Pubs provide escape to another world

Has anybody ever thought of the doorway to a pub as being a kind of "star gate", entry to another dimension?

A Czech friend, one of Budvar's brewing team, suggested this to me over a pint recently. The pub, he argued, was a personal space outside time. On entry, everyday concerns are put on hold, and, he added, "once in there even the law of gravity is suspended — until you get up from the table".

My colleague went on to argue that in a time of financial downturn the pub was a more essential institution than ever. By way of reinforcing his argument he cited a recent survey by the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, which showed that 80% of Czechs visiting pubs go there to put their daily concerns and problems on hold.

More interesting for me than this slightly unsurprising finding was a statistic that showed that for every Czech pub that closed last year another opened. In other words the consumers want them and use them. As proof, despite the downturn, in April our brewery notched up the best domestic sales in its history.

We have a similar economic situation here and with it an opportunity to demonstrate, as they are doing in the Czech Republic, how important pubs are for the psychological health of both individuals and community.

Instead, thanks entirely to this Government, they are either closing down around us at an alarming rate or morphing into anything from restaurants or to what amounts to licensed crèches to claw back some kind of viability.

I don't think it would be fanciful to say that over the years thousands faced with seemingly unbearable problems of one kind or another have been saved from total personal meltdown and disaster by meeting good mates in the familiar comfort of the local to talk it through over a pint or two of the best. Maybe some of you will remember that refrain to Cheers, the sitcom about the Boston bar in Massachusetts: "Where everybody knows your name." I guess that just about sums up the kind of feeling you get in the best pub.

In this context, the pub as carer, I wonder how much this great institution has saved the NHS since it was founded. I bet far more than the pub has ever cost it, but at the rate pubs are closing we'll soon find out.