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12-07-2017, 07:53
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Today marks the tenth anniversary of this blog, the creation of which was prompted by a certain event that had occurred eleven days previously. The very first post, which set the tone for the next ten years, was on the subject of Bansturbation (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.co.uk/2007/07/bansturbation.html). This is post number 1907, so I have made an average of 190.7 posts per year.
It is noticeable how many of the early posts were brief bullet points that nowadays would probably be reserved for Twitter. It was a couple of years before the blog started to attract any significant number of comments, or that I became aware of the wider existence of something called the “blogosphere”.
So here’s a personal selection of ten of my most significant posts broadly spread over the past ten years. It’s odd how some of my most serious and thoughtful posts have been the ones attracting fewest comments.

February 2009: Winds of change (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2009/02/winds-of-change.html) – the reasons for the decline of the pub trade in favour of home drinking go far beyond just relative price.

December 2009: Don’t call me stupid (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/dont-call-me-stupid.html) – drinkers of mainstream beers aren’t ill-informed, they just have different priorities from the enthusiast.

February 2011: Who wants customers? (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/who-wants-customers.html) – would the pub trade as a whole really be much more successful if it did more to meet customer tastes? Strangely, despite making a very important point, this one drew no comments whatsoever.

September 2011: Taste the difference (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2011/09/taste-difference.html) – contrary to received wisdom, pub food was often more diverse and of better quality thirty years ago.

July 2012: Whatever happened to pubs? (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/whatever-happened-to-pubs.html) – how did regular pubgoing stop being an integral part of ordinary people’s lives?

August 2012: The real reason why (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/the-real-reason-why.html) – changing attitudes to drink-driving within the law are one of the biggest factors behind the decline in the pub trade, especially outside major urban centres. And possibly a major part of the answer to the question posed in the previous post.

January 2014: Out of control (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/out-of-control.html) – claiming that on-trade drinking is somehow more responsible than the off-trade is divisive special pleading that simply helps the anti-drink lobby.

March 2015: Last pub standing (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/last-pub-standing.html) – in some less prosperous areas, pub decline has been devastating, yet beer bubble denizens just don’t see it.

May 2016: A taste of tradition (http://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/a-taste-of-tradition.html) – there’s a gulf between what you buy as a consumer and what you follow as a leisure interest.
November 2016: False equivalence (https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/false-equivalence.html) – It is wrong and unhelpful to regard bottle-conditioned beers as the direct packaged equivalent of cask.



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