Closing Time.

Yet another plug for Dave Osler. On his blog today he has a piece lamenting to demise of the old fashioned boozer, in his case a pub in North London called 'The Halfway House' which has now been rebranded 'The Camden Eye', complete with Wi-Fi access and continental barstaff but I suspect that many of us know just what he means. With a report recently published that states that something like fifty pubs a week are closing due to the recession and social change few would argue that the licensed trade does not need to move with the times but do we really want a situation where we end up with pubs being almost entirely under the control of chains like Wetherspoons, Harvester and Punch Taverns or entirely converted into wine bars and bistro's. Admittedly, as Dave Osler points out, the Olde English boozer could be intimidating to many women with perhaps an overly male clientele and there was a tendency for fights to break out on a saturday night, I dont see how replacing them with faceless, branded nonentities or extortionately priced fake continental cafes is any improvement.

Its a theme that this blog has touched upon before but again we raise the cry. WE still have three puns in the village, lets use them or we will surely lose them. And if we have a few spare quid in our pocket lets try to use the pubs in our neighbouring village, Thorverton. Especially the irreplaceble Exeter Inn.