James May sagt gegenüber LBC: „Es ist kein Scherz, eine Kneipe zu besitzen“, während er die Regierung auffordert, „den Gastwirten keine Steuererhöhungen ins Gesicht zu schlagen“.

Plenty of dosh in owning a pub. Perhaps James May is just pretty shit at doing it? 

edit: have struck a nerve with some of you.

He’s a washed up TV presenter.

Aren’t these taxes just back to normal because covid relief is expiring or something?

It isn’t just taxes that are causing pubs to go under. It’s the cost of goods, beer prices from suppliers, energy etc. the same cost of living crisis that’s affecting all of us. I’m not sure why pubs should get special treatment with tax relief to stay open if I don’t get special treatment to help me pay my mortgage.

Its the breweries that own pubs killing the business.

I’m not an expert on this but apparently there are freehold and leasehold pubs.

The Freehold ones own the pub outright and can buy their supply from whoever they want but the leasehold pub are forced to buy their supply from the landlords supplier and these are often inflated rates.

I was just thinking a solution to some pubs going out of business would be for the government to rule that leasehold pubs would be free to buy their supply on the open market, thus cutting their costs.

Plenty of pubs still doing well. He probably shouldn’t have set it up in the arse end of nowhere to flog his shit gin nobody buys.

Forever riding coattails even at his age. It’d be funny if it wasn’t so embarrassing

I used to go to the pub 4-5 times a week for 2-3 pints. I’ve been twice in the last 6 months and that was to meet family.

The reason is that I didn’t go for the beer, I went for the company of others. They have stopped going as often for a variety of reasons so now the guys and ladies are not there and I’m on my tod.

Pubs are no different to Chippies, both businesses are shutting in numbers because the British Public by and large have moved one.

That doesn’t mean that they are no longer viable businesses, I know both Chippies and Local Pubs which are doing a roaring trade and their respective owners are doing very well.

The issue is that there is no longer a bigger customer base to sustain both in the numbers that it used to and nothing will change that.

You can still open new chippies and pubs and be successful, you just have to put in for more background work before hand such as how much competition will you have, what is the make up of the local population, public transport links etc etc..

Many businesses have had to face changes and challenges due to many reasons, pubs are not a special case.

Tax is the main thing that has ruined the pub industry.

Another former Top Gear presenter with a newly-adopted hobby courts the support of people for whom it’s long been a way of life.

What’s next, Richard Hammond going into bat for our under-appreciated upper class?

I hope this doesn’t read as mean-spirited. Oh, and Save our pubs!

It is interesting that may calls pubs “They are not institutions, they are businesses”.

He is indicating several things here:

* All pubs are the same – they are not

* Pubs function as venues of business eg vendor of alcohol not as local community social space

As such I find a deep flaw in this assertion.

Historically, pubs originated from:

1. Public Houses where in Medieval times each house and the woman of the house especially brewed beer for drinking (small beer when brewing was primitive and as a substitute or complement to drinking water with more calories, antiseptic during meals, later on stronger beers) and could make a bit of extra on the side offering spare beer to agrarian workers or travellers etc.

2. Separation of vending beer and brewing was mainly a combination of taxation on alcohol (AGAIN! to raise more war funds!) and to separate spirits production to regulate that later on also. Basically the state muscling in again on businesses…

3. Pubs were just another feature of local communities and social options outside the house or work being limited hence their original appeal and success and historic role in UK. This has declined for over 100 years and more since mobility of people and more options and changes in society. But they still do play a role in various areas more remote the more so.

4. On top of the above alcohol can now be accessed via supermarkets and other vendors so this dampens pub vending appeal also.

5. Now add supermarkets are so much cheaper while comparatively pubs are costed with a higher tax burden to the size of their business by all measures in contrast ie two very different going concerns and the tax system is incoherent here – the numbers do not lie Tim Martin in his Wetherspoons magazine or News demonstrates this VAT (originally 8%! when first introduced, business rates, ratio of any cost rise to additional cost to pint is higher etc eg energy, salary, rates, licensing etc).

So back to the original observation:

A pub in a remote small village for example of heritage value should not be treated in the same business class, when it is a social hub as much as an vendor of alcohol aka a business as much as it is a society or club to compare business with social activity albeit they combine.

This is clearly different from a gastropub efficient business which aligns with the HYPER OVER-REGULATED technocracy world of today which in a sense “hates“ anything not standardized and apparently not “business efficient”, but this reality itself is artificial and a construct of politicians and bureaucrats not of peeple and how they choose to live…

Take it further, imagine all money is digital and each week or month you have a set ration of beer you can drink or miles you can drive etc… that is the forwards direction via the above macro process of which this specific example of pubs are all businesses and only efficient ones should run is compliant is where May’s argument lies unless it balances other non-measurable which are non-compliant, see Martin’s numbers.

I wonder if any cost/benefit analysis has been done on monies saved due to reduction of people drinking to oblivion in the city centres?