Another one down

Sad news that the Tiviot pub in Stockport town centre is to be demolished in eight weeks’ time. Apparently the building has been condemned as unsafe by the council, but it would not have been allowed to get into such a state if it had been seen as having more of a future.

Yes, it was tatty in places, but going through the door was like entering a timewarp back into the 1950s. It even still had wrought iron bar fittings – you don’t seen many of those around nowadays. Until fairly recently, it was one of the last Robinson’s pubs in Stockport to serve Mild and Best Bitter into oversize glasses using electric metered pumps. Licensee Dave Walker was one of the longest-serving in the Robinson’s estate, and had taken over the tenancy from his father.

Not surprisingly, the clientele tended towards the more mature end of the spectrum. It could be busy at lunchtimes, but was often quiet in the evenings. It was the epitome of what Cooking Lager would dismiss as “dumpy old men’s pubs”, and all the better for it.

We will not see its like again.

MORE DANGEROUS THAN SMOKING

This sort of gruesome incident of a python eating a toddler is enough to put anyone off keeping a snake as a pet.



Personally, I've never liked reptiles. They are slimy, revolting, and scary and there is nothing cuddly or companionable about them.



The couple who were more intellectually inadequate than intentionally neglectful, in my opinion, paid the ultimate price for that stupid or macho choice of pet. They lost their beloved daughter and were punished for it with 12 years in prison.



The snake was taken in by a rescue organisation and appears to have more respect from the state than the tragic couple and their family who may never comes to terms with what happened and how they facilitated it. You could say "it serves them right" but the malice is more in the mind of the state in looking for someone to blame than it was in their mind at the time of their daughter's death. If it was my kid, I'd want to slit that damn snake's throat.



I don't know how easy it is to get an exotic pet in the UK, or if you need a licence, but it appears there is black market for it. And I wonder how the authorities can check on households with this type of pet to make sure it doesn't get hungry enough to eat their kids or is able to escape to eat the neighbour's cat



There are obviously other exotic reptiles on the loose and the very thought of it makes my skin crawl.



They say that alleged sightings of black panthers in the UK began in the late 1970s after new rules on keeping wild pets led to many being abandoned in the British countryside.



That's why I also get a bit tetchy when I hear of this kind of enterprise. The thought of just one crocodile ever being able to make a dash for freedom and then snacking on unsuspecting picnickers by the riverside somewhere nearby is too horrible to contemplate.

SUPPORT FAIRNESS AND CHOICE

I see that Antony Worrall Thompson's E-Petition has finally been accepted by Govt. It is now the duty of everyone in this movement to do all they can to promote it and encourage others to sign.



Forest is making cards that can be given out to people who are not online and I am more than willing to help distribute these to smokers and their non-smoker friends both inside and outside of pubs and other hospitality establishments. I think all of us who have been making a noise online should get behind this and do our bit.







Of course there are other petitions which we should also sign and ask others to support. Links can be found at the end of this post. I've also signed this one although I do think ASH's days of leeching from the public purse are almost over. The DoH has achieved it's aim of promoting anti-smokerism to the point of smokerphobia among the general public by using ASH as a front group.



State health persecutor Anne Milton has already told me twice that no decision has been taken on whether ASH will be awarded our cash in 2011/2012. Maybe she doesn't need them anymore or recognises that now Big Pharma picks up most of ASH's tab.



I agree with Dick Puddlecote that we need to share AWT's E-petition around the web. I'll be posting links on Twitter and Facebook every day and there is a direct link to the E-petition on the left hand side of this blog.



All we are really asking for here is choice and fairness for both sides of this debate. I fail to see why such simple moral qualities are so hard to get back in our society.



Getting back some sort of perspective and common sense on the smoking issue is also why I've also signed this one calling for the price of tobacco in the UK to be made the same as the EU. I think it could be better worded but for me the only way to ensure that young people do not start smoking before they are old enough to make their own, informed choices, is to end the lucrative, unregulated, black market trade. This has become strong and dangerous because of prohibition and the unrealistic high cost of legal tobacco.