really?
are pubs opposite housing estates also offensive? if we say a cheapish london pint is £3.50... that's half the price of a mid-priced london cocktail - or a cheaper one in a trendier place (notwithstanding half-price happy hours, two-for-ones etc). Now, if we accept that part of the reason for drinking out is not units of alcohol per pound sterling, but the social event - the experience - the getting-out-of-the-house - the sense of a bit of an affordable treat... Then is it really so fucking unaffordable or offensive to go for cocktails half as often as someone might go to the pub?
I don't like pubs. I've been on benefits and i've been a skint student... and i've occasionally chosen to spunk cash i could ill-afford on cocktails because that's what I like. Ever since i was an underage drinker. I like the theatre and the presentation - it feels exciting and worth spending that ill-afforded money on. And it's ok that you don't feel that way, but it doesn't mean that all the people who like cocktails and choose to spend their money on them are wrong and posh and stupid. Go out in the towns of the uk and see who goes to the cocktail bars: hen nights, "girls' nights out"... lots of working class people - predominantly women - paying £6 and £7 a go, for cocktails. And if the demographic in the bars you're talking about seems more middle class, it is reflective of the local area. London *has* more higher earners... but the clientele of even the poncy cocktail bars is still significantly working class - and considering how much more time i spend in these places than, one can only presume, the sneering brigade do... perhaps i have a broader sample to base my understanding upon.