For good or for ill, some writers stand the test of time whilst others get largely forgotten. One such is Hilaire Belloc. These days, if he’s mentioned at all, it’s generally for saying: “When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England.” Belloc might have been born a Frenchman, but he got that right.

If we’re not careful, we might have to ‘drown our empty selves’ for pubs are closing at the rate of 31 a week. We get the odd new one opening but they are comparatively few in number. I could list a few dozen Wiltshire pubs that have gone in the last 20 or 30 years.

Of the more recent ones, the Pear Tree at Whitley is currently closed, post Marco Pierre White, as is the Kicking Donkey at Brokerswood. A couple of departed Kings – the William in Calne and Alfred in Chippenham plus a Royal Oak and Queens Head in Devizes - might provide solace to some die-hard republicans but to few others.

Well-run pubs play an invaluable role in their local communities. Many would consider a village without a pub to be lacking in one of the essential amenities, but there are plenty like that. Pubs are part of our national consciousness, as reflected by film, radios and television with their many and varied examples such as the Bull, the Queen Victoria, the Winchester, the Rover’s Return and the Slaughtered Lamb.

Despite some negative press about the places that let the rest of the trade down, most pubs are about social, convivial and responsible drinking. They’re not about necking a few cheap and lonely ones at home. And they’re definitely not about underage drinking.

Pubs support nearly a million jobs and generate over £22bn in taxes, yet successive governments have seemed intent on killing the goose that lays this golden egg.

It was CAMRA’s campaign that persuaded the Chancellor to freeze duty on beer and we’re very grateful to Mr Osborne for that, but he could go further and reduce it. You may ask why he should but beer duty had increased by 42 per cent in the five years before. At the same time, revenue from that duty increased by only 12 per cent, beer consumption fell by 21 per cent, 7,000 pubs closed and 58,000 jobs were lost (source: British Beer and Pubs Association).

Another issue has been that around a third of pubs are owned by ‘pubcos’ such as Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns. These are large property companies who lease pubs out to tenants who are then tied to buying their products through the pubco.

This is not so bad in itself but the mark-up is such that those tenants will often pay 50 per cent more for their beer than I do when I get it for Devizes Beer Festival.

High rents also mean that more than half of those tenants earn less than £10k pa. The Small Business Bill amendment means that tenants will be entitled to a Market Rent Only option.

This will enable them to buy beer on the open market and so should benefit some of our smaller local breweries such as Three Castles, Shed, Plain Ales and Kennet & Avon. But this will take time to implement and so will be of scant consolation to people like the former tenants of the Oliver Cromwell in Bromham who have been moved aside to make way for a curry house.

Some charities have been suggesting that people give up booze for January. Many pubs are involved in charity fundraising so this does seem to smack of ingratitude – especially in the licensed trade’s leanest month.

Sure, alcohol can have an impact on health but most experts seem to accept that moderate drinking is fine.

So rather than making the token gesture of giving up for a month, why not just drink moderately, sociably and responsibly … in a pub?