Just been reading on Sky News website that as from today over half of Britains pubs will no longer have happy hour. They are trying to increase this to the rest of the pubs/clubs

Although i understand the yob culture of today and the small minority who cause drunken behavaiour, i am disappointed.

When i go down town and pay £3.50 for a drink then i sometimes like the fact that i get 2 for the price of 1 etc. I just feel that there are other ways of curbing drunken behavaiour without hitting us all.

Maybe the next target is to charge us all a fiver for our drinks! :rant:

Originally posted by youwhatref
Just been reading on Sky News website that as from today over half of Britains pubs will no longer have happy hour. They are trying to increase this to the rest of the pubs/clubs

Although i understand the yob culture of today and the small minority who cause drunken behavaiour, i am disappointed.

When i go down town and pay £3.50 for a drink then i sometimes like the fact that i get 2 for the price of 1 etc. I just feel that there are other ways of curbing drunken behavaiour without hitting us all.

Maybe the next target is to charge us all a fiver for our drinks! :rant:

Yes I agree, totally ludacris. Prices are high enough as it is without them taking away this from us. They should crack down on the drunken yobs themselves, not the vast majority of us that do no harm and just enjoy a drink or 10 :D

When you are in a pub, EVERY hour is happy hour. :thumbsup:

They do 'Irish Happy Hour' near us.

One drink for the price of two :hihi:

The problem is that the drinks industry and their customers have had almost a decade to get something done about the 'lad / ladette' culture, binge drinking, etc.

Collectively they seem to have done sod all, so if voluntary action fails then perhaps it's time to take action that's legally binding.

I would agree that the prices charged by some pubs and bars are outrageous - if that's the case then go elsewhere and tell the lndlord WHY you're going elsewhere. Or get a cheaper tipple....:)

Joe

unless the prices are changed to reflect the stopping of happy hour then i think we will see more and more people staying in as its so much cheaper (and less hassel) to enjoy a dvd and drink at home

Or more people adopting the student approach and getting blind drunk before heading out on to the town!

not to mention the smoking ban in pubs, I think a lot of custom will be lost

Originally posted by youwhatref

Maybe the next target is to charge us all a fiver for our drinks! :rant:

These days pubs will charge what the punters are stupid enough to pay ;) ...they're treating you with contempt.

In my youth a pint of cider was much less than a pint of beer...these days cider is dearer than beer ? :suspect:

Originally posted by Greybeard
These days pubs will charge what the punters are stupid enough to pay ;) ...they're treating you with contempt.

In my youth a pint of cider was much less than a pint of beer...these days cider is dearer than beer ? :suspect:

but beer is also much stronger than it used to be!

My handy tip for cheap drinking:

Go to a pub next to a wetherspoons; they have to keep their drinks cheap and generally the shirts shoes and aftershave crowd will avoid it preferring to drink at wetherspoons
yay

Why should people be allowed to be happy in pubs at all !
It has always been a proud tradition of ours , a thread running through the fabric of our society , that enjoying oneself is just not on and must be stamped out --especially if that enjoyment involves alcohol , nicotine or drugs of any kind.
These things cause people to laugh and have no respect for the government of the day. You don't see Tony or Geoff Hoon or Peter Mandelson , sitting in pubs , slurping back beer ! They've got an important job to do. So , too , have the general public . There are targets to be met , data to be sifted and sorted and meetings to co-ordinate ; there is simply no time for people to sit in bars and the like , grinning and telling jokes.
This is not about the police's ability to arrest the few lads and lasses who have one too many on Friday and Saturday. Students work damned hard and must be able to relax from the daily grind.
So , stop moaning about happy hours disappearing and smoking bans ; get back to work , do something for your wonderful country and leaders and just thank the Good Lord you live in a free and joyful society.

interestingly, up until this year, the only bars with 24 hour licenses were in the houses of parliament...

Originally posted by Fareast
Why should people be allowed to be happy in pubs at all !


Some of us enjoy a drink or 2.. Unlike you, who probably get's a thrill from knitting or curtain twitching.

Originally posted by Don_Kiddick
They do 'Irish Happy Hour' near us.

One drink for the price of two :hihi:

I went for a pint the other day with my Irish mate. He said "Watch this i'm going to do a runner".

He ordered 2 pints of bitter, payed for them, then ran off without drinking them!.

Sarchasm

def:
the gap between the sarcastic and those who don't understand..

Fareast, - I'm sure I've seen TB on TV with a pint in his hand, grinning and telling......great big fibs :D

But you're right, - drinking is a serious business and it does seem a little sinful to actually enjoy it and have fun ;)

it does sound rather like the brewers organisation (or whatever the group behind this is) are just taking the opportunity to keep charging full price for drinks all the time, in the knowledge that this will have no effect on the amount people drink, but will have the effect of increasing their profits.
What us, cynical, Nooooooooo.

Those were the days , when all decent , respectable pubs closed at 3.p.m.and did not re-open until 5.30p.m.It made the shiftless denizens of such haunts realise that life wasn't all propping the bar up and muttering , "mine's just a large one " or , "I believe it's your shout , Squire ".
It used to bring joy to my heart to see these miscreants turfed out at 3.15.p.m. every afternoon , in the rain and snow , coughing and sneezing , to slink back to the missus . Ha Ha Ha
There were no , "Happy Hours " in the good old days and we were better for it. Many of us were sensible enough to buy new curtains and such and pay towards a ........er........er........private .....pension.

Unless you look back before WW I before which there were no licensing hours. They were introduced to ensure that factory workers making ammunition would not be hung over when working (i don't know if this was because of some accidents... I imagine you only make a mistake once when putting gun powder into a big shell).
Of course like every other 'temporary' law (for example Income Tax) it has never been repealed. The government is always keen to take on extra power and responsability for our lives, but never gives it back after the immediate 'need' has passed.

The only thing is, is that the happy hour's were when they charged normal prices.
Maybe if they called Friday and Staurday night premium prices then they'd get away with happy hours

Cyclone
I know this is going slightly off the topic but your comment reminded me of when I was teaching in Turkey a few years ago.
They have an English language newspaper there called , "Turkish Daily News" and I read about this fatal accident in a quarry-----I think about 4 or 5 people died.It said something like this ,
" The explosion was believed to have been caused because workmen were in the habit of smoking in the hut where the explosives were stored ." {!}
I mean , I like a smoke , more than most people , but you have to draw the line somewhere , don't you ?





quarry

yeah, that does sound like taking an unnecessary risk.

I don't suppose the actual price matters, the effect of having a period of lower prices was that people drank faster during that time.

If they eliminate it and slightly lower the normal price (which they won't do, I'm just theorising) then people would drink slower and avoid some of the problems of the happy hour binge.
If they were allowed to stay open later (which they soon will be) then people will drink even slower, as there is no longer a rush to get x many pints in before 11.

Of course some idiots will still be trolleyed by 9, but the rest of shouldn't have to suffer because these people have a mental age in single digits.

Originally posted by Greybeard
These days pubs will charge what the punters are stupid enough to pay ;) ...they're treating you with contempt.


This is true! If you are daft enough to drink in the forum or all bar one then you deserve to pay £3.50 for a pint!!

You know on the news when you see girls puking in the street and boys fighting - I think that is because of the nasty 4 for a pound shots you can get, and alcopops and what have you. If everyone had to drink bitter or non-premium lager or wine, there would be much less agro, I think.

charging what the market will bear is just good business sense.

i'm not sure introducing artificial restrictions on what is available is a good way to reduce binge drinking.
Afterall, who's to say whether a shot is cheap and nasty or a good single malt? Unless you'd like to ban all spirits on the basis that a few idiots drink more than is good for them.

Originally posted by Cyclone
i'm not sure introducing artificial restrictions on what is available is a good way to reduce binge drinking.
Afterall, who's to say whether a shot is cheap and nasty or a good single malt? Unless you'd like to ban all spirits on the basis that a few idiots drink more than is good for them.

I am to say whether a shot is cheap and nasty or a good single malt! ;)

Originally posted by kathythebean
I am to say whether a shot is cheap and nasty or a good single malt! ;)

even then you are only making it more expensive to binge drink.

Of course, I was only joking. I think I should be put in charge of the governments drinking policy. I will approach it from the other direction - instead of trying to get people to drink less to solve the problem, I will just make it so that being absolutely bladdered is not so much of a handicap - ie softer pavements, shorter working hours and free fry ups in the morning :)

Originally posted by kathythebean
Of course, I was only joking. I think I should be put in charge of the governments drinking policy. I will approach it from the other direction - instead of trying to get people to drink less to solve the problem, I will just make it so that being absolutely bladdered is not so much of a handicap - ie softer pavements, shorter working hours and free fry ups in the morning :)

you have my vote.