Tynemouth Lodge Hotel

The only place in England where it is perfectly legal to smoke in a bar in 2009 is in the Palace of Westminster, which contains both the Houses of Commons and Lords.

Hence, the very people who introduced the smoking ban can, and many do,  legally smoke in all of the bars in which food is not served (with the exception of the Stranger’s Bar) and in their offices,  as the Palace of Westminster is not covered by Health and Safety Legislation.

Interesting to note that in their Manifesto, prior to the ban, the Labour Party stated that they intended to introduce a ban which would exempt private members’ clubs and all pubs not serving food.

At the end of the day, the only places exempt from the ban were their own bars and offices.

And they have the affrontory to address themselves as the ‘Right Honourable’ in the Commons and as ‘Noble’ in the Lords !

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Welcome to the Tynemouth Lodge Hotel blog.

I will use this to publish my articles and comments on the licensed trade.  I’ve started by moving all of my articles over from the old site. The new blog format allows you to comment on my posts.

I hope you find the content interesting.

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H.M. Government, aided and abetted by major brewers and large pub-owning companies, is presiding over the obliteration of our traditional public houses and clubs.

Not content with taking the country into six military conflicts, our government has also declared open warfare on our beer houses. At a stroke, their smoking ban quickly shut countless working mens’ clubs, where there had always been a strong culture of tobacco. Labour’s election manifesto had however clearly stated that the proposed smoking ban would exempt private members’clubs and premises not selling food.

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Since I bought my pub in 1983, successive governments of both political persuasions have wreaked havoc on the pub trade.

The Beer Orders, introduced by the Tories in 1996, was seen at the time to be releasing the stranglehold of the Big Six brewers of the day, who controlled over 75% of the beer trade. Brewers were ordered to reduce their tied estates to 2000 outlets.

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Not that many years ago we were given to believe that the big bad boys in the pub trade were breweries with large chains of ‘tied’ pubs. Then the government waded in with the Beer Orders which amongst other things decreed that brewers must reduce their tied chains to a maximum of 2000 outlets.

This was retrospective legislation, as the breweries had done nothing illegal and could sensibly argue that by building up large profitable chains they were protecting thousands of brewery jobs.

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