Sign 'O' the Times

So the dust has settled on the recent Orchid pubs fiasco. The latest in a series of capitalistic crisises which would have had old Marxie chuckling, this was more worrying as it concerned pubs, not banks etc. Seems they’ve done a “Cains” and bought most of their own pubs back. Now if I did anything as shady, I could expect a call from the boys in blue. In their game, you can call it “financial restructuring” and get away with it. This upheaval has caused problems at the Shovels in Blackpool, but luckily, local outlets such as the Hare & Hounds have continued to trade normally. Orchid blamed their problems on “the smoking ban” (yawn), and the “downturn in consumer spending.” And theirs me thinking it was all that debt they saddled the company with...