mercuryg

Am I the only one who thinks Wetherspoons will be a complete failure? For a start, nobody is going to go for breakfast at 7am. This isn't a town with a major transport terminus that allows for people with a little time to spare before their bus/train leaves. Opening at 7am can only cater for locals, as nobody comes into Bedlington at that time otherwise. They will soon knock that on the head as a needless expense. Next is th question of where the trade is going to come from. I have had conversations in the many pubs with people who believe that when it opens people will flock from miles around to come to the new Wetherspoons. Why would they? Ashington has their own anyway, Blyth has cheap pubs; the only trade that Wetherspoons will attract will be, again, local. Great, the beer is cheap and the food is cheap too, and I will safely bet that for the first couple of weeks the place will attract a lot of interested punters - i'll go and have a look for a start, and other like me undoubtedly will - but if the attraction of a drinking joint was price alone we would all drink in the clubs and the pubs would be shut. This isn't going to suddenly revive Bedlington in any way at all; beer is still very cheap in the supermarkets, people don't suddenly have any more money to spend, and it's just another pub. Those of us who frequent our local pubs do so not just to pour ten pints down our neck, but to have a bit of a natter, get out of the office, the house, whatever, and relax and have a laugh. I'm afraid that 50p off a pint isn't going to do it for me - and others like me - if the place is as sterile, boring and downright unwelcoming as other Wetherspoons establishments I;ve visited. And it certainly isn't going to attract a mass of people from neighbouring towns who suddenly see Bedlington's Wetherspoons as The Place To Be. I doubt it will last long at all. On another note, I wouldn't advertise my local business on this site. While I enjoy it, it doesn't present the right tone.

Has Chris Packham, or whoever, walked every inch of the many thousands of remote and largely untouched moorland, woodland, forest and more that this country plays host to? Does he personally know every single animal that lives in the UK? or is he talking, perhaps, about NATURAL predators for deer, rather than non-native cats of the ilk that we are talking of here? It's great to point to evidence that lynx have officially been extinct for many years - they have - and that TV presenters know everything there is to know, but we're not talking about lynx, or other cats, in the sense that they live here naturally; we're talking animals that are here as alien species, possibly as released after the Dangerous Animals act came into force. There is, as I'm sure you know, a major difference. As for having no predators, smaller deer are often killed by foxes.

That's the Iberian Lynx, unique to the Iberian Peninsular. The Eurpoean Lynx is quite common.In Europe, that is.

Midweek for me Mr Darn, something to do!

Did anyone ask you? Is that glass still half empty?

I'm pretty sure that playing cards for money in a public house isn't on. Mr Darn, if you find anywhere count me in I'm up for a game with the sort of pot you mentioned. I'm someone who actually likes people, rather than spending all my life with machines.

You wouldn't let that !*!@# out of the house, far too valuable! Would make a nice jumper.

You're absolutely right, Monsta, the native Lynx is extinct in England and the UK, just as the Wildcat is extinct in England. However, 'one or two escapees' is an uneducated guess. As long ago as the 1920's there were known to be three Lynx living together in Scotland; did they breed? In the mid 70's a young Puma cub was shot near London. It was almost a new born, indicationg its parents were still at large (they were never found). The number of sightings of cats alien to our country (that means native to another, not from outer space) over the past 50 years include positive identifcations of an Ocelot in the early 1990's, seen repeatedly in a part of Surrey, if I remember rightly, and many instances of smaller alien cats and even a clouded leopard. These aren't just tentative assumptions - these are actual, recorded sightings. Given that it was very trendy in the late 1960's among the wealthy to own exotic pets (the famous Harrods store had a pet shop specialisin in them, and a story goes a gentleman once requested a camel; 'One hump, or two?' was the assitants reply) and there are records of many purchases of Lynx, Puma, Jungle cats and more from both Harrods and other stores, where did they all go when, suddenly, owners were required to have an expensive licence following the Dangerous Animals Act in 1976? Very few instances of zoos accepting such animals - animals that existed as we know from sales receipts - yet suddenly nobody owned them! Where, again, did they go? It's a subject that raises many questions, yet provides few answers; what is certain, and even the most sceptical of commentators admits so, is that there are lynx, puma, ocelot and more living in the wild in England. How many is unknown.

That's incredible. Talk about not doing your market research. I have an idea - let's start a campaign: The Golf Course Lynx to Open The Red Lion!

The deer suggestion is very plausible indeed, but I would suggest that most people can tell the difference between bambi and a larger than your average !*!@# cat. i would also suggest that deer ARE common on the golf course and around. The thing is, what you're missing is that if what was seen turns out to be a Scottish Wild Cat that would be considerably more interestign to naturalists (no, Monsta, they are not people who don't wear clothes) than a Lynx as, as has been pointed out to you but conveniently ignored, there are Lynx known to have been released into th wild in England while the Wildcat hasn't been seen here for hundreds of years. Take the wallabies in Derbyshire - if I had told you you were more likely to see a wallaby in Derbyshire than a wildcat you would have resorted to your trusty wikipedia and ranted on about wallabies bein native to Australia and how they were not only extinct here but nver were here in the first place! The fact is, however, that you are more likely to see a wallaby in Derbyshire than a wildcat, as there are wallabies, but not wildcats. Are you getting the picture? If there are wildcats in England, then that is very, very interesting news indeed, as they are just as extinct in England as the Lynx. It's a case of recognition - big !*!@# with tufty ears and bushy tail that slinks away quietly into the bushes, or little bambi with scrawny legs and hoofs that sort of trots and bounds away into the bushes in a panic. You would, I'm sure, tell the difference? PS - who on earth decided to censor !*!@#?

You really should be careful when quoting people to get the context, and the quote itself, correct; it's quite easy to go back a couple of pages and read that I wrote: "but when was the last time a Scottish Wild Cat was seen in England? You're probably more likely to see a lynx!" I wasn't talking about the UK, but England. The Scottish Wild Cat is believed, like the Lynx is, to be extinct in England - that's the bit south of the border above which the Jocks live - and sightings in England have not been reported for a very, very long time. On the other hand, we know of Lynx released in the wild in England. As the general consensus is that there are no Scottish Wild Cats beneath - or indeed near - the border, and yet even the expert quoted by Pete admits there are likely to be 'very small numbers' of big cats, including Lynx, in England, the chances are, statistically, that you are more likely to see a lynx. Never once did I imply they were common, which to me means everyday, easy to see, ordinary.

Hold the Uk Lynx Lovers convention, of course.

This is the most pressing conundrum in the whole issue, Pete; breeding, it has to be said, could only take place in very unlikely circumstances. The thing about us not seeing them, though, is somewhat contentious; it's often forgotten, with us being such a relatively small country, that there are hundreds of thousands of square miles of moorland, forest and the like that are visited by people very rarely. A Lynx, or other big cat, isn't likely to die by the side of a road - and as I've driven for 28 years now and never hit a domestic moggie a collision with one is quite unlikely - but out in the wilds, where it chooses to live, away from us. It would be great if we could 'prove' the existence of the Golf Course Lynx - would be even bigger news than Tommy the Egg man!

Common? Who said they were common? Me? I don't think I did, Monsta, and I didn't even imply it. I said - and I don't think you need reminding really - that it's not disputed that Lynx are living in the wild in the UK; I didn't say they were commonplace at all. The expert commentary given by Pete - interesting it is too - includes this snippet: "Are there big cats loose in Britain? Very probably. I am not going to deny that non-native felids are loose in Britain. They have been kept as exotic pets and in menageries for centuries and there has been ample opportunity for big cats to escape wither accidentally (enclosure damaged by storms etc) or deliberately (released into the wild by the owner). Recent escapes and recaptures are documented as are the captures of a Puma and a European Lynx, both of unknown provenance. Jungle Cats (F chaus, a small non-native species) have been found dead on the roadside. However, no big cats have been found dead by the roadside and no recent skeletal remains have been found in open areas, so their numbers in the wild would be very low. " He doesn't say they are common either but, like me, says that it is not denied there are such cats on the loose in the UK.

'People in Africa', and elsewhere, also discover plenty of species they didn't know existed, every year. Mammals, birds, reptiles - the whole lot - are being discovered all the time. If we can miss them, we can miss animals that we don't expect to be in our midst, too. As merlin confirms with those pictures, it's not in doubt that there are Lynx alive in the UK. Merlin - you should read Fortean Times, if you love this sort of stuff you'd love that! I have plenty of back issues should you want them!

All very good points, but as merlin goes on to say Lynx, and other big cats, have a colossal territory and are naturally elusive creatures. Furthermore, cats aren't mythical like bigfoot - they exist. As I said earlier, there is no doubt that Lynx - and other cats - were released into the wild some years ago. Whether they continued to survive - and, crucially, breed - is another thing entirely.

I love this story, it's just the sort of cranky thing a rich yank would do. Good for him and hope it brings some welcome funds to the club.

The myth that big cats couldn't survive in this country was debunked a long time ago. There's plenty to eat and cats are, by their nature, elusive. As for the authorities, I think the best option is to leave well alone - a cat is unlikely to attack a human and I know of no certain reports of big cats attacking; most likely it will scarper long before you get close enough to it. The whole thing reminds me of the famous colony of wallabies that lived wild in the pennines in Derbyshire, close to where I was brought up. You could walk into the hills - not far from a small town - and watch them hopping around like they were native. I'm told the last one died recently as they were not breeding.

In natural terms, that's true, but in fact there are known to be Lynx living in the wild in england. A number escaped from private collections in the 1950's or 1960's and they were never recovered. How long they lived for, whether they bred, and if so where they are now is an unknown. A lynx is, also, somewhat bigger than a scottish wildcat which is the size of one and a half average domestic tabby's; had someone seen a wildcat i think they would have thought it a very big tabby, and not really thought much more about it.

It would be great if it was, but when was the last time a Scottish Wild Cat was seen in England? You're probably more likely to see a lynx!

I was deadly serious Merlin - it was there, and it was certainly not a domestic cat. The dog would have chased one, but he hung back from this one. I think you're right in that they are adept at keeping themselves to themselves.

I hate to be the one to post a serious answer to this, it's just not me! A number of years ago was walking the dog down the path that rund by The Burn, next to teh Hazlemere estate. Dog, medium sized Border Collie, was fifty yards in front and stopped dead looking ahead. Around the corner, another fifty or more yards away, was a bloody big cat - about the size of the dog - that was black or dark brown in colour. It watched us for a moment then sloped off into the undergrowth; we went looking but couldn't find it, although the dog was keen. I have cats, it wasn't a domestic tabby.

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! DON'T OPEN WETHERSPOONS, PLEASE, NOT THE RETURN OF DARN! CAN BEDDERS COPE?

While I agree entirely with the Red Lion opening being a good thing (i'm not fussed about Wetherspoons to be honest but if they are the ones so be it) I don't see why it will lead to a sudden increase in people spending weekend evenings out in Bedlington again. Very few people are going to come here especially to visit Wetherspoons (just as very few do to visit Tesco's) and the main clientele is clearly going to consist of those of us who do go out for a pint going there for a taste of something new. People stay in on Fridays and Saturdays because they have stocked up on cheap beer at home; Wetherspoons isn't going to change that, and nor is its presence going to give everyone a sudden payrise. Sorry to appear to be putting a downer on it - I'm looking forward to it opening - but in terms of 'reviving the town' I really think a lot more is needed, and doubt that Bedlington will ever return to the heady heights we remember from years gone by. People simply cannot afford it - even at Wetherspoons prices.

Far from it; they buy end of line stock at high volume - it's how they keep their prices low. It's not a secret and has been part of their business plan for years. Hope it opens sooner than later.