I used to love a night in a decent pub, but these days I rarely bother, mainly because of the noise, juke-boxes, muzak, etc. And younger people seem unable to hold a conversation without shouting at each other. On top of this is the price of the drinks. I've paid anything from about £2.70 to £3.50 for a pint in a pub, yet I can buy 15 bottles of Stella Artois (at Lidl) for the equivalent of about £1.35 a pint, and my local offie sells English bottled beer, 4 pint bottles for £6.00. And if I imbibe at home, there's no breathalyser to worry about or, as what happened a few months ago, gangs of yobs fighting on the pub car-park at closing-time.
It's the same in France, where you can sit on your own in an otherwise-deserted cafe some evenings - and no wonder when you're charged, as I recently was, €4 for less than 1/2 a pint of draught beer and €3 for a glass of wine when the entire bottle costs less than that at the local supermarket.
I don't think it's the smoking-ban that's killing pubs, although it certainly isn't helping; I believe it's the rip-off prices of the booze, pure and simple.
Big Gee