I'm happy pubs are dying out

[Raymondsam]

In my town at least.

Maybe decades ago the argument could be made that they're social hubs for people to unwind, meet and have a good time on a weekend.

Nowadays they're just hovels where mostly retired old boys go to binge drink in the daytime and cost the NHS billions in the various cancers strokes and host of other comorbidities that crop up.

The three biggest ones in my town are the typical chain owned leasehold places. Big companies that own hundreds of pubs all over the country. They treat the leaseholders like crap, if they start to turn a decent profit they up the rent.

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.

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.

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 🤔

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?

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.

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.

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

What a strange thing to be happy about.

Rage bait.

And ridiculous.

Our village pub is nothing like your description.

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.

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.

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.

You don't like them ?
So what ?

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

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!

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

Pubs are lovely where I am.

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?

Glad to see the back of the crappy ones near me but more than happy to patronise the one about 20 mins from my home with good food, live bands, a family-friendly beer garden and a great atmosphere

God what a miserable lazy written almost deliberately goady thread ….

I think it's sad - back in my youth the local pub near home or work was where you met blokes in a much better way than in nightclubs. You would see the same person repeatedly and get to know them gradually.

I met my late DH in the local pub near my workplace. There was about 30 of us from all walks of life who got to know each other there, it was bloody great!

Sounds like you live somewhere with crap pubs.

I couldn't be happy about businesses shutting down, owners and staff losing jobs, suppliers losing income, buildings often left vacant, etc.

No, can't take happiness from someone else's misfortune.

Alcoholics will always find a way to drink. Even if every pub shut down tomorrow. Alcoholism wouldn't be eradicated.

Or on the streets. Problem drinkers drink for the effect not for company and won't usually pay pub prices when they can get the really strong stuff from the local shop. I don't drink but I like to go to the pub now and again , have a meal and socialise. I've got no problems with anyone drinking sensibly and being a bit merry.

I'm just back from a local social thing at the pub

I don't see anyone else apart from them a couple of times a month. I'm completely isolated. Most of the time I cope alright with it, but I'm having a really hard time at work at the moment.

Isolation is the main reason I'm on here. Being in the pub and actually having face-to-face contact and much needed hugs was incredibly valuable. The group was women and one man.

I'm interested to know why you're so angry at them that you want them to close down. I don't use bowling alleys, but I'm not wanting them to be closed down.