CityCyclingEdinburgh was launched on the 27th of October 2009 as "an experiment".
IT’S TRUE!
CCE is 15years old!
Well done to ALL posters
It soon became useful and entertaining. There are regular posters, people who add useful info occasionally and plenty more who drop by to watch. That's fine. If you want to add news/comments it's easy to register and become a member.
RULES No personal insults. No swearing.
[ETA: sorry, you have to register (for free) to actually read now. This was not apparent when I was linked to it elsewhere.] [ETA2 @chdot suggests the link here will work - did for me.]
Some of you will love this. (I found it oddly satisfying and am off to look at more blob maps now.) Via friends elsewhere who are professionally into this sort of nerdery.
"Here’s what we learned from ordering 213 curries at Wetherspoons"
I just get a cartoon I don't understand?
Oh, now so do I! The link from FB worked for me, I shall investigate...
Needs an FT subscription (which I don't have either)
Sorry - says you can register to read for free, but they must have some sort of FB-linking "x free reads" thing going on as it worked from there for me but not from here (now wants me to register too).
Ah okay. You'd think they would give a couple of sentences or something to try and get you interested!
That works for me, thanks @chdot!
I can read it. I like the price discrimination, I like the way can go to the foot of the walk and drink all night for £10. I like the way if in an unknown city can always be sure of a decent price.
"How cheap is JD Wetherspoon? There’s a simple answer — it’s the cheapest place within ten minutes of where you’re stood — and then there’s a much, much more complicated answer.
The picture emerging here is of obsessive menu engineering and predatory cynicism. Many pub and restaurant chains do this kind of thing a bit, but none does it with the ruthlessness of Wetherspoon, whose grand, cavernous spaces fill up each day thanks in large part to a menu that reads like several hundred carefully targeted microaggressions against the immediate community."
Will minimum alcolohol pricing affect them?Rarely go in as just 'feel' what the stats will prove.
Forum always chooses better places I'm glad to say!
Will minimum alcolohol pricing affect them? barely if its 50 pence a unit. I would guess a £1.50 pint is typically less than 3 units but don't think the minimum pricing is aimed at pubs. Think its more aimed at marginalised youth
So let's parody Will Fyffe
Hauf o a paun a unit
That's what it's costin' today
Hauf o a paun a unit
Man it tak's a' your pleasure away
Afore ye can hae a wee drappie
You have to spend a' that you've got
How can a fella be happy
When happiness costs such a lot
If you drink blended whisky you will have to pay £14 a bottle. Slightly more than you maybe can find it if you are not too fussy, e.g. You put it in your winter toddy and it lasts the winter.
This is about the only impact I can see for those of us on here who drink?
£14 is a lot for cheap vodka like Totov which the kids favour. Maybe a tenner for a bottle of buckfast is probably twice what it costs?(I am guessing the units in a big bottle of Buckie - googled, 11.25 units so £5.65 which is what I guess it costs so the law does not hit the monks).
So your average Jakey who drinks vodka is going to have to get back on the white spirit and chemists are going to have to start getting you to sign for a bottle and write your address. (I do not think you can actually buy white spirit now at the chemist as times have changed).
Fiver for a bottle of white lightning is a lot for terrible cider etc.
I don't see what the problem is here. Businesses in a capitalist system are supposed to be hyper-vigilant to price and demand signals. I'd be amazed if Wetherspoons weren't doing this.
If these were independent pubs they'd do it and no one could care. Not sure what their being a chain changes.
Most theories and practical implementations of capitalism seem to be incoherent nonsense but that's another question.
If they were independents they wouldn't have the same buying power. No suggestion they are making a loss at any pubs though but I suspect FT didn't investigate that. Just like they didn't investigate licencing law.
"in 48 of the pubs there’s no twin-pitcher deal available at all — including, curiously, the whole of the Scottish fleet."
Not really very curious!
in 48 of the pubs there’s no twin-pitcher deal available at all — including, curiously, the whole of the Scottish fleet."
Not really very curious!
Yes the Scottish parliament does seem to be somewhat nanny state. Although the no deal rule makes some sense. However that minimum pricing does seem to disproportionally effect the young. I suppose what the Scottish government should do is cap the non funded government employees pensions at 15k and use the balance to give the under 25s a citizens income. Invest in the future rather than reward yesterdays dodgy official's. Another vote winner I am sure.
Think it works the other way in Majestic. In England there is a six bottle reduction that is maybe available on a single bottle in Scotland. Do not quote me but the s something like that .
However that minimum pricing does seem to disproportionally effect the young.
It all depends what the "young" are drinking and if it's cheap, high-strength alcohol, e.g. white cider (actually a by-product of sugar beet refining), white-label vodk,a "super lager" or any form of fortified wine.
I would say that the minimum pricing will disproportionately affect anyone who likes to drink to excess on the minimum budget. If you're a well off soak who specialises in red wine and gin, this won't hurt your pocket, if you're scraping together the fiver for a bottle of White Strike cider then this significantly increases what you need to pay to get soused.
Of course, inn theory nobody under the age of 18 should be affected (of course we know this is wishful thinking).
I do imagine that the bootleg black market spirits market is going to boom, which is dangerous considering what can end up in that stuff. But then again it's dangerous enough drinking the genuine stuff on the cheap...
is going to have to get back on the white spirit
I thought white spirit just refers to mineral-based solvents e.g turpentine substitute which come from naptha or petrol. Don't you mean methylated spirits? Which you can buy very easily in large quantities now off the shelf because of the fashion for "real flame" burners and scented wicking vapour things that burn alcohol. And fondue is making a comeback too.
Methylated spirit sold in the UK normally has denatonium added which is the allegedly most bitter chemical known. Having inadvertently licked my hand about 15 minutes after spilling some meths on it I can testify it is truly bogging. Swallowing even a mouthful of the stuff would require your taste buds removed first I think.
Methylated spirit sold in the UK normally has denatonium added which is the allegedly most bitter chemical known.
Discovered (by mistake apparently) in Edinburgh by T&H Smith, one of the predecessors of Mcfarlan Smith.
Trips to Norway offer a bit of a window into a world with no cheap booze.
Yes, a pint of beer is eye wateringly expensive (one particularly strong IPA was something close to £13 for a pint - I should have gone for a half), but folk still drank beer. They just seemed to do it in a calmer and more relaxed fashion. They savoured it, made a pint last. Nights out in town centre pubs had a friendly and convivial atmosphere.
The result was in an entire weekend in a mid-sized (popn c.60,000) we saw one (that's one) visibly drunk individual. And he was still able to have a bit of a conversation with us. Certainly couldn't say that about any similarly-seized settlement in the UK.
I see with the minimum pricing we will have to cycle to Berwick upon tweed to get the Aldi £3.49 bottle of wine. A booze cruise on bike. lucky I got that rear tandom wheel fitted
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