I've signed it more on the basis that the people who run Punch are clueless cretins. I know for a fact that I've been to this pub more than once but the last time was around 20 years ago and I don't recall being that excited about it, mainly with regard to the beer choice.
...in which case you are very likely wasting your time!
I, on the other hand, have not signed it, because the article states that "the petition said 'the regular customers who are the source of the majority of The Blue Bell’s revenue” had “made it very clear that they will not support the pub under the proposed retail agreement.' As I have only been to the Blue Bell on three or four occasions over the last decade, I don't see how I can in all honesty put my name to the petition.
Though of course I am fully behind the pub's regulars and sympathise with their predicament.
If the petition had said "the people who run Punch are clueless cretins" I'd have been on it like a shot. (Maybe still a waste of time, but at least I could put my name to it.)
Come On You Hatters!
"At that moment I would have given a kingdom, not for champagne or hock and soda, or hot coffee but for a glass of beer" Marquess Curzon of Kedlestone, Viceroy of India.
Been in in the last 12 months and will be again soon so signed.
The York drinking scene seems to evolve constantly so does anyone know of anywhere new, which needs visiting, popping up in the last 12 months or so?
"Beer is food." Morse, Colin Dexter
Bit more on the Blue Bell saga from the MA,
https://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/...e-gathers-pace
Well if you really want pop-up this is new Piccadilly Tap / Cuckoo I haven't been yet so pot luck as well.
other newish places are
Bistro Guy (getting good reviews elsewhere but I've not been in.
House of the Trembling Madness (the new one)
Valhalla
and there's Brew York's new beer hall upstairs from the brewery, I haven't been here yet either, maybe next week I'll have a crawl of York.
Well, of course the regular customers are 'the source of the majority of the Blue Bell's revenue', especially in light of the hostile policy toward casual visitors.
I wouldn't sign anything to support someone who seems to think it fitting to run a public house in a manner more befitting a private club. That said, I have little doubt that my view would be different if I happened to be one of the regular elite...