MARTIN JOHNSON

Twenty-odd pubs closing in the UK every week is a grim statistic, and the chancellor freezing the price of a pint in his autumn budget would barely have made a dent in the casualty rate. Let’s raise a glass then to the England cricket team, whose performances in Australia have come just in time to save half a dozen Horse and Hounds, and who knows how many Dog and Ducks.
I hate to disabuse all those landlords putting down falling trade to stagnant wages and cheap booze in the supermarkets, but anyone with half a brain could tell them that it’s really all to do w...