Landlords talk funny up North
The Diary has noted an improvement in the linguistic skills of Courage’s pub landlords.
Manchester-born Walter Hall, who runs the Courage-owned George Inn at Bathampton near Bristol, has hit out at M&C Saatchi’s ads for Courage Best, which claim “The heads are thicker up North”.
Walter is certainly no thicko, for he is quoted by the Wessex News Agency as saying: “These billboards make socially derogatory comparisons between the north and south of England. This kind of divisive tactic borders on racial discrimination and in such unfortunate times of general social apprehension and upheaval it is amoral advertising.”
It is unusual to find such perceptive and sensitive use of the English language from a pub landlord. The landlord of the Diary’s local can rarely manage more than a gruff, “pint of the usual, Di?”
