Northamptonshire village pub landlady goes viral with tweet highlighting why cost of living crisis has forced her to abandon boozer

A Northamptonshire village pub landlady has gone viral after nearly a million people saw her tweet about how the cost of living crisis has forced her to abandon her boozer.

Miranda Clare has been running The Live and Let Live in Harpole for four years but decided in February that it was time to call it a day. She is set to call her final last orders at 'The Live' on July 21.

The 48-year-old tweeted on Monday (June 6) outlining just why she has decided to give the pub up.

The tweet reads: "Have to laugh when people ask why I'm giving up my pub, you know, 'The Village Goldmine'. Well, hun, this quarterly gas bill should answer that question."

Miranda's gas bill has more than doubled, going from £3,000 per quarter to a nearly £8,000. Her electricity bill is £20,000 per quarter and it is now costing her £5,000 a week just to open her doors.

In just two days, Miranda's tweet has been seen by 760,000 people at the time of writing (Wednesday), liked 6,100 times, and retweeted 1,700 times.

Reacting to going viral, Miranda said: "It's gone to lots of communities and the general vibe is, 'Christ, this is what small businesses are facing. And that's why it's just gone as mad as it has, because this is life, it is reality right now.

"I'm lucky if I'm clearing enough to open the doors, let alone buy beer. That's the harsh reality.

"Covid, we got through it, I was determined to. But the cost of living now, we are dealing with the public and the public have their own cost of living to think of, too. Everybody's home bills have gone up so when you're making that choice about going out, of course you don't.

"In the domestic world there are energy caps. We don't have caps in business, my bills will just continue to rise.

"There are hundreds of people in the same position as me up and down the country, they're all slowly sinking. People who run very successful businesses are going to be bankrupt by the end of the year. That's really sad.

"The pub industry has been nothing but hammered in the last three years, every step we take we are hammered. The bigger chains will survive but the smaller community ones, they are not going to be able to cut it."

What effect will the loss of smaller pubs have on their local communities?

Miranda said: "Without local pubs communities don't engage with each other.

"We've been here before with the recession in 2008, we'll come out the other side of it, will it look the same? No it won't, at all. I think people have just got to be prepared for that."

Could the government help?

Miranda said: "I don't think enough is done or said to these major fuel companies which are making major profits left, right and centre. I think that's the shocking thing.

"Also, why aren't businesses given a lot more encouragement to using solar energy? Why are we not given the tools and the means to be more sustainable?"