…The venerable foreign correspondant’s tradition of finding stories you can write from the pub (while expensing your bar bills!) gets another airing in Canada’s national newspaper.
You land at Heathrow’s Terminal 5, the newest terminal in the world. It’s big and industrial-looking, with a clutch of high-end boutiques and a Gordon Ramsay restaurant. You’re tired, and probably lost. But then you pass a sign: The Five Tuns. You have no idea what a tun is, but you know this is a pub. The decor is homely, with globes reminding you of the British empire’s former breadth. You order a pint of > Sharp’s Doom Bar> , a bitter from Cornwall — and just off a transatlantic flight, you’re in touch with something essential in English culture since the Middle Ages. Pubs are comfy.
The industry, however, is not. British pubs are closing at the rate of five a day, pounded by anti-smoking laws and sniped at by high beer taxes and low six-pack prices at the local grocery store. The British press is speculating on the death of pub culture and reminiscing about the good old days when a pint down the pub was every man’s right and every woman’s respite. “Pub closures at this rate are threatening an important hub of our social fabric and community history,” says Rob Hayward, chief executive officer of the British Beer & Pub Association…
