July 01, 2008 22:07Brown the Barleycorn by Mike Clarke

Going along the public footpath in the grounds of Chequers, I noticed that the field in front of the Prime Minister's country residence was planted with some maturing barley. So Brown has the nerve to grow the raw material for the beer that he's put such a tax hike on. The government is raking in money from the beer drinker in tax and ingredients.

June 21, 2008 10:10Poppy Seed? by Mike Clarke

The Black Prince in Princes Risborough has transformed itself into the Poppy Seed. The sign says it's a freehouse -- so presumably still open to drinkers.

The pub recently only opened in the evenings but still had real ale available. Further investigations will need to be made.

June 17, 2008 15:07Don't Sup With The Devil by Mike Clarke

The Scottish trade body for licensed premises must be a desperate bunch to endorse the ludicrous, illogical and futile attack on civil rights that is said to be being considered by the Scottish government – raising the age limit to 21 for purchasing of alcohol for off-sales. They might think they will make a bit of business in the short-term if 18 to 21 year olds are forced to drink in their
pubs but surely they are not so naïve to think these draconian restrictions will end there. As soon as this proposal would be introduced, the prohibitionists
behind it would start to point at the trouble caused by pub binge drinkers in town-centres at closing time, domestic violence and so on.

CAMRA have recently woken up to the fact that this drip-feed of scare stories in the media about alcohol – usually one every day – is just a softening up tactic
for an ugly alliance of neo-prohibitionists, allied with a morally and financially bankrupt government desperate for tax revenue and other motley crew. For example,the sort of police chief who would prefer to his crime figures by imposing a 24-hour hour curfew everyday on everyone or doctors who believe patients have a duty to eliminate all health risk, however small – why do they allow people to drive cars one wonders?

There is no need for this pathetic legislation. The problems cited in Scotland apply to drinkers who are underage anyway – whose booze is most likely procured
for them by over-21s or sold by dodgy off-licences who know the kids are underage at the moment so a change of legal age would be completely irrelevant. Ironically, a police chief interviewed on Radio 4 seemed to agree with Tim Martin of Wetherspoons who suggested that supervised drinking in pubs was preferable to the current feral practices of swigging spirits on street corners – by contrast increased responsibility by publicans in checking drinkers’ ages has led to an increase in public nuisance. So much for the good intentions of the anti-drinking brigade (not that their arguments are anything other than a smokescreen for prohibition).

As the Westminster governments likes to do endlessly, the tin pot Scottish assembly seems set to introduce rrelevant legislation purely for symbolic and publicity purposes. The laws to deal with the problem exist. Why don’t the
police actually got out on the streets and dealt with the drunk and disorderly rather than lecture the responsible drinkers about the evils of drink. And why don’t they prosecute outlets that currently serve underage drinkers? It’s outrageous that the vast majority of Scottish 18 to 21 year olds who buy alcohol responsibly may end having their human rights removed because of the failure of the authorities to currently do their jobs properly. As ever in this anti-alcohol campaign, the fanatics try to tar the responsible majority with the misdeeds of the very small irresponsible minority.

The Scottish licensee trade body should be very careful about siding with those whose not very well hidden agenda is to destroy their trade.