Local Christians took over the Cock & Bottle pub in Bradford, as part of an evangelistic exercise. It didn't work, but this song was my response. The pub is now back in secular hands, and is the venue every Thursday for the Topic, the oldest folk club in the world (celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2006).

I wrote the following letter to the Bradford Telegraph & Argus on the subject:

The problem with the arguments of C.A. Garbutt and E.A. Armitage, in support of Robin Gamble's Christian pub project (and indeed, the thinking behind it, I suggest) is that they appear to confuse going out and engaging with non-Christians in the real world, as Jesus did, and as the Salvation Army has always done, with submitting to the standards of the world by setting out to sell one of the most dangerous drugs there is.

I have a good friend called Jackie Pullinger, who takes her evangelical ministry to the drug users and addicts of Hong Kong, but I am sure she would never consider setting up as a dealer in order to attract them to the Gospel. And every year, alcohol kills 200 times as many people as heroin in this country.

Indeed, one of the problems with the church is that it tends to think in terms of bricks and mortar – whether it be churches, pubs, or other buildings – rather than taking its message out on to the streets and INTO the pubs. Don't join the devil in retailing his deadliest wares, please, but by all means invade his territory with the Good News of God's love and the sacrifice of his Son to save us all.