My people moved to the village of Yalding (Kent) in 1989. At the time there were six pubs in and around the village. By 2005 (two years before the smoking ban was introduced!) there were only three remaining, one of which had turned half of the pub into a restaurant. Extensive pub closures started long before the smoking ban!

Consider the following (yeh, I know, some of it's been covered already!):

1. As mentioned above, you can now buy beer from supermarkets at a fraction of the cost of buying it in a pub. Introducing minimum pricing would go some way to stopping the supermarkets selling booze at below cost price. Pub closures are generally good for supermarkets - if someone doesn't have a pub nearby, they're more likely to buy booze from supermarkets!

2. Para-social relationships. Millions of people now spend hours every day contacting "friends" on sites such as Facebook, which they find much easier than having to deal with the ups and downs of meeting people face-to-face, i.e. real social interaction, what most of us, I suspect, actually go to the pub for (as well as decent beer, of course!).

3. Telly. 1,001 channels, huge screens and pseudo-cinema effects lure people into keeping their bums on the settee.

4. PubCos. Not only the notorious PubCos, but some of the breweries are now at it. Squeezing and squeezing the landlords/tenants until there's nothing left to give. I know the landlords of two pubs tied to a brewery (mustn't mention names!) that have just left their pubs due to huge rent increases from the brewery, and a third that's waiting for the rent review towards the end of the year.

Sorry for the doom and gloom, and the absence of any major solution. Just my take on things.