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

It sits a stone's throw from the village green, where 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 late summer early evening. It presents an image as much a part of Britain as fish and chips, red routemaster buses, bowler hats, pinstripe suits, hackney cabs and "cor blimey" news 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 newspaper and a pie and ale.

Where, as the sunset reddens and falls over the vale, when the birds break into 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.

Then the reality breaks through and the sudden realisation that 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 39 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, 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. Alcohol can

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