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  I doubt whether we can blame the law against drink-driving or cheap super market booze for the decline in pub numbers and although the smoking ban could have been better applied it was just another in a long series of nails in the coffin of the pub social life we all (well..most) grew up with.
  
  Politics alert!
  
  While television has had the most to do to change how we all access entertainment it was the broad and easy path to wealth through property price inflation that skewed us away from valuing the public-house as much as our forebears.
  The ever bigger brewing concerns altered their view of pub chains too. These were no longer valued as outlets for their products but became, more and more, to be seen as static high-value assets. Valued more for their position and their land value and the difference this all made as seen on the balance-sheet.
  Knocking a pub down and building, or converting it to, saleable housing gave the Politicians scope to crow on so many fronts. And any that complained could be pointed to the wonders of cheap supermarket booze and the burgeoning number/variety of TV channels.
  All is not lost, perhaps. The social worth of the public house is still a fact of life and the arrival of micro brewers and pop-up pubs may yet grow into another, post Victorian , renaissance of the local pub. I for one certainly hope so.

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