Statistics... Don't you love them. As a long term participant in the Northern Ireland Household Panel Survey (I'll do anything for a £10 gift voucher... well, I'll spend half an hour answering relatively simple questions anyway...) I received the latest findings today. This is based on the 2008 returns, before the current economic downturn really gathered momentum here, but already it has shown a leap in those feeling financially worse off than the previous year (up to 31% from 14%), which in turn has manifested itself ina decrease in the number of people going to the pub once per week or more, down to 14% from 22% back in 2002. However, that trend may be exacerbated by the smoking ban in pubs in the intervening period... although I for one have been happier to go to a pub since that legislation. Whatever the reason these statistics certainly lend substance to the licensees bleating about the downturn in their business. That is until you look at some of the other findings. ...
Dialogues, monologues, sketches, poems, rants, theological and liturgical bits and bobs and miscellaneous other verbal doodles...