I'm happy pubs are dying out

You’re generalising a bit!

Yes the sort of pubs you’re describing sound awful, but just across the square from us an amazing bar has opened, serving gorgeous wine and craft beer. I don’t go there a huge amount as we’re a bit older, but in spring and summer it was so lovely to see all these young people gathering in and outside, spilling almost into the road. It’s transformed the square and made it almost seem Mediterranean.

cost the NHS billions in the various cancers strokes and host of other comorbidities that crop up.

how is that the pubs fault?

We have great pub near us in South London run by an Irish couple. It has families in the beer garden, old boys in the back room watching GAA, groups of young people in the front bar chatting or watching tbe football, couples in the snug. Everyone gets on. They have tw
rad Irish music nights once a week and a pizza van on Fridays. It's ace and a real community hub, ealcially for young irish people in London for the first time.

I would be surprised if it was in pub social drinking rather than the at home wine bottles and preloading that causes harm anyway

Alright Mary Whitehouse!!

I went out last night for the first time in ages. Local independent selling lovely locally brewed ipa's.

Had a great night. But it was bloody expensive!

Proper little ray of sunshine aren't you OP? 🤣🤣

You're glad something that you don't like and don't use is dying out, so others can no longer enjoy them?

You sound like the spiteful primary school child who's glad it's raining at playtime, because they don't like playing outside.

My dad is 88, I take him to his local 3 nights a week between the hours of 6 - 7pm for him to spend 1 hour out of the house. It give him some much needed respite from caring for my mum who has Alzheimer's and allows him to watch some sky sports (they don’t have sky at home - too expensive). What would you have him do instead? Yoga? Don’t worry too much about him having a stroke due to alcohol- he only has 2 halves but even if he wasn’t so what? He’s going to die of something and probably fairly soon - he deserves what pleasures he can get at this point to be honest.

I miss the pubs of the 90’s and Noughties.
I used to work in the trade
The trade is dead for many reasons. We’ve lost a valuable community resource. The soul has gone.

I get cost to NHS from alcohol related disease as 4.9 billion and tax revenues from alcohol at 13 billion.

Smoking - cost to NHS 2.8 billion, revenue 8.1 billion

And that's not counting the reduction in pension costs /health costs due to dying sooner.

Where would you prefer “retired old boys” to socialise? Or do you just want them to miraculously disappear?

You do realise that, with a bit of good fortune, you will also be old one day?

Those that drink like that won't because pubs have closed. They will drink at home, in their gardens and on their balconies.
Plus pubs create lots of jobs throughout their chain. So lost jobs. And closed pubs mean empty run down towns as I don't see retail coming back massively. But if all that makes you happy, have at it. You might be luck. They might turn into amazon warehousing next

I think it's a shame for you to feel this way. Lots of people visit their local pubs to socialize and enjoy time out of the house. My mam is in her 70s and really enjoys going to the pub to watch a show a few times per week with her friends. For some people, the pub provides a sense of community and helps with loneliness. This post reminds me of the people wishing that lockdown was still a thing because the isolation made them happy. If you don't like the pub, don't go but wishing it away from those who enjoy it is just nasty.

With the massive amount of tax on alcohol, the costs to the NHS is more than covered.

Same with smokers.

It would be better to tax things like UPF food, increase sugar tax and even cannabis to buffer NHS costs.

Then we could leave people alone to enjoy what they wanted, safe in the knowledge that they'd already paid for it.

YABVU. The publicans work hard in an already really difficult industry. And often the pub is their business, home and they often have all their savings tied up in it.

As most others have said, what a ludicrous generalisation. Of course YABU @Raymondsam My village pub is a lovely little pub, and attracts people from mid 20s to mid 80s.

You utter killjoy/snob. Don’t like pubs? Don’t go then.

The 2 pubs in our rural village are the heart of the village. They provide employment and a sense of community.
Problem drinkers are as likely to drink at home than in a pub.

Yep another YABU from me. There are loads of great pubs in my town, independent, craft beers, board games, books, quizzes. It allows you to mix with people who aren't just like you..I was literally reading something the other day that said one if the reasons we've forgotten how to debate and disagree without hate speech, cancelling and violence is because we communicate on social media, via algorithms that put you in echo chambers rather than down the pub with a mix.
There's a pub in my town that has organised a mens group for socialising. The pub is the hub but they go on walks, organise activities, do charity and community work. It's brilliant and helping a lot of older men, divorcees or widowers who would be at risk of loneliness, mental health concerns etc. we have crappy chain pubs too but they're entirely different.

Also I Imagine a lot of problem drinkers are doing it in their own homes, not in pubs.

Ours are still great social hubs supporting the local communities - subsidising teas and coffees for the welfare groups , rooms or quiet corners for clubs to meet, live music. Save the NHS a fortune by enabling and supporting all these groups. The drunks are usually associated with the wakes for which I can cut them lots of slack. I think ours are independent of the big brewers.

guess it’s where you live not pubs in general. It would be devastating if we lost ours.

I'm in a local pub right now, we popped in for a pint after a long autumn walk. . They've just finised serving Sunday lunch which was full of young familes and couples. Now it is calmer and is mainly groups of friends, solo dog walkers and couples drinking and socialising.

They also hold social events such as life draweing, music nighta, comedy gigs etc.. it is a pleasant and buzzing social space. Maybe it's just where you live is a bit shit?

You are the first OP I genuinely want to fuck off.

you simply know nothing about how much pubs contribute to the economy or employment. Lose pubs and multiple other companies will also slip away.

not a single pub I know fits your description, it is not something I recognise at all and I regularly visit and deal with publicans for work.

God forbid people might actually want to socialise or relieve their loneliness. I suppose you'd prefer people to remain indoors on their own eating lettuce leaves 🙄

Our local pub is lovely! And there were lots of lovely bars in the town I used to live in. They are a place to meet, have fun, and provide jobs.
OP - pubs are easy to avoid!

I love my local pubs! I’d really miss them if they went. It’s nice to have a buzzing busy town centre. And lots of jobs.