'Buy a pub and lose your life's savings'

John Healey, the pubs minister, is encouraging potential investors to sink their pennies into pubs. As a publican's daughter I'm as keen as anyone to promote the great British boozer. But encouraging Joe Public to invest in taverns is a different business altogether. The very best pubs are not run in the hopes of a fat return: they are miracles of character and fortitude, little oases in the gloaming of a British winter. You wonder to yourself, "How on earth do these people make a living?" - and the truth is they don't, or barely…If you're going to run a pub, best do it for pleasure, for friendship, because you are naturally hospitable and a little insane. Be prepared to lose your life's savings. - Rowan Pelling writing in the Daily Telegraph​

A shocked mum aged 44 was refused booze from a Sheffield supermarket - after being told she may be underage. Stunned Louise Gregory protested to the assistant at Tesco on Infirmary Road after she was refused a small bottle of vodka at a self-service till. Mrs Gregory, who was with her daughter Sophie and her friend Nicole, both 14, told the assistant her age - who then claimed she suspected she would pass the booze on to the children. The store backed the assistant, and Mrs Gregory left empty-handed, vowing never to shop at Tesco again. - The Star​

Premier League bosses have launched a huge crackdown on illegally televised Clarets matches in Burnley pubs. Investigators said since Burnley's promotion last year the town has been flooded with decoder cards, typically for Albanian TV, allowing clubs and pubs to show matches without a licence. Three pubs have already been raided and police said many more will follow. Ray Hoskin, the managing director of Media Protection Services which investigates copyright offences for the Premier League, said there is a 'serious problem' in Burnley: "There are a lot of publicans who have been misled into buying these decoders by organised crime gangs who tell them that they will not be prosecuted. - Lancashire Telegraph​