Mailwatch(ed) Forum

davidjay wrote: ↑Thu Feb 19, 2026 4:52 pm 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.

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.

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

Boiler wrote: ↑Thu Feb 19, 2026 10:38 pm 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.

davidjay wrote: ↑Thu Feb 19, 2026 10:56 pm

Boiler wrote: ↑Thu Feb 19, 2026 10:38 pm 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.

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.

£30m is a lot of bread sticks.

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

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

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.