2 pints of lager and a packet of stamps please

[POSTMAN]

Batheaston post office to move to the pub next door

http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/Batheast ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The village post office is to move next door to the George and Dragon pub from next month.

The in-pub shop, which will sell cards and stationery as well as providing normal post office services, will be operated from a revamped corner of the pub..

It will be open seven days a week, including Sundays, from Wednesday, February 25.

A spokesman from the post office said: “We understand how important having a post office is to residents in Batheaston.

“We are confident this new modern branch will meet the needs of the local community in Batheaston and secure services for the future.”

It will be open from 9am-5pm Monday to Friday, 10am-4pm on Saturday and 12pm -4pm on Sunday.

The new postmaster is landlord Steven Gallagher, who has recently refurbished part of the George and Dragon to make way for the post office and card and stationery shop.

It is all part of a £2billion scheme by the Government to improve the post office, which is not independent of Royal Mail.

Nowadays all types of services are available from the post office, including financial services, insurance, foreign currency, travel insurance as well as normal post office business.

The Post Office is modernising nationally to make it easier for customers to do business, and to provide longer opening hours.

[fishtank]

Ideal.
Pop in your Post Office bank card, take out your Job Seekers Allowance and spend it all in one convenient place.

[bustedflush]

Ideal.
Pop in your Post Office bank card, take out your Job Seekers Allowance and spend it all in one convenient place.

You wouldn't discriminating against welfare recipients and casting aspersions upon their social habits, would you??

They've had enough bad news this week already! :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazin ... r-30795336" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Long associated with problem drinkers, Special Brew could now have its alcohol level reduced. But will it alter the super-strength lager's reputation, asks Jon Kelly.

It was first brewed in honour of Winston Churchill. Today "Spesh" or, as it is often referred to in headlines, "tramp juice", is most commonly associated with getting drunk incredibly cheaply. Now Special Brew - which at 9% ABV contains 4.5 units of alcohol per can - will become less potent in 2015. Brewer Carlsberg says that it will sign up to a UK government-led pledge that no drink should contain more than four units, a man's maximum recommended daily intake.

It would be an ignominious fate for a beer whose tin proclaims that it comes "by appointment to the Royal Danish court". Carlsberg says Special Brew was first brewed to commemorate Churchill's 1950 visit to Copenhagen, incorporating "cognac flavours among its tasting notes" in deference to the wartime prime minister's fondness for brandy. The novelist Kingsley Amis was also a fan, mixing it half-and-half with regular Carlsberg pilsner and praising its ability "to create goodwill". It was also immortalised in a top-three hit for ska-pop band Bad Manners.

The brand enjoys 37 million UK off-trade sales each year, says Chris Wisson, senior drinks analyst at Mintel. But recently super-strength lager has come under fire for its social impact. One homeless charity compared such drinks to crack cocaine and, in an effort to tackle anti-social behaviour, shopkeepers have agreed not to stock them in parts of Westminster and Suffolk. Spurred by such complaints, the government raised duty on beers over 7.5% in 2011. InBev, manufacturer of Special Brew's rival Tennent's Super, has already said it will reduce its cans from 500ml to 440ml in order not to exceed four units.

No decision has yet been taken on whether to shrink the cans or ABV of Special Brew and Skol Super, also brewed by Carlsberg UK, but Bruce Ray, the company's corporate affairs director, says it wants to create a "responsible drinking environment". The pledge offers an opportunity to reshape the brand's image. But although the craft beer boom created a market for artisan high-ABV drinks, trends in alcohol sales indicate that, increasingly, "most drinkers want something a little less strong", says Wisson. Who knows what Churchill, an enthusiastic consumer of Pol Roger champagne, would make of it all.