living-blame-cancer-epidemic.html 
MONEY http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1025375/Wealthy-background-raise-risk-cancer-teenagers.html 
MORPHINE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1230208/Pain-drug-morphine-cause-cancer-spread.html#ixzz0dudlHqN2 
MOUTHWASH http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1113422/Mouthwash-causes-oral-cancer-pulled-supermarkets-say-experts.html 
NUCLEAR POWER (there is no hint of irony in this article)http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-42066/New-study-links-nuclear-sites-cancer.html 
OBESITY http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-245997/Obesity-raises-risk-cancer.html 
OESTROGEN http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4098/Oestrogen-link-breast-cancer.html 
OLDER FATHERs http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1223025/Why-older-fathers-likely-children-genetic-disorders.html#ixzz0dudLlJsP 
PASTRY http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-115696/How-safe-favourite-foods.html PEANUT BUTTER http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1164417/Food-watchdog-warning-peanut-butter-brand-containing-cancer-causing-fungus.html 
PERFUME http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1051130/How-perfumes-scented-creams-make-unborn-baby-infertile.html 
PICKLES http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-115696/How-safe-favourite-foods.html 
PIZZA http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-341698/New-food-dye-warning.html 
PLASTIC BAGS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1207840/Plastic-decomposes-sea-releases-cancer-causing-chemicals-study-warns.html#ixzz0duexZlFs 
PORK http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1093039/After-alert-Irish-pork-safe-beef.html 
POTATOES http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-115037/Cancer-chemical-link-cooked-food.html 
POTATOES http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-115037/Cancer-chemical-link-cooked-food.html 
POVERTY http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-474820/SUZANNE-MOORE-Im-sick-told-fault.html 
PREGNANCY http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-82458/Breast-cancer-risk-career-women.html 
RADIOACTIVITY (again, just no irony whatsoever)http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-421140/As-radioactive-spy-buried-bar-staff-served-facing-cancer-risk.html 
RICE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-444222/Rice-tainted-arsenic-raises-risk-cancer.html 
SAUSAGES http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-550729/Why-eating-just-sausage-day-raises-cancer-risk-20-cent.html 
RETIREMENT http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1220446/Oh-Work-good-especially-youve-retired.html#ixzz0ducbviCE 
SEX http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-191219/Did-sex-cancer.html 
SHAVING http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-206459/Shaving-raise-cancer-risk.html 
SKIING http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-206243/Skiers-warned-cancer-risk.html 
SOUP http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1132814/Salty-soups-increase-cancer-risk-says-expert.html SPACE TRAVEL http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1015482/How-astronauts-risk-cancer--premature-ageing--travelling-space.html 
SUN CREAM http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-592076/Cancer-fear-childrens-sun-creams.html 
TALCUM POWDER http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1063040/Cancer-alert-talc-Women-using-powder-day-risk.html 
TEA http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-87131/Too-tea-treble-cancer-risk-women.html 
TEEN SEX http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1237530/Girls-sex-teens-greater-risk-developing-cervical-cancer.html#ixzz0dudvXOF7 
THIRD HAND SMOKE (read article and you'll understand)http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1249591/Even-hand-smoke-dangerous--especially-children.html 
VITAMINS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-320006/Vitamin-pills-cause-early-deaths.html 
WATER http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13620/Cancer-link-tap-water-radon-hotspots.html 
WI-FI http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-456534/The-classroom-cancer-risk-wi-fi-internet.html 
WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-338899/Dye-alert-spreads-school-meals.html 
WORKING http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1031934/Why-men-desk-jobs-higher-risk-prostate-cancer.html 
X-RAYS http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-207035/X-rays-bring-risk-cancer.html

CRIME OF THE CENTURY

This is about as low as a country can get when dealing with its citizens


First it has to make a ridiculous law to criminalise law abiding people, then it ensures that there is no way that citizens can abide by it, then it steals as much as it can in fines to employ an army of jobsworths because its economy is so bad, there isn't any private enterprise to drag it out of recession.

Labour has spent 13 years employing half of the country to spy on and prosecute the other half. It is time this Govt was gone. We have no freedoms left. Labour has stolen everything from us. Vote in May and kick these self-interest nutters out. Perhaps when they have gone, some sanity and self respect may at last begin to return to this once great country of ours!

Anyone would think that the decent businesswoman above who has run a shop for 28 years in Manchester was the worst paedophile from hell and not an innocent great granny who likes to sell goldfish to children who want pets. Oh, I forgot, NuLabour tends to let serious criminals like that off the hook while persecuting and marginalising normal people who just want to be left alone to live their lives in peace.

WHAT NEXT?

Now we are told that eating bacon and cheesecake is as addictive as smoking and heroin! What on earth do these self interest junk scientists take us for - idiots?

Firstly, any smoker who has quit will tell you that smoking is a phsycological habit whereas heroin is a physical addiction. *sigh* I get so tiired of repeating this : The body cannot function without heroin and when the body is deprived the user needs hospital treatment.

When a smoker is denied tobacco, they are somewhat mardy but able to function properly and usually in doing something, they forget they want a cigarette at all.

As someone who loves both bacon sandwiches and cheesecake, I don't feel any partcular compulsion to mug the sandwich shop owner next door to the office. Perhaps to have the required effect suggested by these so called "scientists," one has to eat both bacon and cheesecake together in the same sandwich.

The Filthy Smoker over at the Devil's place puts the alleged health food issue into its true perspective.

http://www.devilskitchen.me.uk/2010/03/rats-are-not-people.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheDevilsKitchen+%28The+Devil%27s+Kitchen%29

ARROGANT LABOUR NOT WORTH SUPPORT

It was with some apprehension that I heard Simon Clark from Forest - the Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco - and the leader of the Save Our Pubs and Clubs amendthesmokingban.com campaign ,was due to meet the pubs minister John Healey to talk about the negative impact of the legislation on the hospitality industry.

Smokers and non-smokers poured out their hearts on Simon's blog in the vain hope that one of their so-called govt representatives would actually give a shit about what they thought.

However, true to form no arrogant Labour minister cares what the people think nor would one care to listen on this issue because they never have before. Labour is also happy to throw away the 12 million votes from smokers that it has ignored, dehumanised, discriminated against, and persecuted, especially during the last three years.

But Simon is a great bloke, a non-smoker, and he is one of the very few representatives we have. If Govt listens to anyone on our side then Simon is that person. He did have a meeting organised for today but the pubs minister decided to snub him - perhaps unike our nemesis ASH, Simon didn't go armed with pocket loads of cash for dodgy "research" that told the minister what he wanted to hear. He went instead with emotional heartfelt pleas from ordinary people just asking for their lives back. Not worth a fig to Labour, it would seem!

Labout treats its core support with utter contempt and that is why it has lost it. Vote Labour at your peril, whatever your issue, because if the Govt doesn't agree with you, it will marginalise you and exclude you. The Labour party doesn't deserve the respect of the people of Britain let alone the vote. It is time this self-serving excuse for a working man's friend was chased to the fringes where it belongs.

Now that Tony Bliar, the oil-loving, war mongering twerp who brought Britain to her knees and is responsible for the death of thousands of our young men, is back on the campaign trail just in time to remind people why they hate NuLabour so much - not that many had forgotten. Bliar's appearance just reminds the voter why they must not vote Labour ever again!

Despicable!
http://takingliberties.squarespace.com/taking-liberties/2010/3/30/minister-refuses-to-meet-the-man-from-forest.html

UKIP TACKLES YOUTHS

I've always been a bit sceptical of UKIP's policy to abolish the Human Rights Act because at heart I'm a humanist. However, in it's present state, the misconceived legislation isn't working. It is leading to injustice. It is also, I believe, responsible for the amount of times youths can get away with committing awful deeds such as these

A solicitor once told me that youths will not be seriouly penalised for anything under the current system. Too many learn the craft of misbehaviour and then stroll into crime because they don't have to think of the consequences. I don't blame the parents. I think in most cases they get it hard enough without help. It is a general break down of discipline in society that has caused many adults to fear their own children.

UKIP head office had this to say about recent youth news that a one-boy crime wave was allowed to keep the bike he used for crime because taking it from him would be against his human rights.

“This is story is absolutely shocking.It seems that we can’t now punish criminals, because it ‘inconveniences them’. What about all the inconvenience he has caused to the victims of his crimes? These kind of cases show why more and more people agree with UKIP’s policy of abolishing the human rights act.”

SMOKING BAN'S HUMAN, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COST

I have been quite moved by some of the responses on Simon Clarke's Blog.

Simon is meeting with the pub minister, John Healey, and he asked his readers for questions he could take with him.

The human, social, economic and political cost of the ban is told by the people who just want their lives back.

http://takingliberties.squarespace.com/

NIGEL ON UKIP POLICIES

Nigel Farage speaking about what Britian needs to do. Well worth watching. He is a man who speaks common sense, simplifies issues, and he has real vision. He does come across well despite the interviewer trying to tie him in knots.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/8590000.stm

PRICELESS!

This is priceless. Vote for the blogosphere - vote Old Holborn. If none of the Ukippers, libertarians or independents get in to Parliament, this man absolutely must!

He'll at least keep us laughing while the establishment rips the shirts off our backs - oh, I forgot. OH has already sent them all to Gordon!

Don't cut the limit

I recently concluded a poll asking the question “Should the UK drink-driving limit be reduced from 80mg to 50mg?” There were no less than 147 responses, easily beating even the s*****g b*n poll, and the results were as follows:

Yes, with a mandatory ban at 50mg : 13 (9%)
Yes, with points only between 50mg and 79mg: 5 (3%)
No, the current law is sufficient: 129 (88%)

So a decisive rejection of the idea, although no doubt some will claim it was from a biased sample. As I’ve said before, I don’t believe there’s any guarantee that cutting the limit will save a single life, but there can be no doubt it would have a serious negative impact on the pub trade outside major urban centres. It would be an all-too-typical example of the current-day trend of taking headline-grabbing “Something must be done” measures without regard to either the wider consequences or indeed whether they will be effective at all.

VOTE FOR LIBERTY

Old Holborn's rousing words could hardly fail to strike a chord. I think he sums up how millions of us feel about our so called "democracy".

I would echo his words. OH is standing in the election as the prospective Jury Team member for Cambridge and he deserves support. He has done plenty already to redress the unfair balance between the individual and the state in many successful online campaigns.

I believe the next election will not be won on right,left or centre ideological views but on how liberal or authoritarian the prospective politicians and parties show themselves to be. None of them at present are ticking my liberty boxes with calls for this, that and the other to be banned, outlawed, prosecuted, or persecuted.

The majority of the electorate is angry and most people want change - real and meaningful. One that gives them some control over not just their own future but simply their everyday lives. I am standing for the same reasons that OH gives so eloquently but my party is UKIP and my constituency is Louth and Horncastle.

UKIP is the biggest of the "others" and is passionate about personal freedom, individual responsibility, and doing something constructive to clear up the mess that 13 years of nuLabour has made. I'm not convinced that call-me-Dave- has the stomach, the perspective or the vision to set us back on the right course and I am sure that Nick Clegg has not.

This election will be one that is very different to any that have gone before. People will vote with their hearts and their spleens. The outcome really could be anyone's guess.

*http://www.oldholborn.net/2010/03/let-us-imagine.html

Going dry

Managed house operator Mitchells & Butlers have announced that they are planning a “rapid” exit from wet-led pubs, and intend to focus their efforts on dining brands such as Harvester, Toby Carvery and Sizzling Pub Company.

Now this may provide opportunities for other operators to acquire some of their wet-led sites and run them in a more enterprising manner. But I can’t help thinking it represents a further step in the steady erosion of the original concept of pubs as essentially places to drink and socialise.

In a growing number of areas, the proportion of pubs of that actually are pubs rather than “dining outlets” is rapidly dwindling, and the welcome to customers who don’t want to eat can be grudging in the extreme. Indeed, in many cases where a pub has been turned over to a food-led operation, the removal of public bars and meeting rooms has led to the expulsion of what wet trade there still was in the place.

I’ve never said pubs should not serve food full stop, but there has to come a point where the concentration on food to the exclusion of all else means an outlet can no longer be called a pub in any meaningful sense. Who would even cross the street to a Toby Carvery to savour its atmosphere and drinks range?

The scales fall from his eyes

Well, pretty much everything that can be said about yesterday’s Budget has already been said, so there’s very little I can add.

It seems to have prompted Mike Benner of CAMRA into an uncharacteristic display of fighting spirit. But I was struck by his comment that “CAMRA is totally at a loss in understanding how a Government that recognises the community value of pubs can impose such consistently draconian beer duty increases” Umm, Mike, why does that come as any surprise to you?

While Labour may claim to support “community pubs”, those are self-evidently the kind of pubs in which nobody is allowed to smoke, where two musicians cannot play live together, to which nobody must drive and have a couple of pints, where nobody must ever consume four pints at a sitting, and where the world will come to an end if a 17-year-old is served with an alcoholic drink. In fact, not real pubs at all.

As I’ve commented before, far from regarding pubs as a valuable community resource, the current government seems to see them as a kind of health hazard. It was only too typical when, last year, Alan Campbell, the minister in charge of licensing, admitted he couldn’t remember the last time he had been in a pub.

It has also been interesting to see today that the one issue from the Budget that has got people excited is the 10% plus inflation rise in cider duty. Indeed there was a phone-in this morning on Radio Five Live devoted to it. Obviously Darling is well aware there are few Labour MPs in the West Country, and will be even fewer come May 7th. There may be a case for bringing the duty on mass-market ciders closer to that on beer, but this is an indiscriminate across-the-board increase that gives no recognition to small producers and remains a flat rate that takes no account of alcoholic strength.

A DEPRESSING READ

I'm feeling a bit down in the dumps today. Perhaps it's the latest assault on smokers or maybe it's that I'm still dragged down from yesterday's inquests.

As far as smokers are concerned, I am in despair that the persecution doesn't stop. It's like a constant smack in the head delivered by righteous, self-interest idiots that have the power of Big Money and Big Govt backing them against the little man (or woman!).

It has taken the anti-smoking industry 40 years to get control on the grounds of a freedom harming someone else. Previous Governments haven't bought into that idea because banning things on the grounds that one doesn't personally like it, was seen as undemocratic and communist. There was, and still is, no evidence to back up the tripe the anti-smoking industry spouts but what changed was that left thinking lettuce munching health obessives got into Govt. Can we say without doubt that Patricia Hewitt - who promised exemptions to the blanket smoking ban but then pulled the rug from under everyone at the last minute - was not paid to do so by Big Pharma bearing in mind recent news ?

Now the antis have what they initially said they wanted - a public smoking ban so they didn't have to mix with smokers - they are pushing further and further. Where will it lead when you think of how these people depend on persecution of a minority group for their income. They will never stop. It matters not what new restrictions they get. It will continue. Their jobs, mortgages, holidays in the sun, etc, thrive on it.

In future they will not be the educators we asked for 40 years ago to inform us and our children of the risks of smoking. They will be the enforcers who will be in jobs taking children away from smokers, denying smokers jobs, and guarding them in jails. Once they have smokers under complete control, they will move on to others - drinkers are obviously next, and watch out fatties - they're also heading your way soon!

My despair comes because most ordinary people don't see this as a freedom issue. They are not thinking where will it lead. Those smokers and non-smokers who are trying to fight honourably and courageously, are just not joined up in their thinking or their campaigning and so what hope? The antis know this. They are simply biding their time to finish us off.

See - my thinking today is thoroughly depressive but perhaps it was sitting in inquests yesterday that has put me in this mood. I just can't seem to shake them off despite being used to attending such events in 20 years as a journalist.

As soon as I was asked to go and cover the case of an 18 year-old who hung himself, I knew it wasn't going to be the jolliest of days. It appears he killed himself because of a girl. His mother found him. I can't begin to imagine what it must be like to live with that image for the rest of my life as I am sure she will.

The next case concerned a 59 year old man who died from asbestos cancer which had invaded both lungs and his chest. Ironically, he was working to rewire a hospital in the late 60s and early 70s and that's where the damage began. He inhaled the asbestos dust from sheeting and lagging he ripped out to get at heating pipes.

Just as depressing was the case of a 41 year old man who killed himself with his car exhaust fumes. There seemed to be no reason why he would want to take his life. Doctors' reports were read out in all cases. This one spoke of how the man was rarely seen but had recently visited the surgery for smoking cessation. Frustratingly, the doctor did not mention whether the man was given a drug like Champix to help him in his quit efforts. Many of us know too well what the side effects are of that monster and other anti-smoking drugs. I don't think the coroner or the health professionals involved would even have considered it.

Tarnished Shield?

In the early 80s, I was working in the South-East, and my parents came down to visit me one weekend and stayed in a local hotel. This hotel didn’t have any cask beer, but what it did have were bottles of Worthington White Shield, which were probably well out of date. I’m not sure if they even had best before dates back then. They had undergone a vigorous and prolonged secondary fermentation and, if you could actually get the beer in the glass, were some of the finest beers I had ever tasted.

In those days, White Shield was widely available around here in Hydes and Robinsons tied pubs as well as in the Bass estate, and could sometimes offer a welcome contrast to the standard cask beers. But it was noticeable that its regular drinkers tended to be old codgers.

Ed writes here about how White Shield today isn’t the beer it once was, but I’m convinced its decline isn’t a recent phenomenon and can in fact be traced back a long way. Seeing that it was lauded by CAMRA as one of the very few surviving bottle-conditioned beers, Bass decided to relaunch it by putting it in a old-fashioned round-shouldered bottle with an informative booklet on a string around the neck, and at the same time increased the price by at least a third. But they badly misjudged the market, as in reality, while CAMRA may have trumpeted its qualities, it was the codgers who actually drank it.

One old boy in a pub I went in (probably now long since dead) was affronted by this price rise and decided to switch to pints of mild. There must have been plenty of others who reached the same conclusion, with the result that sales fell off a cliff. The rest is history.

And I continue to believe that if a beer is to be produced and sold in bottle-conditioned form, it needs to show evidence of having actually enjoyed a secondary fermentation in the bottle. It should have a dense head and obvious natural carbonation, whereas all too many supposedly bottle-conditioned British ales nowadays just seem to be a bottle of rather flat beer with some gunk in the bottom. Duvel is an excellent example of how it should be done.

Mug punter

I was surprised yesterday in a pub to be served with a pint in a dimpled mug. I remember when the “handle glass” was widespread, but was seen as stuffy and pretentious, and I – along with many others – made a point of asking for a straight glass, or a “sleever” as it was called in the West Country. Nowadays, while many pubs still keep a few behind the bar for some of their older customers, it’s rare indeed to be given one by default. Do they, I wonder, subtly change the character of the beer by exposing a greater surface area of head to the atmosphere?

A view of a pub

Google have recently updated the Street View facility on Google Maps to include pretty much the whole of the UK. Some may feel this is an invasion of privacy, but one benefit it brings is to be able to view pretty much any pub you care to mention.

So here are a couple of Stockport’s classic unspoilt Robinson’s pubs, the Arden Arms in the town centre, and the Davenport Arms at Woodford.

The Old Bull’s Head at Little Hucklow, recently mentioned on here, still looks inviting despite having been closed for five years, and hopefully the current closure of the very attractive Highwayman at Rainow will prove temporary.

Of course it also shows up the all-too-obvious decline of the pub trade. Here is the Aston Arms in Frodsham, Cheshire, once a delightful multi-roomed pub with its own bowling green. A couple of miles along the road in Helsby, two of the four pubs in the village are now closed and boarded, the Horse & Jockey and the Robin Hood. Ironically, I would always have thought those two were more appealing and had better prospects than the two that remain open, the Railway and the Helsby Arms (ex Brown Cow).

I have in my hand a piece of paper

I had an e-mail yesterday from Mike Benner of CAMRA trumpeting CAMRA’s “fantastic campaigning success” in securing “a major package of reforms to support pubs”.

To support community pubs, the Government has announced:

• Greater protection for pubs under threat of demolition
  
• A ban on the anti-competitive practice of imposing restrictive covenants on the sale of pubs
  
• Greater flexibility for pubs to diversify by adding shops and other facilities without planning permission
  
• £1 million Government funding for Pub is The Hub
  
• £3 million to support Community pub ownership
  
• Greater freedom for pubs to host live music without a specific licence

To reform the operation of the beer tie to ensure a fair deal for tenants and consumers, the Government has announced:

• A one year deadline to fully implement the recommendations of the BIS Report before the government intervenes with legislation if necessary
  
• A guest beer right for tied tenants
  
• A free of tie option for tied tenants
  

Forgive me for thinking this is all just pathetic fiddling while Rome burns. As long as we continue to see no amendment of the smoking ban, above-inflation duty hikes and the constant insistence that drinking two pints at a sitting will lead to an early grave, not to mention the prospect of slashing the drink-driving limit and thus rendering thousands of pubs unviable, the pub trade will remain under serious threat, and for government ministers to pose as its friend is laughable. There couldn’t be an election imminent, could there?

Face facts, despite the liberalisation of licensing hours, this has proved to be the most anti-pub government since the days of Lloyd George.

And Clive Aslet isn’t too impressed in today’s Times:

There is a tiny irony in this. Not only might it be argued that the Government itself has precipitated the closure of many pubs by making it illegal to smoke in them — a blow to the traditional boozer, where sons of toil would spend all evening, perhaps several nights a week. Without this trade, licensees have only been able to survive by reinventing their establishments as gastro pubs, serving meals at prices that few locals could afford. I shouldn’t worry; I don’t smoke. I like the fact you can get a decent meal on your travels. But now the Government is considering making it impossible to get into a car if you’ve had so much as a single pint of bitter. That means they’ll lose my custom too.

MORE FROM CONFERENCE

A very thought provoking speech was given by Maryetta Ables of Forces at the second International Coalition Against Prohibition conference held at The Hague in the Netherlands.

Maryetta pointed out how Britian is no longer a country but after the enforcement of the Lisbon Treaty it is simply a state of Europe no longer able to make its own laws. Shame for us and the rest of the ordinary people in other European countries who do not want to be part of this money making, self interest, Euro Parliament where we can't even vote for the president who is forced upon us all.

Read her full article here

BLACK HOLE

Yet more money being thrown into a black hole. Sheesh - £44,000 for a smoking policeman? How much better that money could be spent than on a jobsworth created by Labour who are funding public sector jobs for votes. Corruption of the highest order!

The story is carried by the Mirror

AIRPORT SMOKING

Amsterdam Schipol Airport certainly knows how to treat smokers with dignity and respect. It has three smoking rooms similar to this one above. A veritable haven for those like myself who hate flying and get all worked up before boarding. A nice cigarette, with a warm cup of tea, is the absolute best thing there is for calming nerves.

The smoking room is sealed, and cleaned regularly. There is adequate ventilation which means no smoke fug to endure, and it was great to touch base with other angry and excluded smokers who were all keen to know about the anti-prohibition conference I had just attended.

This is such a small concession for the huge airport to make and it showed it values its smoking customers as much as its non-smoking customers. I can't think of any reason why other airports in the world, including the UK, could not provide similar resources for smokers. After all, isn't our money as good a anyone else's?

TICAP AND FUN IN AMSTERDAM

Thanks to Dick Puddlecote I can now create tidy links but that wasn't the only thing I learned at the TICAP conference held last Monday at the Hague in the Netherlands. I also heard from eminent scientists and doctors about how the anti-smoking lies gained credence.

The organisations like ASH UK and ASH US knew they didn't have evidence so what they did was to continually send out biased and inflated information to a beleagured press which didn't have the resources to do any more than take their word for it.

Michael McFadden who wrote the excellent book "dissecting anti-smokers' brains" told of how the anti-smoking industry claims that living with a smoker greatly increases the chances of a non-smoker getting lung cancer is designed to create fear and prejudice. In truth, the real stats show that the increase in risk is so small it is neglible which is what professor Richard Doll said. He was the first to link active smoking with cancer but he also said passive smoking was something that carried no real risk to non-smokers. It was something, he said, that we shouldn't fear.

McFadden gave the true stats. It appears that the risk goes up from 4/1000 to 5/1000 after 40 YEARS which really doesn't justify the exlcusion of smokers from every indoor public place.

Other speakers of interest were David Goerlitz. He worked for the JR Reynolds tobacco company in the 1980s and his job was to attract younger smokers to replace those that died or gave up. He felt his work was immoral and so he joined the anti-smoking industry and visited schools to persuade kids not to take up the habit. It is because of what he saw as corrupt science used by the anti-smoking industry that paid for the results it wanted that he now speaks against the corrupt tactics they use.

Goerlitz believes that it is wrong to smoke but he also believes that when the risks are known, it is up to adult smokers to make their own life choices and they should not be discriminated against because of it. He is against the use of junk science to achieve an ideological aim, and he doesn't agree that smokers should be persecuted for their lifestyle choice. This is why he has left the anti-smoking movement and he now works to expose its lies and corruption.

Dr Kamal Chaouachi, from the University of Paris, spoke about hookah pipe smoking. He said the Muslim community has smoked the pipe for centuries and it is very much a part of their social culture. He said Muslims across the world are angry at the way hookah smoking is manipulated by the anti-smoking industry. It has produced posters showing smoke billowing from the pipe which doesn't even use tobacco. It is a mixture of charcoal and flavours and it has no "side stream smoke". To show it in anti-smoking posters in a bid to create the same kind of fear and prejudice goes against the Koran which says there should be good science from cradle to grave - and not junk science created to achieve an ideological aim.

I found it a great concern and tragedy that Dr Chaouachi was warned by tobacco control colleagues that should he speak at this conference, then he would be discredited, shunned and his career would be jeapordised. He is a brave man. He believes truth is important and those scientists who create reports to achieve the aim their anti-smoking paymasters want should be exposed and embarrassed for their outrageous claims. He says this will end the use of junk science.

I attended with two friends - one works in a pub an the other is an independant pub landlady fighting to survive in a pub where all the customers and staff smoke. We stayed in Amsterdam, keen to check out the smoking policy there. It was quite bizarre. Most establishments discreetly allowed the smoking of tobacco - even if it had to be rolled under ths table while marijunana was clearly displayed and rolled on tables. Other establishments banned tobacco smoking but allowed hash to be smoked throughout.

I took my new digital camera with me. I'm not much of a photographer but I thought it was time I got to grips with new photographic technology instead of using my outated film loaded Olympus. I bought a cheap one so that I could learn how to handle it before gettng one of better quality. Unfortunately, this meant that most of my photos were blurred. The shot above of a pretty building in Amsterdam was one of three that turned out clearly.

I was approached by a couple of people with interesting offers after the conference. One I would be keen to follow up. It concerns a forthcoming conference in India. The other didn't interest me at all. It was about rumour mongering. Another thing I learned in the Hague was that the pro-choice movement doesn't need to tell lies - we have right and truth on our side.

Nature or nurture?

Greene King IPA is possibly the biggest-selling cask beer in the UK, and is often dismissed is irredeemably dull and bland. But, as Paul Garrard points out here, when it is well kept it can be a very good and distinctive beer, something with which I would agree on the rare occasions (generally in East Anglia) I have encountered it on top form. But this raises the important question of to what extent the drinker’s enjoyment of a pint of cask beer derives from the intrinsic characteristics of the beer, and to what extent from the general standard of cellarmanship in the pub.

It has long been noticeable that a few pubs manage to coax depths of flavour and character out of beers such as Tetley Bitter which most others signally fail to do. And I would contend that the vast majority of beers (or at least those that have become reasonably well established and are not produced by short-lived micros) have the potential to be very good indeed in the right hands. I will admit that there are a few, however, such as Websters Yorkshire Bitter and Worthington Bitter, that do seem so intrinsically bland that they can never get there however well looked after, although an example where all the tick-box aspects of good cellarmanship are there can still be recognised.

It is certainly the case that all the regular beers from the four Greater Manchester family brewers, although dismissed by some as rather dull, are capable of scaling the heights when well looked after. Indeed probably the most memorable pint of beer I have ever had was a pint of Robinson’s Unicorn (Best Bitter as it was then) in a Stockport local towards the end of a pub crawl when you might have expected tastebuds to be getting jaded. So I would say the relative contribution of cellarmanship to the quality of the beer in the glass is considerably more than is often acknowledged.

Some of the beers that enthusiasts rave about only tend to appear in specialist outlets where they can expect to be well looked after, and might fare differently if made available to a diverse cross-section of pubs. Even a Thornbridge product might not be too impressive if turning over a bit too slowly on a lone handpump at the end of the bar of a family dining outlet.

And I can’t help thinking that often there is a lot of “tall poppy syndrome” amongst beer enthusiasts, in that any widely-available beer is inevitably dismissed as dull and bland, and any “cult” beer that achieves widespread distribution – Pedigree, Landlord, Deuchars etc – is said to have lost much of its character.

Clear blue water

It was good to see within 24 hours of Lord Adonis announcing that he was seriously considering cutting the drink-drive limit, the Tories saying clearly that they did not back the plan.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Theresa Villiers, the shadow transport secretary, made clear a Tory Government would leave the limit unchanged.

“If the Conservatives win the election, we will not reduce the limit to 50 milligrams. We don't think the case has been made for change.

“Other countries in Europe also have lighter penalties. We feel the best thing is to maintain the current limit and a mandatory ban and ensure that it is properly enforced.”

Now please don’t think that I am a cheerleader for the Tories, because I am not, and I have been highly critical in the past of their apparent attempts to outbid Labour on who can have the toughest anti-drink stance. But it is clear on this particular issue that, if you live in the countryside, the suburbs or a small town, or ever visit pubs in those locations, your vote could made a difference to their future.

On a related note, I was thinking that at least, unlike with the smoking ban, nobody could make the claim that cutting the drink-drive limit would actually boost the business of pubs. But I wonder how long it will be before some twerp stands up and says it will make people more aware of the opportunities to visit pubs by public transport when their ability to drink alcohol will not be so constrained.

Vote Labour and lose your pub

The Sunday Times reports today that the Government are planning to reduce the UK drink-drive limit from 80mg to 50mg, following the recommendations of a review by Sir Peter North. Now, this particular kite has been flown many times before, especially by that newspaper, and of course the forthcoming election will at least for a while kick it into touch. But there is no doubt that pressure continues to grow to cut the limit.

Over time, such a reduction would have a slow, insidious effect on the pub trade at least equal to that caused by the smoking ban, and the effect would spread much further than the stereotypical “country pubs”. It would ultimately cut pubs as generally understood back to a small urban rump, and any licensed premises that survived in suburban and rural areas would effectively just be restaurants.

Whether it would make any difference to road casualties is highly questionable, when the vast majority of drink-related accidents involve drivers well over the current limit, and the reduction in traffic police means that you can drive for years without ever being breath-tested – unless, that is, you have just driven off the car park of a pub. So it’s likely to do much more to close pubs than reduce road casualties.

There’s also some odd arithmetic in the article – if it is possible, as it says, for a man to drink 1½-2 pints of beer and stay within the 80mg limit, surely it will in most circumstances be possible for him to drink one pint and stay within the 50mg limit – something borne out by this TRRL booklet from the 1980s. Not that that makes it any better, of course.

Dirt-cheap booze

The advocates of minimum pricing often describe it as a means of stopping the sale of alcohol at “dirt-cheap” prices. But, in fact, even at a level of 40p per unit, it would sweep up a lot of drinks that most people would not regard as in any sense “dirt-cheap”. So I asked blog readers in a poll how cheap they thought a 70cl bottle of spirits needed to be before it qualified as “dirt-cheap”. There were 56 responses, broken down as follows:

£14: 1 (2%)
£12: 2 (4%)
£10: 5 (9%)
£8: 12 (21%)
£6: 15 (27%)
It's never too cheap: 21 (37%)

So nearly two-thirds of respondents either thought that nothing over £6 could be regarded as “dirt-cheap” (whereas realistically there are no spirits priced quite that low) or that the question didn’t really justify being asked in the first place.

There was only one well-heeled snob who thought that even £14 a bottle was “dirt-cheap”.

But that’s the price which a 50p per unit minimum price would make the cheapest bottle of spirits. Go figure...

Minimum chance

If I mentioned every single demand by the anti-drink lobby for minimum alcohol pricing, this blog would contain little but. However, I couldn’t let pass without comment the call from the ten local authorities in Greater Manchester to introduce a county-wide scheme. Of course this doesn’t have a cat in hell’s chance of happening, but it’s a sad reflection on local voters that they can manage to elect such a bunch of miserable, snobbish killjoys. The massive queues for off-licences just across the border in other authorities would quickly bring such a scheme to an ignominious demise – and this would of course underline the “screw-the-poor” aspect of it, as it would be those without access to cars who were forced to buy expensive booze locally.

Nick Grant, head of legal services at Sainsbury’s, hit the nail on the head when he said to the Scottish Parliament:

If you create a market for the man or woman in the white van you’re putting the sale of alcohol into the hands of people who have no corporate responsibility whatsoever.

You would find the white van in housing estates with strong lager at a compelling price.

And, of course, as the Filthy Smoker points out on the Devil’s Kitchen blog, minimum pricing is absolutely illegal anyway under EU competition law, so all this talk about the subject is just so much hot air.

GUY TV - BRILLIANT!

Great TV report about Nick Hogan's release and more.

H/T Simon Clark at Taking Liberties

You can subscribe to GuidoGrams here

Drinkers demand weaker beer

Well, apparently Molson Coors think they do, as part of their relaunch of Caffrey’s nitrokeg ale involves reducing its strength from 4.2% ABV to a mere 3.8%. Caffrey’s was originally launched in the mid-Nineties at 4.8% ABV, and at that strength it did at least have a distinctive alcohol kick to it. It was eventually reduced to 4.2% as drinkers apparently found it too strong for a prolonged session, and now they’ve had a second bite at the cherry. But whether drinkers will come flocking now it’s been made weaker than many ordinary bitters and cooking lagers is very questionable. It all very much smacks of flogging a dead horse, to be honest. It joins the ever-growing list of popular beers and ciders whose strength has been cut in recent years.

On a related note, virtually every pub now will offer a 5% ABV premium lager – Stella, Heineken, Carlsberg Export, Kronenbourg 1664 etc. – yet outside specialist outlets it is very rare to find an ale of similar strength as a regular beer. Greene King Abbot Ale is about the only widely-available example I can think of. Even its stablemate Old Speckled Hen was reduced to 4.5% in draught form a few years ago. The explanation for this must be that consuming ales of that strength in volume is just so much more like hard work than lagers.

YES, YES, OH YES!

Conservative MP Philip Davies has been adopted by Dick Puddlecote as his blog mascot. A very deserving case, I might add.

Why can't there be more MPs like this in our parliament instead of the rightous zealots who don't know when or even how to stop legislating against private behaviour?.

THANKYOU

It's great news to see Nick Hogan back with his wife Denise and out of jail. He should never have been there.

Securing his release in the name of freedom, justice and choice, was a remarkable achievement by us, the little people, and whatever anyone thinks about the law, it cannot be right that anyone is jailed because they owe a fine. Isn't that what we did in Dickensian times?

I donated because of my conscience. Nick stood up for smokers and ultimately lost everything because of it. How could we not stand up for him? I'd do it again and so would many others. This spiteful law tried to make an example of a man who couldn't pay a huge fine. The fine was imposed because Nick allowed people to smoke in his pub. The day before this incident, and for centuries before that, what he did was legal.

I'm glad I donated and I'm inspired that so many other smokers and non-smokers did as well. We showed that we stand together in our condemnation of a bad law that does discriminate and does not allow for choice. An amendment is all we seek. Compromise. Why is that too much to ask in a free and democratic country?

Old Holborn and Simon Clark went to get Nick out of jail in Manchester yesterday, No Smoking Day, with a briefcase stuffed full of used fivers and tenners to the value of almost £9,000. This was all the prison would accept. It took some time to get the money released from Paypal who needed convincing that it was not a money laundering exercise.

There have been loads of media reports on this and links to them all appear on Simon Clark's Taking Liberties Blog as well a links to Anna Racoon and Old Holborn who made all of this possible.

Frozen in time

This website for the Old Bull’s Head at Little Hucklow in the Peak District isn’t maybe the most professionally-done in the world, but even so it’s extremely inviting:

Ducking through the small door of the fifth oldest pub in England you go back to another era. It is like entering another world and a reminder of times lost.

Two small rooms, each with their own open roaring fire, welcome travellers into their fold.

Collections of trinkets, brasses, tankards and mining equipment fill the low ceiling and, in fact, every available space. Almost hidden away are steps leading up to "the cave"- a tiny room up in the roof which cosily holds a long table and benches either side.

The pub has been home to a long line of innkeepers who were also miners and farmers. For years a shaft in the pub's cellar went down to a mine where the man of the house used to work during the day while his wife tendered the animals and brewed beer.

The only trouble is, sadly it’s been closed since 2005. I do hope nobody tries to book a room via the website.

This was a great pub, described in past editions of the Good Beer Guide as “a connoisseur’s pub”. For many years it sold only one, locally-brewed real ale, firstly Winkle’s Saxon Cross Bitter and then Ward’s distinctive malty brew from Sheffield. It didn’t, when I remember it from the late 80s, even serve meals, although obviously from the website it did later bow to commercial reality.

How many more lost pubs still linger on in cyberspace?

Highwayman arrested

Sad news from the local CAMRA magazine that Thwaites’ Highwayman at Rainow on the main road between Macclesfield and Whaley Bridge is currently closed and boarded. Apparently the recent severe winter weather led to the road being closed for weeks and the trade obviously disappeared. In an isolated moorland location with superb views, this is (or was) a true classic pub, with a rambling multi-roomed interior warmed by multiple real fires, and stone walls several feet thick. It has often appeared in the Good Beer Guide, although not in the current edition. Let’s hope the closure is only temporary and the brewery are able to find new tenants for the Spring and Summer.

SMOKING KILLS?

I agree with the sentiment in this blog piece - smoking didn't kill this chap - living did!

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/georgepitcher/100028258/the-sad-early-death-of-a-smoker-aged-85/

SMOKERS DIE YOUNGER?

This piece from Simon Clark's blog today rather begs the above question. Is all this health propaganda bollox?

Antis tend to dismiss this kind of case as being an exception to the rule but there are quite a few of these centenarians.

http://takingliberties.squarespace.com/taking-liberties/2010/3/7/still-smoking-and-drinking-at-100.html

NICK HOGAN - TARGET REACHED !!!

I am really busy this weekend finalising my short story, Great Granny's House, for my MA monthly assignment. and so I won't spend much time here boring Baz, in particular, with my thoughts on what we smokers and freedom loving non-smokers have acheived. Read Anna Racoon, Old Holborn and Simon Clark's blogs for the full update on how we reached the target to free pub landlord Nick Hogan within four days.

No one can say that this was not a great effort. I believe, and so do many others, that this has proved there is more public support for choice than oppression. ASH, which couldn't function without Pharmaceutical industry and Govt support, only raised £4000 in a year from public donations. Nick Hogan's fund trawled that in from willing donators within a few hours. The grand total in a week was more than £9,000 and money is still pouring in.

Bloody well done, everyone! Read all about it, and the rest, from the links below.

http://www.annaraccoon.com/politics/update-on-nick-hogan/

http://takingliberties.squarespace.com/taking-liberties/2010/3/5/nick-hogan-target-reached.html

http://bastardoldholborn.blogspot.com/2010/03/target-reached.html

A warm glow

I recently concluded a poll asking the question: “What gives you a positive feeling about a pub?” What I meant was not what leads you to go a particular pub in the first place, but what once you’re there what makes you think “ah, yes, this is all right.” There were 69 responses – not too bad, although well down on the 115 of its negative mirror image, and the results were as follows:

1. Real fires: 57 (82%)
2. Lots of handpulls: 48 (69%)
3. Beer garden: 37 (53%)
4. Sign saying “No children”: 34 (49%)
5. Home-made food: 33 (47%)
6. Small separate rooms: 32 (46%)
7. No piped music: 31 (44%)
8= Attractive bar staff: 28 (40%)
8= Friendly pub cat or dog: 28 (40%)
10. Free newspapers: 27 (39%)
11. Wood panelling: 26 (37%)
12. Free WiFi: 23 (33%)
13= Bar Billiards or other unusual pub games: 20 (28%)
13= Covered, heated smoking area: 20 (28%)
15= Bench type seating: 17 (24%)
15= Live music: 17 (24%)

A wide spread of responses there, with “real fires” not surprisingly topping the poll. Personally I don’t necessarily see “lots of handpulls” as a plus point, as I’ve been in too many pubs where the number of customers is scarcely greater than the number of pumps and you just know you’re going to get a warm, flat one. Interesting that “live music” was joint bottom – I know to many pubgoers this is a major plus point, but equally for the casual customer it is likely to be a turn-off.

Breaking the silence

There are some interesting motions on the order paper of CAMRA’s 2010 AGM, to be held next month in the Isle of Man. I was particularly struck by Motion 13:

This Conference censures the NE for failing to address and counter the ‘anti-alcohol lobby'. Its silence in the face of a continuing onslaught against even moderate alcohol consumption is counter to the aims of the campaign in encouraging responsible consumption of cask-conditioned beer.

Conference instructs the NE to mount a constructive rebuttal of the aims of the growing ‘anti-alcohol lobby' and a defence of the responsible consumption of cask beer at every opportunity.

Proposed by Peter Alexander
Seconded by Graham Donning

Perhaps somebody has been reading the poll I conducted a couple of months back. I wish them luck with it, but, realistically, until CAMRA realises that it cannot counter the anti-alcohol lobby effectively without to some extent making common cause with non real ale drinkers and at-home drinkers, it will simply be falling into the neo-Pros’ divide and rule trap.

Motions 5 and 16 may also lead to some lively debate.

Thorn buds again

Last year I reported how West Country cider drinkers were up in arms at the way Gaymers had reduced the strength and dumbed down the flavour of Dry Blackthorn cider. Today it’s been announced that, following a Facebook campaign, Gaymers have relented and agreed to make the original recipe available again. This shows that grassroots campaigning can work and underlines the point that big companies ignore their consumers at their peril.

Here come the chip police

The latest front to be opened up in the “war against obesity” is a campaign by the Food Standards Agency to encourage fish and chip shops to serve thicker chips, which absorb less fat and are thus supposedly healthier.

The FSA scheme will cover Cambridgeshire, Greater Manchester and Northern Ireland by the end of this month. Officials will visit 80 chip shops to examine how much fat is in their chips and offer advice.

If the pilot scheme is successful it will be rolled out across the country and last two years. Other small caterers including Indian and Chinese takeaways will be included.

It is naïve, though, to believe that this change can be sneaked in without anyone noticing it. As always, the possibility of unintended consequences is ignored. If the chips are no longer to their liking, people are likely to forsake fish and chips in favour of other fast food options which may contain even more calories and fat.

I’ve said on here before that I prefer my chips to be slim, crisp and thoroughly cooked – Burger King on a good day is my ideal. I already actively avoid chips in pubs because all too often they are flabby, half-cooked abominations. Now, if people actually prefer big fat soggy chips, then fair enough, but it is one thing to offer them the choice of the “healthier” option, something else entirely to give them no alternative.

In future, I can only see the scope of such arm-twisting initiatives widening. I continue to believe that within the next five years were will see brewers being “encouraged” to “voluntarily” reduce the strength of popular beer brands in a bid to cut alcohol related health problems – something that to a limited extent has already been happening, in particular with Stella giving up its 0.2% ABV strength advantage over most of its direct competitors.

CLICK, PRINT , DISTRIBUTE

It seems Nick Hogan's blogger's whip round is currently running at over £6,000. Keep the donations pouring in to Old Holborn's blog or print off this poster, designed by Grumpy Old Twat, take it to your local boozer, and go round with a bucket tp pick up what you can.

I CAN'T HELP IT

I'd be very diappointed if Nigel Farage wasn't the person the Belgiums claim he is!