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Americans believe the quintessential English pub nestles idyllically in a sleepy hamlet with low oak beams, horse brasses, inglenook rafters and cottage garden scenery.

Where it sits a stone's throw from the village green and the sounds of cork on willow from a good humoured cricket match can be heard to break into the chatter of the locals enjoying their pint on a balmy summer afternoon. It presents an image as much a part of England as fish and chips, red routemaster buses, bowler hats, pinstripe suits, hackney cabs and cockney newspaper vendors.

Where the jolly landlord reigns supreme and cares for his customers with all the love of a parent over his brood. Where the locals pop in for a chat and gather to discuss the day with friends and neighbours. Where the visitor can relax with a pork pie and glass of bitter.

Where, as the sunset reddens and falls over the vale, when the birds break into twilight song, where the very essence of the community relaxes and wallows in the peace of a fading day, wander home, content and assured that tomorrow is but another day and all will be right with the world.

Reality check! This is but a dream, a vision of a bygone age, nothing more than a postcard of times past, squeezed amongst many on a carousal outside a tourist gift shop.

The latest statistics from the British Beer and Pub Association state that 40 pubs are closing every week, and have been on this decline since 2007. The biggest sufferers are villages where the pub was a centre of the community, and many are mere shells of their former selves.

Along with the village store and the post office, they are yet another victim of government policy which is eradicating the essence of British culture. From the highlands of Scotland, to the moors of England, from the valleys of Wales and the coasts of Northern Ireland, they are disappearing on a scale unprecedented over hundreds of years.

Pubs that have stood since the sixteenth century, which have survived war, famine and industrial exodus, have now surrendered, browbeaten, exhausted and crippled by the very government that should be protecting them.

Those that remain do so by a thread. They have converted parts of their premises to a post office (because most of the post offices have closed), or a shop, or a community hall, but each has had to diversify in order to survive.

So what caused this? There is a binge drinking culture in the UK, mainly amongst the young. Supermarkets sell cheap booze which fuels drinking to excess.

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