Drinking climate’s changing

http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/forum.ma/SaveGenericPost/74306

Paul Charity's general assessement reflects a more empirical overview than that of the Daily Mail. The direct outcomes of the implementation of the licensing act are more a case of work in progress than a shock horror naked drinkers' storm city centres that some non trade journalists would have us believe in their desire to sell column inches.

Britain has had its own 'cafe culture' since the dawn of history and it is PUBS. The shame for pubs is that Britain's narrow minded big business approach to retail has dominated progress in the pub market and never nurtured a discussion about what the pub really means to our society.

There has been little development of the concept of what the pub really means to our society, where pubs fit alongside rapidly changing cultural values, work patterns and expectations of family behaviour, or of how pubs sit in their role in local community cohesion and the changing needs and aspriations of their catchment.

Pubs have not evolved enough in line whith what is happening in British society. Lawmakers are out of touch because there is not a competent enough dialogue with the shop floor nor the consumer. Our Big Business Culture is a considerable part of this failiure.