'Pub customers to be checked for knives'

The police are to force pubs and clubs associated with knives or guns to search people on entry, under threat of losing their licences. The move will be pushed through by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith after a series of fatal stabbings in London and other cities. Trading standards officers are being told to step up test purchasing to stop sales of knives to under-18s. People convicted of carrying a knife will be made to visit A&E departments to see the impact of stab wounds, and to meet families of victims, as well as those imprisoned for knife crime. Youth forums will be extended to encourage young people to stay away from knives. The new measures will focus on knife hotspots in London, the West Midlands, Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire and Essex. - Independent On Sunday​

A landlady is selling her pub for a penny. Lynne Peckett blames the smoking ban and soaring costs for her decision. The buyer of the Rose House, in Walkley, Sheffield, will get the lease for 1p, plus the cost of stock and fixtures and fittings. Lynne, 53, and her husband John, 55, who have run the pub for 19 years, put the lease up for sale two years ago for £30,000 but got no offers. Lynne said yesterday: "Our takings are down £2,000. We've three supermarkets selling cheap beer and ten other pubs nearby." - Sunday Mirror​

Bankers for Regent Inns, owner of the Australian-themed sports-bar chain Walkabout, are looking to appoint a corporate-restructuring specialist to evaluate the future of the struggling pub business. The banks, including RBS, Barclays, NatWest and HSBC, have held discussions with a number of consultants and may already have brought in accountants BDO Stoy Hayward. The company's market value was just shy of £4m on Friday and it has debt of £80m, according to the latest set of results. - Sunday Times​

Analysts are lowering their profits forecasts for JD Wetherspoon. The managed pub group announces a pre-close trading statement this week. Wednesday will see the announcement outline what the City believes will be pressure on numbers from the smoking ban and higher raw material and utility costs. - Sunday Herald

Across the country increasing numbers of women are taking up the ultimate man's game. Since coming into effect last September, the Gambling Act 2005 has lifted restrictions on betting in pubs with the result that low-stakes games - especially poker - are enjoying a surge in popularity. Now women are finding they don't have to be fantasy Bond girls to take their place at the table. Feisty and competitive, they are not put off by poker's image and are ready to take on men at their own game. "I used to think poker players were aggressive, arrogant, chauvinistic old blokes," says Zana McClymont, sitting in McGills bar, in Bargeddie, near Glasgow. Now she says she can't miss her weekly fix. - Sunday Mail​

Reckless parents who let their kids booze and play violent video games are helping to fuel gang crime, a leading headteacher said last night. Sir Alan Steer, an adviser to Schools Secretary Ed Balls, claimed mums and dads who would never allow their children to take drugs think nothing of buying them booze. "Children see some adults breaking laws, such as speeding. There are a lot of double standards." He also blasted the emphasis on celebrity, adding: "We live in a greedy culture, we are rude to each other in the street. Children follow that." - Sunday People​

The Prince of Wales is now getting behind the bar with plans to sell his organic ale in pubs. Duchy Originals, the organic food and drink company set up by Prince Charles, has just produced its first draught beer, and hand-pulled pints will be available in a limited number of pubs from next month. The ruby-coloured ale is made in the Wychwood Brewery in Oxfordshire, which was bought by the independent brewer Marston's last year. - Observer​