Caroline Nodder: We should be Proud of Pubs and the people who run them every single day

Thank you to all the hundreds of you out there who made last week's Proud of Pubs Week our best ever. Pubs across the land threw parties, raised money for good causes, ran beer festivals, organised fancy dress events, got their local press involved and invited their local MP in to see what a difference pubs can make to people's lives.

Proud of Pubs Week was launched four years ago at a time when pubs were really downtrodden. They had been battered by the media and labelled as the scourge of Binge Britain, and morale within the industry was at an all-time low.

We felt that the sector needed a boost and indeed that the rest of the country needed a reminder of what British pubs are all about.

For me, they epitomise everything that makes us Brits that little bit different from other people. Our sense of humour, our stiff upper lip, our community spirit and our love of quirkiness and the unusual. You will get all those things in a pub and more, and for that reason they consistently top the list of attractions for foreign tourists. But the best thing about pubs is the people who run them, and that was what made last week so special.

We popped down to our Publican Awards Pub of the Year, the Wiremill in Surrey, to launch last week's event and the party that ensued proved beyond doubt why this industry has the right to be so proud.

The evening attracted a whole range of people from all different walks of life who happily chatted, laughed and joked with each other over a few ales, as well as some top class pub entertainment courtesy of a brilliant live band and our star attraction, champion beermat flipper Dean Gould. Dean managed to break two world records into the bargain much to the delight of the audience, many of whom then spent the rest of the night trying to compete - and failing.

It was, in short, a typically fun night out at the local with a great group of people. And where else can you have that kind of experience? I certainly wouldn't pop over to the next table in a restaurant and start chatting to other customers, nor would I drop into a curry house to ask directions from the licensee, or spend the evening in a Starbucks flipping coffeemats or sampling their new guest coffee. It just wouldn't happen.

And that's because pubs have something that those other businesses don't have. Pubs have heart.

And even when they themselves have had a tough few years, publicans have consistently proved to be the rock on which their communities can rely. The kind of atmosphere that we enjoyed down at the Wiremill last week is the kind of atmosphere that pub-goers across the country enjoy every day of the week thanks to the great British pub and we celebrated that last week with a week-long festival of pubs.

We should be Proud of Pubs and of the people who run them every single day of the year because they deserve it.