Talk to Frank

So, I've been particularly busy this week, not just at work but at home too. Too busy to write my reply to the foul words by the foul ex-new-labour, actually old bastard labourite Frank Dobson re : heavy drinkers causing the world to end.
OK so not about the world ending but we (heavy drinkers) You’ve just claimed (Dobson) – and we are all quoting your words exactly here – that "heavy drinkers cause a vast amount of disorder, get involved in sexual assaults, get involved in accidents and are a major nuisance with loutish behaviour."
I'm basically much to busy to follow up with the excellent research of Pete Brown on the subject because I have a pub to run and a wedding to plan but he(Pete) basically put down the words that were in my head much more eloquently than I ever could.
What I would like to say in my own, uneducated manner is this, Frank Dobson and not just you but any other politician thinking of using alcohol as an excuse for anti-social behaviour, as a way of winning votes this year(or any other year for that matter), you are barred from my bar, The Rake, until you offer a public apology for your outrageous and unqualified remarks about heavy drinkers.
I am also urging any pub manager/owner/operator to do the same, we cannot allow these unwarranted, slanderous attacks against the vast majority of the public who enjoy drinking responsibly in the company of their friends and family to go unanswered.
Politicians must be made aware that they cannot make these outlandish claims in an election year for votes only to not qualify them. Anybody with the experience of listening and watching politics in the last 30-40 years(hell, ever!) knows that once the election is over the politicians will forget about the alcohol as a 'problem' until it is time to win more votes at the next election.
Alcoholism is caused by many things, not by pubs, not by beer but usually by deeper problems of 'the self'. A person will not sexually assault someone because of alcohol, they would do it anyway, they will have a pre-disposition to go out and sexually assault someone. A person will not violently assault someone because of alcohol, if they want a fight they will go out and find it regardless of how much alcohol they have had to drink, again not the cause.
I will not be voting labour or conservative this year, they are as bad as each other, I have a general cynical distrust of politicians and that will not change until they actually start listening to the people that vote for them.
I will do as Pete has done by posting Frank Dobsons contact details and hoping that you all do the same. Talk to Frank people.
Good luck Dobson, lucky you're not my local MP.
Yours Sincerely

Glyn Roberts

Write to Frank at -
Frank Dobson MP
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA

Ring Frank on -
020 7219 4452 or 020 7219 5840

Fax Frank on -
020 7219 6956

Email Frank on
patelm@parliament.uk

52 pubs a week, are we surprised?

I hate this weather. It's bad enough that we have duty increases imposed on us without a seconds thought by a lame-duck government in the throws of dying an ugly, slow and painful death but now the weather 'chips-in' an completely cripples pub going.
This is the first week back at work after Christmas so I never expect the bar to be busy but whenever it snows the whole country comes to a standstill as the transport system slips up on the ice.
Yes it's pretty, but with approx 52 pubs closing a week this is not good news for the pub trade.
There's also the ill-advised, daily mail style scaremongering from the local and national media that is sending people scuttling back home quickly after work.
How about the annual get-fit January from people who try to shed their latent catholic guilt about drinking, eating and having too much fun? Dust-diets all round I guess.
Add into the mix the cheap booze being sold by supermarkets(of which I admit I partook on New Years Eve) and crippling rents being imposed on pub operators by greedy landlords and well, I could go on for hours about this but I know we've heard it all before.
My message to all customers, mine and others too is this : Get yourselves out to the pub tonight, lets see some of that famous British blitz spirit, it's only snow! The pub should be the heart of the community, lets make 2010 the year of the pub.