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For hundreds of years,
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British pubs have been at the center of social life.
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The place to go for a pint of beer and lively conversation.
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But Britain’s pubs are under threat.
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The poor economy, a ban on smoking inside
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and high taxes on beer consumed at pubs are
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all putting pubs under pressure.
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Bridget Walsh has been in the business for 42 years.
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She says pub culture is changing.
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“People aren’t going into pubs
the way they used to years ago.
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They tend to go to restaurants.
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They tend to buy cheap booze in supermarkets and drink indoors,
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because people have entertainment indoors these days,” she said.
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It’s not just indoor entertainment people are looking for.
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Pubs — once smoke- filled rooms — are no longer.
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Smokers have to go outside these days.
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That’s hurt business too.
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“If they can’t have a pint and a cigarette,
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you might as well drink at home,” Walsh adds.
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At the annual Great British Beer Festival in London,
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there are hundreds of beers, bitters,
ales and plenty of enthusiasts.
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One might almost believe that pubs will be forever.
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But Neil Williams from the British Beer & Pub
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Association says the problem is serious.
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“Fifty-two pubs are closing every week here in the U.K.,
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and that’s a big increase and, if we don’t take action,
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we’re going to lose a lot of our
much-loved community pubs,” he said.
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Williams says taxes on beer served in pubs
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rose by 20 percent in 18 months.
All in all,he says it’s a difficult time.
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“Unfortunately, the smoking ban coincided with a lot
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of other very adverse trading conditions: rising costs,
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we had rapidly deteriorating economic conditions,
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plus huge tax increases,
so we’ve likened it to a perfect storm,” he said.
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Stuart Mills, an entrepreneur,
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sees the downturn as an opportunity.
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He runs an Internet service that allows customers
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to have their mail delivered to their local pub.
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“What we’re really trying to do is to do two things,
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to get more people into pubs more often,
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but also really to help pubs cement their
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position at the heart of their local communities,” Mills explains.
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Tastes here are changing though.
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Wine bars, a recent trend,
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are taking away some of the business for pubs.
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But the British love of beer
and the rare British summer day
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will mean,pub owners hope,
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that business will never totally dry up.