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Worker clubs in fear of the axe
Wednesday 10th September 2008, 4:30PM BST.
Dozens of working men’s clubs could be facing the axe in the West Midlands.
The credit crunch coupled with the smoking ban have had a crippling effect on the clubs, with around 400 believed to have closed in Britain in the last year.
Club bosses say more than 500 could disappear in the next five years and they expect around 30 to disappear from the West Midlands by 2013.
Kevin Smyth, of the Working Men’s Club and Institute Union, which represents 2,300 clubs, said bar takings were down 10 per cent since the smoking ban.
“We are now down to the same membership we had during the First World War,” he said.
“People are angry with Labour for going back on a manifesto promise that members-only clubs would be allowed to let smokers in if they wanted.
“The movement is in decline and it’s very sad. But where will working people go to socialise and will they become confined to their homes?”
Fondly lampooned by Peter Kay in the comedy series Phoenix Nights, the clubs are struggling to compete in a world of DVDs and cinemas, and not even their reputation for a cheap pint is enough of a draw.
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this goverment will not be satisfied until everything in this country has gone we will be tucked up in our houses not speaking to any one else for weeks on end but the crime rate may have gone down is this what they really want come on people of great britain stand up and fight for what you really want instead of just rolling over and doing nothing lets all write to our mps and have something we like instead of being dictated to
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Good! I’d much rather know that people are taking their money elsewhere, hopefully to nice local pubs that don’t have a members only policy. I would be glad to see the back of “working mens pubs” lets face it they should of gone with the coal mines.
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Its a shame that this is happening to all the people that depend on these places. I think we can get to sentimental about working mens clubs and, i hate to say it, but our society doesnt have a big need for them anymore. The credit crunch and smoking ban can’t help, but these places are all dying out anyway. The best thing for the clubs to do is to appeal to younger generations….. but the alcohol prices will keep most people away anyway.
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Stabbed in the back by their own Govt.
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Is the one in Dudley still open? just below the market?
Fond memories of getting served when I was 14 there.
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In Australia, the smoking ban has increased memberships of many clubs.This is just a poor excuse for people turning their backs on outdated buildings selling over priced beverages.It’s a sheer delight to go in a oub here without those fould smokers breathing over you while you are eating.Deal with it, stop whingeing, and move on
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Two things required for a long and healthy life.
Fags and loose women …….. both to excess.
Any more swinging legislation and only one of them will be available to me.
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All this talk about the smoking ban ruining the pub trade..I dont think that it is the smoking ban but the high prices. It might be true that the smoking ban started it because the government were taking in less tax from smoking they increased it on alcohol. Don’t they realise that if they reduce it slightly then sales would increase then they would get more. With everybody putting their prices up it cheaper to buy it from a shop and stay at home.
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The death nell of Pubs and Clubs.
New Labour…High priced bear….Smoking ban, all creating antisocial behaviour.
Why do folk drink in the street….simple if the bear in the pub wasn’t so dear and the bear in the suppermarket so cheap they would be in the warm in the pub?? or is that too simple?
New Labours EU Gestapo style antics of No free speach, No free Will and even less Common Sense.
I’m a non smoker and enjoy going to the local,if folk want to smoke it’s up to them, if there was a lot of smoke I just went to an area were there wasn’t any, or went to the next pub.
It was upto the landlord if he was losing custom “He” would do something about it.
I don’t know why we couldn’t have gone back to having a pub with a Bar, Smoking Room and a Lounge,was I and the population ask to vote on it “NO” our Dictatorship Government EU puppets don’t give a hoot about what folk think.
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