Our Pubs - Use them or lose them.

The government have missed a golden opportunity. Look back 20 years. I used to go into town of an evening, to one or other function. It was very quiet. No shrieking silly girls or mouthy yobs, as we have come to know so well - to our shame. Pubs were well run because they had a publican; somebody who was a professional, knew their trade and their customers and who were licensed by the courts to do their job. They knew that, if they put a foot wrong with the authorities for allowing drunkennes, rowdy behaviour, wrong sort of women, etc. they could easily find themselves out of a job at the next licensing session. We had an opportunity then to bring life to our towns with the granting of different sorts of licences, to create a cafe culture with seated customers only - as they do so well on the continent. It has long been known that standing drinkers are often belligerent troublemakers. Publicans knew how to deal with them and trouble on the streets was almost non-existant. So what happened? Tony Blair and his retinue of social reforming appeasers came along and gave us 24 hour drinking, supermarkets and corner shops selling booze at low cost, banned smoking - and consigned the traditional publican to oblivion. Anybody can run a pub now, in the full knowledge that the law cannot touch them. If you sell alcohol to children or allow drunkenness, you should lose your licence. Period! People are staggering around our town absolutely legless. They got like that in our licensed premises and those premises should be punished in the only way that fits - closure!