Memorandum from The Royal Standard of
England (DDD 02)
Please do not change anything to do with limits
over driving limits.
The pub in the country or village is the last
piece of British culture that is only just surviving the current
regulations and taxes.
The pub is the last bastion of British Culture
and acts as the glue for social cohesion within communities, particularly
in the country or village pub. Ask any visitor to the UK and they
will want to visit a pub -the pub is an institution envied throughout
the world.
Please ask your Tourist Board colleagues the
figures for foreign visits to a pub to see the importance of supporting
the pub.
For many communities the local pub is the only
social life people have in their lives as the local high street
shops have gone due to supermarket power. They are now being viewed
as assets within the community.
Successive Governments have backed the supermarket
lobbyists over the local high street shops this effects the cohesion
of the local community.
Village shops and regional differences are disappearing
through the power of the supermarkets and out of town shopping.
Supermarkets encourage promotions of cheap booze
and take home convenience food. Britons stay at home and vegetate
in front of the telly. Is this a Briton we want to live in, behind
walls? Obesity has increased there is a link Government regulations
and taxes have caused an underclass to grow, people that cannot
develop any social skills and are a burden to the taxpayer.
The supermarkets have increased the nations
alcohol consumption mainly by cheap wine and spirits sales. The
pub gets battered again by the "Health Taliban" as one
size fits all regulation or tax. Alcohol abuse is a burden to
the taxpayer—not in my pub, it is the home drinkers. Kids
drink in the streets with booze bought in from supermarkets/off
licences not pubs.
Wine is imported and sold by supermarkets. Beer/Ale/cider
is craft brewed locally in the UK and sold by local pubs—this
is a no-brainer—support the UK local businesses.
Pubs do not fly in vegetables from overseas
either, we use local produce. Supermarkets are too big to do this
and where they do they are aggressive to local farmers. They are
changing our quality of life through convenience.
Why do customers come by car? 95% of my customers
come by car and most customers would love to walk down our lane
but they are not safe,with cars going by, what else can they do?
Secondary to the drink drive limits is the safety
of the roads for pedestrians on my local roads. There are no footpaths
for walkers and there are no local buses. Where have the Green
buses gone? There is no political will to redress this.
To lower the driving limit increases the cost
of visiting the pub mini cabs are expensive and cost more than
four pints.
Governments have made laws for large town pubs
that have not been appropriate for the country or village pub.
We had better a transport network and a more
cohesive social structure in the past and this has been legislated
away since 1947?
We need national foot paths and bicycle paths
along side our country roads.
Those that break the limits will always break
the limit, not those who do not. Most customers have learnt what
they can drink (two pints of ale below 4% over an hour) within
the current limits and to change it will mean confusion to drinkers
and a loss of sales and more pubs shutting. A loss to local economies.
Not all pubs can convert to being a restaurant
and subsequent loss of pub culture.
Common sense please.
July 2010
| 
