New government, new era?

"Austerity begins here." That was the stark assessment of John Philpott, chief economist of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, when asked last week what the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government might mean for the UK.

Those looking for a reduction in 'big government' and a bit of financial belt-tightening will see this as no bad thing. Addressing the budget deficit is uppermost in everyone's minds, superceding any partisan wrangles that may lie beneath the surface of the apparently cordial get-together twixt Messrs Cameron and Clegg.

Although the new administration has a few more pressing things to deal with in the short term, pub industry leaders have the perfect opportunity to tap into pre-election support for the trade from both the Tories and Liberal Democrats and press its case, as Jonathan Neame and Michael Turner, among others, believe.

Turner wants those in the trade to get hold of their local MPs and demand their support. While it's not a given, on the face of it even this patchwork government of less-than-equals must surely be more disposed towards the British pub sector than its predecessor.

We may get a better idea of the level of its commitment to pubs and those who own and run them once its secondary policies emerge in the coming weeks - and at the next Budget, due in the next month or so.

The economic stability which so many seek and upon which so many hopes are pinned won't come easily. If the price of a return to a healthy economy is a year or two of 'pain' then so be it, many say.

Pubs have moved on from being merely places where one went to drown one's sorrows. But things might just get so bad that for a while at least pubs fulfil that traditional place in many people's lives once again…