[Tubby Isaacs]

Pubs and churches. Both very English, both very popular with the Right. Both would be doing well if the people who say they like them ever went through their doors.

See also village shops.

[davidjay]

There seems to be some obsessive narrative about pub closures being down to the government when in truth they've been closing since the war. I could give a dozen or more reasons, everything from post-industrialisation to Netflix, but the biggest one is that people, especially young people, don't drink anywhere near as much anymore. Maybe it's cost, maybe it's a reaction to the binge drinking of the previous generation, but the pub-going habit has been lost. Yet still the slur continues, with CAMRA being the biggest culprit. They won't tackle the PubCos and Tim Martin but they will attack the government.

[Boiler]

I dumped my CAMRA membership: one could argue that it has achieved its original aims therefore it doesn't really need to exist now.

[davidjay]

I dumped my CAMRA membership: one could argue that it has achieved its original aims therefore it doesn't really need to exist now.

I wouldn't agree with that, as proper beer and pubs still need to be promoted but their clear agenda puts me off. It seems that they'll attack anyone who's remote (government, international brewing conglomerates) but anyone who might do them a few favours (mid-sized brewers, JDW) get a free pass. Then there's their members, many of whom are a right royal pain in the arse.

[Boiler]

I dumped my CAMRA membership: one could argue that it has achieved its original aims therefore it doesn't really need to exist now.

I wouldn't agree with that, as proper beer and pubs still need to be promoted but their clear agenda puts me off. It seems that they'll attack anyone who's remote (government, international brewing conglomerates) but anyone who might do them a few favours (mid-sized brewers, JDW) get a free pass. Then there's their members, many of whom are a right royal pain in the arse.

Some of whom, sadly, deserve the Davey Jones treatment.

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[Tubby Isaacs]

Today's "just cough up more money, Reeves" article is relatively benign. £30m for the Southbank Centre.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... s-the-past

I love the Southbank Centre, and the point is made (fairly) that the Grade 2 listing will make it much harder to reconfigure the building so it can earn more income. But isn't this what the tourist tax is for? I'd not be surprised if Nandy thought that this £30m might usefully go outside London.

[Youngian]

£30m is a lot of bread sticks.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Guardian surely knows that Blair didn't "decide that everyone had to have a degree", but prints a letter to that effect anyway. And it probably knows that the 50% wasn't "young people", unless that terms has expanded to include 30 year olds.

Do they actually want the Reform narrative around universities to exist?

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2 ... iversities

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Yes.
I think it's the old 'cause a revolution and the left will take over' Bolshevik ploy.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I can't tell whether it's that or "get Labour out and Zack takes over immediately". Either way, the Government has to go, I get that.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Crime isn't crime when it's done by middle class people, latest.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... arch-finds

The criminalisation of direct action climate protests in the UK is counterproductive and increases the determination of activists to undertake disruptive demonstrations, according to a study of 1,300 campaigners.

New findings suggest arrests, fines and lengthy prison sentences given to nonviolent climate protesters who have blocked roads or damaged buildings may actually radicalise them. The repression of protest could even be one driver of recent covert actions such as the cutting of internet cables, they said.

So no measure of actual offences committed or anything like that. They... spoke to people who don't want to go to prison who told them that being sent to prison is bad. I don't want to overdo the "middle class" aspect of this, but I'd guess these people want people who persistently commit crimes against people like them to be put in prison. Nobody would even think of doing a survey of burglars or car thieves and attaching meaning to them saying prison was bad for them.

If people say "going into prison has only confirmed my determination to come out and commit crime" then a logical response is to put them in prison for longer. Sure, non custodial stuff can work, but it can only work if you obey court orders, pay fines. That's not something lots of these people are prepared to do.