Virtue signalling is killing the pub trade this January

It probably comes as no surprise to readers of this blog to learn that Dry January is hitting pubs and clubs hard. Some members of the trade are now suggesting that  Alcohol Concern, the charity behind this fad, should find a better way to raise money without hitting local businesses.

According to reports more than five million people in the UK claim they are going without a drink during January, a figure which is up by a million on last year. Not surprisingly many pubs, and even breweries, are struggling to cope with such a massive dip in trade, and with pubs closing at a rate of four per day - the highest shrinkage since 2004 - there are concerns that the number of people starting the year by giving up on the booze, could tip many businesses over the edge.

Dry January is just one of a number of campaigns to get people to give up alcohol. Others have included Go Sober for October and Dryathlon, but as one industry observer pointed out, "These are methods of reducing alcohol consumption in a part of the population where drinking is not a problem." 

Tom Stainer, CAMRA's new Chief Executive said: "As an organisation which helps to support pubs, we believe there are other ways in which people can be encouraged to support charities, without being a detriment to small businesses." He went on to say, "This is already a difficult time of year for pubs, and a few quiet weeks can sometimes mean the difference between surviving or not."


It is worth noting that the number of pubs has slumped from 69,000 in 1980 to fewer than 50,000 today. In 1979 pubs sold 29.2m pints of beer a day, but this fell to 10.9 million last year.

The Dry January campaign was founded four years ago by Alcohol Concern, a registered "charity" which also happens to be a front for the temperance movement. The latter of course are pressing for further restrictions on drinking and curbs on people’s enjoyment, so the news that this year's campaign is being backed by Public Health England, a quango affiliated to the Department of Health, is doubly unwelcome.

Martin Caffrey, of the Federation of Licensed Victuallers, hit back against this government-backed interference in the licensed trade, by saying "We know millions have signed up to go dry in January, but our argument is that as an organisation we promote responsible drinking right through the year. That's the way people should treat alcohol."

January is the worst month possible for people to be abstaining, especially as far as the licensed trade is concerned. I know from the personal experience of running an off-licence that whilst Christmas is undoubtedly good for trade, you definitely feel the flip-side come January. After the over-indulgence and massive over-spend of the festive season, trade in January falls off a cliff. This plays serious havoc with your cash flow, as the Christmas bills all start to come in.

January can be the month which breaks a publican’s business. This one month can undermine all the hard work of the year before and, at a time when most people are looking forward to the year ahead, starts the New Year off on a real low. If you really care about our pubs it is definitely NOT the month to be going dry!

Before ending, I wish to state I have nothing against people who, for genuine health or indeed personal reasons, wish to abstain from drink for a period of time, but it should be noted there are no proven health benefits from giving up alcohol completely unless, of course, one has a serious drink problem or is a registered alcoholic. Cut down, if you must and drink sensibly, and if it genuinely makes you feel good then fine; but please leave out the self-satisfied smugness and please don’t plaster your “achievement” all over social media.

IT problems plus the threat of snow

I’ve experienced a few computer/internet problems recently. First there was my laptop, which has died a death. I mentioned this in my final post of 2018, but any thoughts I had of a work colleague being able to fix it were dashed by the news that the hard-drive is kaput.

My colleague asked whether I had dropped the laptop, and thinking back I do remember it sliding off a chair whilst we were on holiday, back in September. As it was in my rucksack at the time, I thought it was OK, but the fact that one of the corner clips broke off is indicative of possible internal damage, and would explain why the machine kept crashing.

Apparently, hard drives are susceptible to knocks and especially to sideways blows – something to do with the internal platens, but the long and the short is by the time I pay someone to remove the back (my colleague and I both tried, without success), and install a replacement drive, I’m not far off the price of a new laptop.

So that’s something to look into, as I miss the portability and flexibility which the laptop gave me, but it does also serve as warning to be careful when transporting these machines.

Moving on, it was a case of no internet connection when I arrived home from work this evening. I was confronted by a disgruntled wife and an equally unhappy son, both of whom seem incapable of living without broadband.

To be fair, Mrs PBT’s works from home, and much of what she does relies on being connected. Son Matthew, less so, although as his Smartphone has been playing up, he too was missing being online. Mrs PBT’s thought the problem may have been caused by the builders, who are in the process of re-vamping our bathroom. The power supply to the router had been disconnected for a while, and then after switching it back on, the device refused to boot up properly.

 I put my foot down and told them both that I would look at it after I’d had my dinner, which I did, trying first all the usual self-diagnostic solutions. Eventually I called BT, using the landline – which was still working.

To cut a long story short, I spoke to a very helpful lady in Stockport, who ran a series of diagnostic tests, to check that both the phone and broadband lines were OK. They were, which then pointed to the router. We’ve had trouble with this re-booting before, especially when switching the device back on after returning from holiday, but what I didn’t realise is there’s a re-set button at the back, which can be accessed using an opened up paperclip. This resets the device.

With the helpful lady on the phone, I did as instructed and held the wire clip in position for 30 seconds. The router re-booted and went through its usual sequence of coloured lights, but his time, instead of flashing orange, it changed to blue and stayed on blue. The end result, broadband back up and running and a happy wife and son!

Apparently, routers do need to be re-set from time to time, and I was was told that is wouldn't hurt to do this on a monthly basis, and certainly whenever the power is disconnected. (I wish I'd known this before).

So full marks to BT, and their helpful customer assistant. I can’t remember her name, but she told me it was snowing quite heavily in Stockport, as we spoke. I thanked her for her help and wished her luck for her journey home. I’m quite used to driving in snow, although it’s not something I relish. I imagine she must have felt the same.

As I type, I been told that It’s snowing down in Hastings, but so far there’s no sign of the white stuff here. However, with snow showers forecast for the weekend, I’m quite pleased that my visit to Norfolk has been postponed until the weekend after. I could think of worse places to be stranded though!

Lifting the gloom

It was pretty obvious from my post yesterday, especially after re-reading it in the cold light of dawn, that there was more than a touch of melancholy about me. But after a good night's sleep I woke up feeling refreshed, and with the sun shining through the trees behind the house my mood shifted and whilst I didn't exactly leap out of bed, I still felt fired up and ready to face the world again.

The sunshine didn't last, but we'd already decided to take a drive down to Bexhill-on-Sea, in order to visit Mrs PBT's sister and her husband. So shortly before midday, we headed off in a roughly south-easterly direction, along the A21.

Upon reaching the outskirts of Hastings, and before turning off towards Bexhill, we called in at the large Sainsbury's superstore, to pick up a few items of shopping and, more importantly, to fill the car up with fuel. Diesel is around 6p a litre cheaper in this part of Sussex than it is in Tonbridge, so it makes sense to take advantage of this price differential.

We spent a pleasant afternoon catching up on family news, before moving onto the subject of cruising. I probably mentioned in a previous post that the pair of us are looking at taking a short cruise this spring, so as my sister-in-law and her husband are avid cruisers it made sense to have a chat about the various options on offer.

Before heading for home, we rounded the afternoon off with some rather nice fish & chips, bought from a chippy just a short drive away, called Peter's Fish Bar.  The latter establishment is obviously a family-run business, with Peter doing the fish frying, and his son taking the orders and then wrapping them for customers. This meant that both the cod and the chips were freshly cooked, and all the better for it.

Now we're back home, I thought I'd share a few beer-related good news stories, to further help lift the gloom. The first story is a report from veteran beer writer Roger Protz, on the very welcome news that, after years in the doldrums, dark beers are making a comeback. As consumers rush to embrace the rich flavours of beers made with roasted malts, there were reports of some Tesco stores selling out of stout over the Christmas period.

You will need to click on the link to read the whole story about  porters and stouts coming into their own, but with winter still firmly in charge of our weather, there's still plenty of time to stock up on some of the fine dark ales available in local pubs and shops. My only regret is still not having sampled any of the delectable Harvey's XXXX Old Ale, this season.

Another positive story, albeit not a local one, is the news that the Black Sheep Brewery of Masham, have bought the York Brewery, thereby rescuing it from administration.. The move will safeguard  40 local jobs, and  will see York Brewery and its brands continuing in operation. The full story is again available on this link to Roger's site.

Kim Traynor [CC BY-SA 3.0 ], from Wikimedia Commons

The final item of good news is the fact that Scottish Brewers, Belhaven, will be celebrating their 300th anniversary, later this year.  Established in 1719, Belhaven is Scotland’s oldest working brewery, and has been making beers at its historic site on the outskirts of Dunbar, around 20 miles east of Edinburgh, ever since. It took its name Belhaven, which means “beautiful harbour”, from its attractive coastal location.

Belhaven has unveiled a year-long programme of celebrations to mark its tri-centenary, and amongst the events planned to mark the 300th anniversary are the opening of a £500,000 visitor centre, scheduled for this summer, a summer music festival plus 300 days of celebrations across Belhaven and Greene King pubs.

Greene King  pubs are involved because they purchased Belhaven Brewery in 2005. Prior to this, the brewery had a succession of different owners, and when I first read about the company - in Frank Baillie's pioneering "Beer Drinker's Companion", Belhaven was known as "Dudgeon & Co Ltd".

Jeff Alworth [CC BY 2.0] , via Wikimedia Commons

Back then the brewery only had a handful of pubs, but over the years, and prior to the Greene King  acquisition,  Belhaven had built up a tied estate which approached nearly 100 pubs. To their credit, Greene King have invested heavily in the Dunbar site, installing a new brew-house on the historic site, which was  officially opened by HRH Princess Anne in January 2013.

To mark the tri-centenary, Belhaven is launching a specially brewed birthday celebration pale ale, appropriately called 1719. The new beer incorporates three centuries of brewing expertise to create a modern session pale ale, which is triple-hopped using Centennial, Mandarina Bavaria and Galaxy hops. With an ABV of 4.5% , 1719 has notes of citrus and tropical fruit, and  will be available on cask, keg and in 330ml bottles throughout 2019.

The final word comes from Managing director Matt Starbuck, who said,  “We are continuing to invest in Belhaven with a new visitor centre opening this year, bringing tourism to Dunbar, and warmly welcome fans of Belhaven beer to join us in celebrating the brewery birthday this year.”

Maybe it's the time of year, Or maybe it's the time of man

Perhaps it was a case of too much fresh air on last Sunday’s walk, but the annoying dry cough I developed that day turned into full-blown “man-flu” – Mrs PBT’s words, not mine. I’m not normally one to take much notice of comments like, “There’s a lot of it going around”, but this particular virus does seem to have laid low quite a few of my work colleagues.

It’s left me feeling quite lethargic, and lacking in energy, sufficiently so to have skipped my regular lunchtime walk these past three days. Of more concern though is I've been off my beer as well, but with work on our much-delayed bathroom re-vamp finally underway, I’ve been understandably pre-occupied with other things. The immediate pressure at my work-place seems to have slackened off a little, but it's now a question of all change at the top, with the appointment, at last, of a replacement to fill the void left by the sudden death, last summer, our able and well-liked General Manager. The latter individual will be a hard act to follow, and we will have to see how things turn out.

Most people are creatures of habit, who resist change, rather than embracing it, but with some major changes in our relationship with the world's largest trading block, (the one right on our doorstep), looming on the horizon, it's no wonder many UK citizens are feeling confused at best, or angry at worst, with a mixture of sadness and regret, somewhere in between. The uncertain times we live in are a direct result of allowing  the egos of this world to run riot, throwing common-sense out of the window and now, following recent events in Parliament over the past few days, an even greater degree of uncertainty has been thrown into the mix, which is bad news for those of us who just want to get on with our daily lives.

Business needs stability in order to invest and look to the future; something politicians keep failing to understand, but having uncorked the bottle and released the genie of populism onto a susceptible population, it turns out that those responsible have no idea of what to do next, let alone how to get that malign spirit back to whence it came. A spat within the governing party has been allowed to spill over and infect the whole country with its divisiveness, and the irony is it has been over an issue which the majority of people knew very little and cared even less about, prior to 2016. 

I don't want to get too political, especially as this post is more about moods and feelings, and I'm certain that it's a combination of the time of year and just feeling a little run down, so to end on a slightly higher note, and also in continuation of the classic Joni Mitchell song, whose lines form the title to this piece, "And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden."

Blowing away the cobwebs

Early on Sunday morning, four members of our “Weekend Walking Group” met up opposite the Vauxhall pub, on the edge of Tonbridge. I was one of the four, and in the absence of any further takers we set off to walk to the Dovecote Inn, at the small hamlet of Capel.

Actually I don’t know whether a settlement with a 13^th Century church constitutes a hamlet or not, but that is a question for pedants. However, this lovely little church which is dedicated to St Thomas à Becket, is now redundant – reflecting either the decline in the local population, or the that of the popularity of churchgoing.

I digress, but this walk to Capel is one our group has undertaken on a number of previous occasions, and as I have also written several posts about the walk as well, I was looking for something different to say.

Our route out of Tonbridge led us past the ornamental lake, at the bottom of the grounds of Somerhill House, a Grade I listed Jacobean mansion which, after a long and rather mixed history, now houses a collection of fee-paying schools. It is said to be  the second largest house in Kent, after Knole House, in Sevenoaks.

The feeder road, up from nearby Tudeley Lane, is not a place for the faint-hearted, at the end of the school day, as all the “yummy mummies” jockey for place, manoeuvring their over-sized SUV’s, up and down the narrow road with all the finesse of a column of Russian tanks, in order to collect their little darlings. Thankfully, Sunday is a quiet day, and apart from the occasional group of walkers, we had the grounds, and the area of woodland at the back of the house, to ourselves.

Coming out of the woodland, the path descends to a valley, before crossing a stream. From there it’s across a field and onto a short stretch of the B2017 road, before  heading off in a mainly southerly direction and into another area of woodland. The latter looks especially lovely during late April and early May, when the woodland floor is carpeted with a stunning display of bluebells, but being mid-January it looked very bare and rather drab.

We eventually left the woods behind us, and after passing along a narrow country lane headed off towards Capel in a north-easterly direction. We could see the church in the distance, so knew that the Dovecote would be close at hand, and roughly two hours after setting off, we found ourselves at the rear of the pub. After pausing to remove our muddy boots, we stepped inside.

We had purposely arrived early, working on the premise that the Dovecote would be filling up with Sunday diners, and whilst the restaurant area to the left of the bar, was reserved, there were plenty of tables at the opposite end of the pub. There were three old boys sat at the bar, and the talk was almost inevitably about the “B” word. We purposely ignored this, as we’d come out to enjoy the countryside, the beer and each other’s company, rather than becoming involved in a debate. So having worked up a thirst, perused the selection of gravity-served ales on sale.

The beers at the Dovecote are kept in a temperature-controlled room immediately behind the bar. Extra-long cask taps protrude through the dividing wall, and out through false barrel ends, made out of wood, set into the wall. This allows the beer to be kept at just the right temperature, and served in the most natural way possible – straight from the cask. From memory, the beers on offer were Deuchar’s IPA, Gales HSB, Harvey’s Best, and Tonbridge Coppernob. I started with the Deuchar’s  - a beer I haven’t seen for some time, before switching to the Harvey’s. 

Both were good, scoring 3.5 NBSS each. Two of my companions also tried the Gales HSB, now brewed by Fuller’s of course,  but as I’ve never been a fan of legendary beers which are no longer brewed in their original home, so I took their word for it.

The pub was starting to fill up, so we ordered some food, sausage sandwich for two of us, plus a rather nice looking game pie, for the others. The sandwich was fine for me, as I knew there was a stew waiting in the oven for when I got home.

After our lunch we decided to make tracks for home, by means of a more direct route, which took us through the churchyard of Capel Church. The wind was starting to get up, and it would be blowing quite fiercely by the time we arrived back in Tonbridge, but it was still warm for mid-January.

We eventually reached the B2017 Five Oak Green Road again, and as the path took us right along the side of the George & Dragon pub, we decided to pop in for a look. However, as the time is getting on, we’ll have to leave it until next time to learn more about this attractive old weatherboard pub.

Piper at the gates of dawn

It will come as no surprise to devotees of the humble potato crisp, that legendary crisp producer Pipers, have been voted Britain’s Best Brand of savoury snack. This is the seventh year, on the trot, that the Lincolnshire-based company has won this award, which results from an annual survey of speciality food products on sale in Britain’s delicatessens, farm shops and food halls.

Pipers are a brand which has seemed to come from nowhere, which kind of ties in with the founding of the company, by three Lincolnshire farmers back in 2004. I first became aware of Pipers at one of CAMRA’s Great British Beer Festivals, and looking back, this would have been some time during the end of the first decade of the 21^st Century.

In a clever manner, Pipers acted as one of the festival’s sponsors, and I clearly remember grabbing a handful of crisps from one of several “help-yourself” bowls, laid out on the company’s stand. They were so good, that I returned, several times, eventually buying a couple of bags to assuage my guilt at scoffing so many freebies!

I stopped attending the GBBF a few years ago, but Pipers and their stand, were still a regular future of the event right up until the last festival I attended. Pipers’ sponsorship of the festival was a canny move on the company’s part, as it brought them to the attention of thousands of discerning beer drinkers, who Pipers knew would be looking out for their brand in their local pubs, and indeed asking their local licensee to stock them.

The three farmers behind the brand describe themselves as passionate people, driven by a desire to deliver the best taste and quality possible, without any gimmicks. The company’s aims is to produce great tasting, quality crisps using local potatoes, and to achieve this they work with carefully selected flavour partners who care as much about their products as they do.

Seeing Pipers crisps on sale is something which, for me, turns a good pub into a truly great pub, as the fact that the licensee has chose to stock this brand, means that he or she is someone who cares about the products sold and this care and consideration will extend to the choice and quality of the beer offered by the pub as well.

So if I notice the brand on sale, I will always buy a packet, even if it’s just to take home and eat later – or even the next day.

Note of caution:  I'm old enough to remember how crisp giant Walkers also started out from humble beginnings, and how,  back in the day, Walkers was the brand which devotees of quality potato crisps looked out for. So there is an inherent danger associated with rapid growth, and the inevitable incremental loss of the attributes which attracted people to the brand in the first place.

A busy start to the year

It’s obviously taking me longer to get back into the swing of things, as after my first full week back at work, I’m feeling absolutely cream-crackered. I hit the ground running through, as it was straight back into a “full-on” manic week of mayhem, and with an order book which is absolutely bursting at the seams, it is definitely been a case of “all hands to the pump”.

We had wondered as to why, even at Christmas time, (a traditionally slack time of year), we’d been swamped with orders, but the truth slowly dawned that many of our customers were preparing for that worst case scenario, of the UK crashing out of the European Union on 29^th March, without a deal – the so-called “No deal Brexit”.

My company manufactures dental products; primarily dental cements, restoratives (filling materials), etching agents, glazes and dental polishing pastes - otherwise known as “Prophylaxis Pastes”. The latter are a form of toothpaste, but with much more abrasive properties. This comes from the pumice used in their formulation.

We have informed our customers that whatever happens, we don’t foresee much in the way of supply problems. Our cement and restorative products, are based on finely powdered glass. We don’t handle amalgam-type filling materials, which are mercury based. They are far from being environmentally friendly and may have long-term toxic effects on patients, but those of us of a certain age, probably have a mouthful of such fillings.

What I was leading up to is that our special dental glass is produced in the UK, and the same applies to most of our containers and packaging materials. Despite this, some of our largest customers are playing it safe and are stockpiling. They could get caught out though, as many of our products have a finite shelf-life, so we will have to see.

I wasn’t actually intending to write this much about my workplace, as I really just wanted to say that after such a manic first week, my mind isn’t working as creatively, as it might do normally, and with little to report on the local beer front, there’s not much beer or pub-wise that I can write about. I was that lacking in inspiration earlier, that I dozed off in front of my computer screen – talk about a light-weight!

January is traditionally a quiet month in the licensed trade, but there are several things coming into view towards the end of the month. For the moment though, I’ll just crack open one of my few remaining cans of St Austell Proper Job, before turning in for an early night!