Quite. In many areas the advent of the £5 pint was long ago.

Near here there was "media uproar" that Guinness was £7.80 a pint at the Cheltenham Race Festival. Well in my book if you're mug enough to go horse racing you're mug enough to pay such inflated prices.

But as for the death of the pub I'm not so sure. Last weekend I had to stay in a pub/hotel & it was rammed with middle aged middle class "ladies of a certain age" necking G&Ts, cocktails & white wine with an eagerness that would put many a thirsty alcoholic to shame.