How about a leaders' debate on pubs?

There are just 77 days to go before the expected general election date of Thursday 6 May.

Last week's surprise announcement that John Healey is going to be the new minister for pubs certainly means that public houses and beer are going to play a greater role than anticipated in the campaign. Downing Street knew that it had to respond to both Tory and Liberal Democrat manifestos for pubs that have appeared in recent months.

Following his appointment, John Healey achieved the unusual feat of receiving laudatory comment pieces from both the News of the World and the Daily Mirror. Nevertheless, shrewd Yorkshireman that he is, John will certainly realise that well before polling day he will have to come up with some concrete proposals.

Some useful measures have already been hinted at, such as relaxing planning laws to make it easier for pubs to operate post offices and shops during opening hours and giving tenants the right to buy pubs under threat of closure.

Meanwhile, a whole series of policy ideas are being brought back down off the shelf by pub and industry lobbyists eager to make an impression on the minister in the coming days.

How about, for example, the Campaign for Real Ale's (CAMRA) suggestion that rate relief be extended from village pubs to all "community" pubs that can prove that they provide a "public benefit"? (This would incidentally put public houses on a similar footing to public schools who now have to prove that they give a public benefit in order to keep their charitable status!)

CAMRA will also be pushing the case to strengthen the law on change of use for pubs and for an explicit commitment from the Government to back the campaign in Europe to allow governments to allow a lower rate of duty on draught beer.

The big political challenge for John Healey, though, is to be credible. Does he not have to say something on the questions of tax, the tie and supermarket pricing?

Budget day is widely expected to be Wednesday 24 March and surely there must now be a decent chance that the Chancellor will utter the word "pubs".

As the BBC, ITV and Sky make preparations for the leaders' debates, is there not an opportunity to stage the first ever general election debate on the future of pubs, with the respective party spokespersons before an invited audience carried live on the Pub Channel? Edited highlights could be available more widely.