I DON'T know whether the debate on how the smoking ban is causing the decline in pub revenue is still ongoing, but I thought I would share with you an

I DON'T know whether the debate on how the smoking ban is causing the decline in pub revenue is still ongoing, but I thought I would share with you an incident that happened to me recently, although anyone a little squeamish should stop reading now.My wife and I called into one particular pub recently and one of its customers who was stood next to us started shouting to friends at the end of the bar using language that I have often heard described as 'strong'. Anyway, I politely asked him to refrain from shouting such obscenities, which were more or less directly into my wife's left ear, but his retort was that had I made such a request 10 years ago (I presume he has matured since then), he would have ripped my head off and deposited his excrement into the resultant hole. His language wasn't quite so poetic I might add. Of course I informed him that 10 years ago he wouldn't have got anywhere close to me as I could run in those days! This little incident just made me wonder if actually this kind of behaviour, highlighting the drop in moral and social standards, and showing how respect has disappeared from the British culture, may be just a teeny-weeny bit contributory to the demise of the great British pub, as opposed to the smoking ban.NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED