First, it was London Bridge that was sold to unsuspecting, dolt businessmen in Lake Havasu City, Arizona who thought they were buying Tower Bridge. Later, British Telecom, during their privatisation, began selling off the ubiquitous British red telephone boxes before someone realized that they might be culturally significant. Today, London’s black cab is being manufactured in Shanghai. And now…the greatest horror of all… pubs are closing at an alarming rate in England, Scotland and Ireland.

Public houses or pubs, were the hub of village life in the United Kingdom for centuries. In many respects, they helped to define British life. Families and friends gathered in pubs to celebrate life, laugh, commiserate, eat and mostly, to drink ale. The family dog could always be found in front of the pub’s well-used fireplace. This way of life, an important aspect of British culture, is on the way out. Today, 35 pubs a week close across England. Over a 1000 English villages are now without pubs where at one time, those villages had 2, 3 and sometimes 4 pubs. There are projections that in Scotland, 12% of its pubs will shutter in 2009. Ireland has closed 1500 pubs since 2001. On top of all of this, the pub closures are costing thousands of jobs.

There are many reasons for this pandemic but the biggest reason of all is pure economics. If you read my fellow blogger, Katie from Long Aye-Lander, she wrote a post yesterday about the cost of beer in the supermarkets versus the price in a pub. As Katie points out, you can buy a can of Skol lager for 23p or less than 39 cents in the supermarket. Admittedly, Skol isn’t fantastic but compare 23p/39 cents to £3/$5.70 for a pint in a pub. Her Majesty’s tax collectors add approximately 30% to the price of a pint in a pub dependent upon the percentage of alcohol in the beer.

The government has made a well meaning move to focus on health throughout the U.K. but combined with pub economics and the smoking ban, pubs are now in more trouble than Tom Cruise’s acting career. The government has come to realise that with every action there is a reaction and now they have taken up the cause for the pubs. Can it be long before all hell breaks loose? Where will I get my McEwans 80/?

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