Baylen Linnekin: Britain Trips Up and Props Up Its Declining Pubs

Britain faces declining pub numbers
because of several issues, including declining beer consumption
nationwide, real estate prices, and the country’s unique pub
ownership system—in which pubs often are “tied” to a brewer through
ownership or contract. (A little more than one-third of pubs
operate independently.) Those issues, though quite real, fall
largely outside of the relationship between pubs and government.
But other issues facing Britain’s pubs are particularly interesting
because they highlight this eternal question: How will government
attempt to solve the problems it creates? The answer, writes Baylen
Linnekin, typically—and especially, when it comes to food laws and
polices—is more government.

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