The Lemon Fool

I am shocked - shocked, I tell you - to discover that punters have been posting in the Snug after 10pm last night.

Surely you're all aware of the new restrictions?

Watis

Watis wrote:I am shocked - shocked, I tell you - to discover that punters have been posting in the Snug after 10pm last night.

Surely you're all aware of the new restrictions?

Watis

Mea Culpa - but after we were slung out, we huddled around outside where all the smokers frequent in order to continue with our learned discussions. So that's two possible reasons why I'm coughing this morning.

I live in a rural location. In normal times the pub doesn't close until the last customer falls asleep.

The landlord and landlady have been very careful to stick to the covid guidelines since this started. It is hurting them financially in a very serious way. They have put their heart and soul into building the pub up from a dying business to the thriving concern it was until covid. It may come to pass that the business can't survive. That will be a shame. I will lose 2 very good friends as well as a great pub.

Sad days.

As it’s a rural pub, may not have 100’s of regulars. However, would a whip round for them help if you had enough people?

nimnarb wrote:As it’s a rural pub, may not have 100’s of regulars. However, would a whip round for them help if you had enough people?

There is a lot of goodwill towards them so it might raise a decent amount. many of the regulars are elderly and very cautious about covid. The pub does have a large garden and they will do table service so we don't expose ourselves to risk inside the pub. With the nights drawing in and the weather getting colder the attractions of the garden will wane.

I think the way to offer support without making an issue of it is to buy food (take-away to avoid the inside of the pub). Food is their biggest profit centre.

They already know my wife and I will help them out if they need us to. I think they would be too proud to ask despite being good personal friends. A bit daft really, we are comfortable and we have no children. I'd rather give them a helping hand than have the money in the bank earning paltry interest.

I'm about to head down my local to 'help out' - but not sure how table service etc is going to work. And remembering to mask up when not seated ..

sg31 wrote:

nimnarb wrote:As it’s a rural pub, may not have 100’s of regulars. However, would a whip round for them help if you had enough people?

There is a lot of goodwill towards them so it might raise a decent amount. many of the regulars are elderly and very cautious about covid. The pub does have a large garden and they will do table service so we don't expose ourselves to risk inside the pub. With the nights drawing in and the weather getting colder the attractions of the garden will wane.

I think the way to offer support without making an issue of it is to buy food (take-away to avoid the inside of the pub). Food is their biggest profit centre.

They already know my wife and I will help them out if they need us to. I think they would be too proud to ask despite being good personal friends. A bit daft really, we are comfortable and we have no children. I'd rather give them a helping hand than have the money in the bank earning paltry interest.

A good idea might be to have outdoor heaters, either electrical or on calor gas. In the States they rent them out during the winter and certainly gets people onto seats particularly outside, plus get a tent installed if it rains. Unfortunately only the ones that try to beat this or do something different backed up with solid advertising are going to survive. Just have to fight back. Over in Florida, cannot quite believe what I just heard. Governor DeSantis, who has Trump's finger so far up. just announced that starting immediately there will be no mandatory mask rule anywhere in Florida and that all bars and restaurants will now have no restrictions and he expects them to have 100% occupancy. Understand normally this thinking, however, our cases in certain areas are rising as well. Gone off track here, but getting back to give money or not, if heaters etc would help them get through this then money talks and would be a good investment anyway...its a long winter. jmho.

nimnarb wrote:A good idea might be to have outdoor heaters,

Ugh. I've seen pubs with those. Instant turn-off (and never come back, and warn friends off the ghastly place).

If I were part of a community whose beloved pub was at risk of closure, I'd be thinking about options for the community to inject serious cash and take a stake in it, on terms that would neither be too onerous to the proprietors nor feel so embarrassing as pure charity.

UncleEbenezer wrote:

nimnarb wrote:A good idea might be to have outdoor heaters,

Ugh. I've seen pubs with those. Instant turn-off (and never come back, and warn friends off the ghastly place).

If I were part of a community whose beloved pub was at risk of closure, I'd be thinking about options for the community to inject serious cash and take a stake in it, on terms that would neither be too onerous to the proprietors nor feel so embarrassing as pure charity.

True. Outdoor heaters are pretty much frowned upon in this day and age. Though if they were powered by solar or underground thermal, then they'd probably be more accepted and even draw in the clients.

I vaguely remember on TV, the actor that played John Steed in The Avengers, many, many years ago, showing off his outdoor patio air conditioning system in California and even then, thinking, what a ***** he was and a complete waste of energy.

Maybe the pub could erect some kind of marquee and ask everyone how best to decorate it?

Steve

The village pub here has a large garden now almost completely filled with a garden-sized marquee for 'outdoor' drinking. A fully enclosed marquee complete with fully enclosed canvas passageway back into the pub building.

It is prompting a lot of adverse comment.

Get to the pub for 9 for a quick pint and to agree whose living room everyone is going to pack into later ... is becoming the norm. Johnson as a role model with his fathers and colleagues actions have as good as sanctioned that the rules are just words to pacify some. Apparently organised exercises are exempt, such as how many times you can curl lift the weight of a can to the rhythm of music.

In my younger days, 10pm closing was a normal thing, 10.30 in summer. However just down the road across the border into Wales, closing was at 10.30, 11 pm in summer, so a quick dash over the border gave us an extra drink, or even two.

Of course the downside was that on Sundays we had coach loads of Welshmen coming to drink in "our" pubs.

Later in life, we had a system on Friday nights where the men went one way and the women went in the opposite direction, having arranged to congregate at a designated house, in order to get some of us back where we were supposed to be. Naturally we did not consume alcohol after the permitted hours. We did, however, consume our fair share during those hours, the breathalyser not having yet been introduced. The ability to walk in a straight line, or to say "The Leith Police dismisseth us" in a coherent fashion was sufficient evidence of our sobriety.

I fail to see any problem with the 10pm curfew. I do recall going to the "Queen of Hearts" in Manchester one night, where one could play the Roulette table for half-a-crown a go, and consume alcohol at ridiculous prices. Normal prices for beer were about 1/7d a pint, as I recall. If you went to a night club or gambling place, you expected to be ripped off.

Having seen Brighton at 2am of Saturday morning, I can sympathise with anyone who thinks that the curfew is a good idea.

TJH

I can't see the point in a marquee. You might as well meet in the pub itself. Also outdoor heaters if installed in a marquee are potentially dangerous. We had an entire house burn down locally because the outdoor heaters were under a soffit board or something and it over heated.

I should have thought that the pub converting itself to a food takeaway might help the cashflow and keep the place ticking over until the restrictions are lifted.

Dod

I can see a benefit for pubs in cramming in more drinking in a shorter period hence with lower costs, but I cannot see a benefit in reducing infection in having a 10pm curfew.

johnhemming wrote:I can see a benefit for pubs in cramming in more drinking in a shorter period hence with lower costs, but I cannot see a benefit in reducing infection in having a 10pm curfew.

The was a bloke on R4 who runs a pub chain saying turnover was down 50% since the stat of the 10pm curfew.

My own gut feeling is the amount of money being spent over the bar in a pub would be a reasonable proxy for the 'amount' of social interaction going on in the establishment.

The point of these restrictions is to bear down on the amount of social interaction in society AIUI, thereby bering down on the R number. The public at large still don't generally grasp this.

Most people seem to think the purpose is to help each of them individually to avoid catching COVID. A large but subtle difference, difficult to explain to someone very self-centred. (As many people are.)

EDIT TO ADD:

Oops just noticed this is not one of the 'official' coronavirus threads. We should continue this convo in the right place. This thread is for frivolous comments about the curfew!

Mike4 wrote:The was a bloke on R4 who runs a pub chain saying turnover was down 50% since the stat of the 10pm curfew.

People who have not got a problem would not comment.

johnhemming wrote:

Mike4 wrote:The was a bloke on R4 who runs a pub chain saying turnover was down 50% since the stat of the 10pm curfew.

People who have not got a problem would not comment.

Yes they would.

(Like you I also have no data to back this up )

Scott.

swill453 wrote:

johnhemming wrote:

Mike4 wrote:The was a bloke on R4 who runs a pub chain saying turnover was down 50% since the stat of the 10pm curfew.

People who have not got a problem would not comment.

Yes they would.

(Like you I also have no data to back this up )

I do have the experience of 43 years dealing with the media and I know generally the media cover people who are unhappy with the impact of a proposal and those doing alright tend to keep their heads down. Obviously that is not 100%, but is how things work. The media look for people who are complainging. A story of "the policy is good" does not often get covered.

johnhemming wrote:I do have the experience of 43 years dealing with the media and I know generally the media cover people who are unhappy with the impact of a proposal and those doing alright tend to keep their heads down. Obviously that is not 100%, but is how things work. The media look for people who are complainging. A story of "the policy is good" does not often get covered.

I've seen many vox pops over the past few months where a good proportion of those making it onto the broadcast are the ones shrugging and saying "well, if this is what it takes to beat the virus, we just have to get on with it".

Scott.

Unsurprisingly the media tend to report what they wish to report.