There is only pubs
I ’ve been pondering whether to write something on the death of the Pub Curmudgeon , whose column in the Stockport CAMRA magazine and long running blog was always a must read. Whether you agreed with his view or not, he had something interesting to say and in the age of internet blogging he had the means. With a focus on lifestyle issues as much as beer and pubs he soon developed a blog that was…
I don’t often blog but I wanted to tell the story of a pub crawl I didn’t go on. A niece of mine recently turned 18 and her weekend celebrations involved a pub crawl and house party. I can speak of the latter being a fun evening, but this is the short tale of the former. A cheeky WhatsApp informed me my niece was starting her evening out in a Wetherspoons. The app is the greatest innovation of the…
During the Covid pandemic the hospitality industry was subject to a series of idiotic nonsensical restrictions that at the time the majority of politicians, journalists, commentators and the public vigorously supported. I would credit most of the restrictions to be well intentioned but ultimately governed by ignorance and fear with a significant degree of group think. Not mixing, touching or…
Eating a free Big Mac I “won” on the McDonalds app has prompted this download of thoughts. Over the past couple of years a combination of factors have changed much of customer service either for the better or worse, depending on your opinion. Increasing costs of hiring minimum wage employees either via national insurance hikes or hikes to the minimum wage have prompted employers to alter those…
By far the largest part of Schumachers book is in regard to the third world and this section really hasn’t aged well at all. The world is different place 50 years on, but it exposes in one way just how little economic progress some countries have developed and just how much progress countries have made. Schumachers approach is very much a what we can do for them or really to them, not how can we…
In the second and third parts of book, Schumacher tackles resources & the third word. The resources Schumacher addresses are education, land, the inputs of industry, nuclear energy and something he describes as “technology with a human face” The first four of these are the type of arguments you could easily make today and often see writers in the Guardian do if you’re bored enough to read that…
This was meant to be the post. Honest. A look at E.F Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful as an explainer of the underlying philosophy of the Campaign for Real Ale. Explaining why the preference for small breweries and independent pubs. Explaining why went on longer than I expected and it’s bloggery so there’s no editor crossing stuff out. Part 1 of Schumachers book addresses what he sees as the modern…
Don’t worry 70s economics fans, a deep dive into Schumacher is coming but before then a wander around what once was an iconic pub crawl of these parts and what it means to me personally. The hillgate mile was many years ago an iconic pub crawl in and around Stockport. A strip with a high density of pubs that had come about to service high density housing and factories in the area. Much of that…
What? This was meant to be a beer blog. About beers that rarely get a mention but seem to sell and pubs that also rarely get a mention because they don’t quite appeal to the middle-class enthusiast. Not just keg boozers but pubs whilst seem to hold a cultural place in society but are largely ignored by enthusiasts or campaigners. This is none of that. It’s a short series of blogs about CAMRA and a…
Every so often a short video of a British pub goes what is known as “viral” on the internet. In that it passes like a virus as everyone that sees it wishes to share it, and thus if you are on social media, you will see it several times from several sources. It tends to be part of a theme of video that either laughs at or laughs with a particular section of society, depending on your own personal…
This blog had intended to be regular thing. A jaunt around pubs not usually given a mention on beer blogs. Blogs tend to centre around the CAMRA or craft beer clique recommended, such is the nature of beer and pub enthusiasm which focuses on real ale / craft beer and the pubs that you might want to gamble on serving it well. I long felt there were many pubs of merit that remain ignored if one…
For the #Pubman, pubs matter. Do they matter more than life? Pubs are life. Do pubs exist because of #pubmen or do #pubmen exist because of pubs? A question that was at the heart of René Descartes ’ first principle, but being French and what with France having bistros and not pubs he decided to alter his principle to “c ogito, ergo sum ”, or "I think, therefore I am". He thought he was being…
It’s all about the pubs. It was only ever all about the pubs. The vibrant living hubs that connect people and provide the special elixir of sparkled cask condition bitter from which the spoken and written word emerged and civilisation born. It was all about the pubs then. It is all about the pubs now. The constant call of every man born to be a Pub Man. A cold January Sunday afternoon. The dull…