Climbing the economic peaks. Or not.

I'm not a lot of things. One of the things I am not, nor pretend to be, is an economist. Thus it was that last week I read with bemused interest the latest surveys on the health - or otherwise - of the UK economy.

Basically I wondered what all the fuss was about. I don't mean we shouldn't be concerned about the prospects for the economy, going forward. After all, unless you or I come up trumps on the lottery we are all hostages to its fortunes.

No, I just pondered on why so much is made of the need to outdo annual economic performance year in, year out, on the scale as has been seen in the past decade. Isn't economic cyclicality - bad times as well as the good times - inevitable at some point? And shouldn't we be able to cope with the stormy stuff when it comes along?

Yes, currently, times are tough. Several factors have coincidentally and perversely combined to hit the pub sector in the last 12 months. Input costs are rising higher than at any time in the last 16 years, which is certainly not good news.

One managed operator with 20 years in the trade told me trading was the toughest he'd seen. Ever.

But this won't last forever. The impact on the sector will vary as much as the myriad of elements that make up the trade.

With this in mind, some in the City take the view that people - licensees in this case - possessed of free will cannot be insulated from a tough economy. "You never hear people offering to pay more rent when times are good, do you?" one Square Mile observer said to me last week.

This is true. All the same, one repeats the hope that, if the truly needy come a-calling in the months to come, the Big Boys will lend a sympathetic ear…