'Paul Heaton swaps tour bus for two wheels for pedal-powered pub gigs'

Singer Paul Heaton is embarking on a cycling tour of the country to celebrate the great British pub. The former Housemartins and Beautiful South lead singer is doing a 1,000 mile round trip starting off in Rochdale. "It saddens me to hear about so many pubs closing on a weekly basis so I want to do all I can to get people back to their local" - Sky News​

Pub bosses fear they will be ruined by supermarkets' "kamikaze" deals which sell beer for 48p a pint. Tesco and Asda will pull in trade by asking as little as £9 for 24-can packs of brands such as Stella and Foster's. Experts say stores may lose £6 on each case - The Mirror ​

Pubs group JD Wetherspoon reported a decline in third quarter comparable sales and said it felt slightly more cautious about the outlook for next year. The company said sales at pubs open for more than a year fell 0.8 per cent in the 13 weeks to April 25. For the nine months to April 25, they were down by 0.2 percent - Reuters​

New licence laws target underage drinkers. Driver's licences for L and P-platers will be redesigned to make it harder for under 18's to get into pubs using doctored ID. The NSW Government says new technology will make it tough to falsify the date of birth on the licence. The licence holder's birth date will be repeated in the card's background, and a red box around their photograph will highlight the fact they were under 18 when they applied for the card. - News.com​