Editorial Comment:

The price of beer isn’t what it was. It never has been, of course, as it always goes up. The difference now is that it seems to matter less. The national average is £3.60, with a stockbroking surcharge taking it to £4.40 in Surrey, even more than in central London. Shropshire lads may buy it for as little as £3.33 and Westmorland wassailers for £3.38. But while once Hogarth’s Beer Street made the nut-brown beverage the very touchstone of stout prosperity, the propagandists now class it with rattlesnake venom and sun rays as an enemy of all that is healthful. The war against tobacco and the cheap offers for supermarket alcohol conspire to drive drinkers to solitary swigging at home, so that pubs close and conviviality becomes as obsolete a virtue as chivalry. So while there’s still time, don’t just stand around; just stand a round.