I'm happy pubs are dying out

I am getting so fed up of MN being full of threads with inflammatory openings, about subjects that apply to many and where the OP doesn't interact with anyone.

Click bait?

It sounds like a problem with your town rather than with pubs.

Pubs are lovely where I am.

What the OP has failed to acknowledge is that the pub, for some who live alone, is often their only social outlet. It might be that elderly man who’s lost his wife, kids live some distance away, having a pint in the evening, often sitting alone and maybe having a chat with the bar staff but quite often not……take that away OP and what has he got? …….bugger all!

Besides binge drinking, I think pubs have always served a social purpose..this post seems needlessly confrontational.

You don't like them ?
So what ?

Yeah, great isn’t it. All those people losing their jobs, the supply chain having to shut down and more people lose their jobs. It’s really great news all round.
Oh wait, never mind.

My lovely local indie is not like that at all! Think well kept country pub, good local food offering decent selection of drinks. Its definitely a central point of our community, its where you go for literally every sort of meeting, from the allotment committee to the pta to the knitting club, and has a thriving younger patronage too.

I could do without the millions of chicken shops that seem to have taken over from everything else.

Nothing to do with obesity, I just don’t understand why every town needs about 10 of them.

Our village pub is nothing like your description.

Rage bait.

And ridiculous.

What a strange thing to be happy about.

Shall we get rid of fast food joints and bakeries as well, whilst we're at it, given the amount obesity costs the nhs?

YABU. One of the best things about pubs are there are so many different types. Trendy microbreweries, family friendly ones with play areas and food, cheap and cheerful spoons, old lags' boozers, etc.

Where else would you go if you wanted to meet up with a group after about 5pm? Other than restaurants (and most people can hardly afford/might not want to drop that much on food often) there's nowhere.

Last year I met up with a friend who’d moved to a new area in her local pub - it really made me realise what these places do well. It was about 6.30pm and there were families playing board games, trades people chatting at the bar, a couple of elderly people eating on their own quite contentedly, and everyone seemed to know each other. It was just lovely.

If only we'd known years ago that the answer to saving the NHS was to just shut the pubs?
How did we not all see it?

Wow! You have to be a special kind of moron to be 'happy' people are being put out of work and those who enjoy pubs are being left with nowhere to go. You sound like a peach 🤔

Instead of moaning about pubs (and the alcohol consumption raising more in taxes than alcohol related disease costs yhd NHS) why don’t you campaign for better women’s health services? The dire lack of them costs the exact bing £11 billion per year and women being ignored, gaslighted and left unable to wirk doesnt havd any kind of offset.

So OP - let's look at your of the cost to the NHS, the economy, crime etc from alcohol consumption. The overall cost is estimated to be £33 billion per year, however the tax raised from alcohol is only £15 billion per year. So yes there is a net cost to the country from the consumption of alcohol.

However 85% of all the alcohol consumed in the UK is sold by supermarkets, stores, off licences etc (ie not pubs).

So if the concern is genuinely to reduce alcohol consumption then massively raising the cost of alcohol through taxation sold in stores / supermarkets (and not pubs) would be the way forward.

They’re not costing the NHS millions - the revenue created from alcohol tax is in the billions

Those "old boys costing the NHS millions" have probably worked for decades and paid their tax and national insurance. Some will be likely to suffer industrial diseases from hard work in factories, mines etc.
At least the NHS isn't having to spend fortunes on botched tit and arse enlargement and turkey teeth as seems to be the norm these days!!

Where on earth do you live that this is your impression of pub culture?

There are brilliant pubs all over the country. Yeah, you get that certain chain that everyone knows and has a reputation, but on a Friday and Saturday night they are heaving with all sorts of different people. Friends, students, work colleagues, people starting their night, people having dinner.

I live in a smallish town and even we have a load of brilliant pubs that are clean, friendly, offer quiz nights and live music. Hold events for the community. I bloody love the pub scene!

@Allywill ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Oh. Your 80 year old dad taking care of your mum with Alzheimers broke my heart. All the best to hi and all of you. May He enjoy many hours at the pub

Right ?!

Whilst the cost to the nation of poorly funded women’s gyne services is 11 billion per year