In days gone by when Queens were no longer considered an asset, or their husbands had fallen from grace, they had their head chopped off. The lucky ones didn't actually lose their head, but instead they were sent in to exile. Mind you, if you were going to be sent to Telford in Shropshire for the rest of your days (the most boring place on earth according to a recent survey) then beheading might have almost looked like an attractive option.In modern day Pub terms I guess that being closed down is the equivalent of losing your head. And so it is with this poor Queen. She, and 66 of her fellow local pubs close every week in the UK according to the papers. I found some stats showing that in 1980 there were 69,000 pubs. By 2009 this had dropped to 53,466. In the same time frame the percentage of independently owned (or "Free Houses") ie not owned by the breweries, dropped from 84% to 47% . So what do you think this is telling us??
