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The 24 hour opening myth 2010-02-16 If you have been watching David Dimbleby's Seven Ages of Britain on BBC, there was a wonderful account of the 'Field of the Cloth of Gold', when Henry VIII took his court to France and showed off England's wealth and power. A painting of the time records the scene, including a magnificent temporary palace, built from brick, canvas and wood, complete with real leaded windows, which in Tudor times were wildly extravagant. In front of it was a fountain which ran with wine instead of water. Dimbleby points out figures at the fountain who have over-indulged and are vomiting. Dimbleby shrugs it off as a 'well that's the English for you.' We seem to delight in perpetuating this image of ourselves, the drunken English, overdoing it and behaving badly. The Brits abroad (now including our UK cousins) have a bad reputation for rowdy and drunken antics, some of it deserved. But this image is of course not the true picture. Thousands of Brits go abroad and behave impeccably. Hundreds of thousands go to the pub every day and do not cause trouble in any way. I can't remember the last time I went to a pub and saw dreadful drunkenness. I don't recall ever seeing a fight in a pub, or outside one for that matter, and I've been to a few. Which brings me to a conversation the other day, when the subject of 'binge Britain' came up and the finger of blame was pointed at pubs and 24 hour opening. Now there are a few hundred pubs on this site and not one opens 24 hours. In fact you'd be hard pressed to find one open past 2am and then only on a Friday or Saturday. When the flexible hours came in, many pubs opened an hour later and closed at their normal time. Most pubs, even in the wicked city, close at 11pm or midnight and a late night pint in a pub is not always easy to find. A lot of the criticism aimed at pubs comes from people who never use them. Sure there are some rowdy dives, which no doubt do all-you-can-drink deals, but the vast majority don't, they keep an orderly and respectable house. Their customers are respectable and law abiding too, they don't drink to excess and have homes to go to and families to consider. Besides 2am is way past my bedtime. Cheers. |
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