Chris Maclean: Why do pubs get the blame?
On the BBC news last week was an article about laser pens. Some idiot shone a laser pen at a helicopter pilot. It was a daft thing to do. But in typical fashion the pilot complained and PC Plod investigated. The idiot was prosecuted. It had nice drama to it although perhaps a little overstated.
But for me the telling thing was the comment the reporter made when she spoke of these pens as "being the sort of thing bought off the internet…or in pubs".
Excuse me? What was she saying?
This is the kind of bigoted and stupid journalistic prejudice that makes my blood boil. It staggers me that there is still a large body of people out there who believe that pubs are the public and visible face of the criminal underworld.
Want a dodgy motor? Fake watch? A car radio? Counterfeit money? The pub is the place to get it.
I've worked in pubs for over thirty years and never seen a dodgy car radio being hawked. (Although I do have to confess to evicting a Chinese gentleman who was trying to sell bootleg DVDs in here a couple of years ago). Pubs simply do not, and cannot, be the vehicle for such activity.
But it is the continuous repetition of the lie that all pubs are synonymous with lawlessness and wrongdoing.
Theft & pubs.
Violence & pubs.
Drugs & pubs.
The irritating thing about the journalist's accusation was that these pens are perfectly legitimate items that often have practical applications and can be bought from chemists, electrical shops and many other retailers around the country. But maybe I'm missing the point. Maybe the lawless pens, the ones used to shine at helicopter pilots, are only available in pubs. That seemed the inference. Or maybe she was implying the behaviour was really drunkenness and we all know that can only originate in pubs, don't we?
Tonight there is to be a public meeting in our town to discuss the issue of Anti-Social Behaviour. Already a number of poisonous old trouts are sharpening their knives for another attack on pubs as being the source of all evil around here. "Yes", they'll say, "its pubs what is the problem. Shut them down. Teach them a lesson".
And which pubs are causing the problem?
"It doesn't matter. All of them".
The so-called voice of reason heard in town and village halls everywhere.
Proud of Pubs Week is looming and I've got a couple of projects on the stove. But getting a wider audience to understand that pubs have a positive role to perform is a much greater challenge than many of us realise. We've a long way to go.
