BASS!

Lovely bit of hail this evening.

I think this is the most important piece of pub writing you'll read this year, on something that gets ignored or overlooked despite being a major thing in many, many places. I really hope this starts a wider debate on cocaine in pubs.

It appears that political journalism is now just reading anonymous messages off your phone straight onto national television.

The current incarnation of the Labour Party believes in nothing but factionalism.

You know, the thing you really should bear in mind, as Labour implodes with back stabbing and MPs clawing their way over each others corpses, is this is what our politicians and media smashed a middling socdem movement for.

Heading to Nottingham soon - anyone got any good pub recommendations? Or things to do when not in a pub?

GOOD MORNING! Here's our regular weekly round-up of the best writing about beer and pubs, with a thread around inclusion and political debate in pubs; thoughts on AI art in the brewing industry; and notes on the entanglement of beer brands and family history. boakandbailey.com/2026/05/news...

Complicity in a genocide is not a one-term or single election issue. I will never, for as long as I remain breathing, vote for a government or party that sat by while that was going on. If your leaders did not speak out against it, then you can fuck off if you think you will ever get a vote from me.

There's one Labour candidate in Bexley who I hope is enjoying a nice cold drink this evening - only declared half an hour ago, after the rest of the borough counted overnight. One vote! They all count!

The Replacements' Tim - Greatest rock and roll album ever imo

Rough and ready thoughts on the Bexley Council elections... waituntilnextyear.com/2026/05/08/r...

Meat van in the town centre, butcher working the microphone, the last true carny in town.

A poor campaign for Reform in Bexley - edged out of multiple seats they might have won with more of a push. "Better the Devil you know" campaigning definitely worked for the Tories and Labour.

turns out the entire UK media and a government with a huge majority acting as a fringe right-wing party's PR department for several years makes people think they're a credible outfit 🤔 who could possibly have stopped this

Tories hold Bexley. Reform don't live up to the pre-election projections. I think more people saw Reform as a threat than a salvation.

Four recounts in Bexley now, in a borough that traditionally has had very few marginal wards. Just a handful of votes potentially deciding what way the borough goes.

Interesting stuff in Bexley. Tories and Labour holding up better than predicted, Reform getting some gains, but less than expected. I suspect many people didn't want a Reform Council so went out and voted. But at least two recounts happening now, so could still go either way.

Seeing the projection for Bexley and it looks like we'll be getting a visit from John Harris and his Racism Safari soon.

People talk about the evils of social media but I just watched a video with Peter Andre giving a shout out to my local bakery, so it can't be all bad.

There's a lot of "vote for the lesser evil" talk around here but I don't think I can vote for any kind of evil.

there's only one party remotely interested in any of the real issues (cossie livs, people fucking dying of hunger, the planet is dying, etc) and it'd be REALLY fucking nice if we could make all the I'm Just Being So Sensibles eat it by voting for Greens today - my working class borough is

right, it's local government election day in the UK and it is very important you ignore the iPR campaign for Reform and smear campaign against the Greens (which.... 'this Jewish guy is antisemetic and we're going to show it by portraying him a goblin' is erm. quite poor even for the British media)

An incredible piece of television, deeply human and really quite melancholy. youtu.be/zgpK5YxqmDo?...

Nice bit of submarine action on the Medway this afternoon.

I think we need to stop smashing foods. Avocado, burgers, it's wholly undignified. They deserve better.

GOOD MORNING! Here's our regular round-up of the most interesting beer writing from the past week with a thread around trends, novelty, generational change, and heritage. boakandbailey.com/2026/05/news...

Pub Thoughts #10 (Pub websites and the Rusty Bucket, Bexley) waituntilnextyear.com/2026/05/01/p...

I hate the ubiquity of the YouTube thumbnail aesthetic - the gurning person staring straight out, the crappy font stating something vaguely clickbait-y but completely at odds with the tone of the video itself. Just show a still from your video!

Worst day of the year to go to the pub, right?

Bexley heading to no overall control with Tories and Reform in charge doesn't feel a million miles from where we are already. If the comments on local Facebook groups are anything to go by (a limited and biased group, I know) there might still be a few surprises. It's not full Reform Country yet.

Do these...*turns to camera*...take your breath away?

Coventry City promoted to the Premier League. Glad for one man - the club paid tribute to him thus.

Coventry City should absolutely be back in the top flight because my brain is still in the late eighties/early nineties.

All the stuff about vetting, advisers and process misses the point that everyone knew who Peter Mandelson was, what he had done and who he had associated with for literally years before Keir Starmer made him ambassador and lots of people pointed it out at the time. He appointed him anyway

Really sad, and totally avoidable. There's quite a story here for any journalist willing and able to do some digging, as far as I can tell.

Watching this old Jonathan Meades documentary on beer, pubs etc from 1994 and interesting how his point that the industry is rooted in nostalgia has become less of a thing in recent years, yet is creeping back with Boddingtons, Bass etc youtu.be/UCMlh0VV2xk?...

Calling it early...the new Wendy Eisenberg is album of the year.

it's really grim how the media gleefully goes along with the line that the economy is being killed by trans/autistic/disabled people rather than confronting the blatant reality that it's been fucked up by staggering greed and corruption, across a broad spectrum of political incompetence

GOOD MORNING! Here's our regular round-up of good writing about beer and pubs with notes on the popularity of Bass, a very special barley wine, and the ever-controversial topic of kids in pubs. 🍺🍻 boakandbailey.com/2026/03/news...

Coffee

I think the key to craft beer's success was putting "Drink fresh" on cans and bottles. The early days were full of hoarders and it encouraged them to drink and buy more rather than keeping hold of what they had. The booze equivalent of "repeat if necessary" on shampoo bottles.

Pub Thoughts #9 (The Queen Charlotte, Fitzrovia) waituntilnextyear.com/2026/03/27/p...

To honour what would have been Billy Mackenzie's birthday, 18 Carat Love Affair on TOTP, because the song mentions Evelyn Home and Avon girls and because they distribute pieces of chocolate guitar to the audience. youtube.com/watch?v=13dV...

Brilliant segment on the Robert Elms show on the slum landlord Peter Rachman. A timely antidote to all that rose-tinted London nostalgia.

Funny how Labour's fiscal rules don't apply to joining illegal wars that will tank the economy.

Pub Thoughts #8 waituntilnextyear.com/2026/03/20/p...

I hate knowing that I would be respected more at work if I had a slightly posher accent, and knowing they will happily spend a load of money bringing in a Oxbridge-y type just to tell them what I have told them already.

Gutted about this, Liza Tarbuck's show was the best thing on the radio, not just great music but a joyful and human presence - what broadcasting can and should be www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Pub Thoughts #7 waituntilnextyear.com/2026/03/06/p...