The pub. My local. Whatever we called it, it was there – a place to meet, to chat, to see old friends, to make new friends, to argue, to debate, to let off steam, to blame the government, the council, or all the faceless ones, or maybe just to sit and watch other people.

It’s one of the country’s treasures, which this government is dismantling and allowing to be thrown away.

Now, I know that not everyone thinks that way. Some see pubs as dens of iniquity.

But for many people they are places of social contact, the ordinary man’s golf club, where if you wished you could sit all night with half a mild, be warm and entertained.

Now where else could you get that?

The extension of the licensing laws has changed all that.

When pubs closed at 11pm, old and young drank and socialised together.

Bringing in the late hours divided the generations, as there are no older people out in the early hours of the morning and so no moderating influence.

The late hours also meant that places of entertainment were quiet in the early evening as the youngsters started to come out very late, so everywhere was lacking atmosphere.

Then came the double whammy of the smoking ban and the cheap loss-leader supermarket alcohol.

This, plus rising fuel bills, proved a bridge too far for most places.

Now pubs are closing at the rate of something like 15 a week.

This, plus the closing of many post offices, has had a detrimental effect on the life of many small villages, and public houses, with sale or to let signs to be seen in every town centre.

The demise of the ‘pub’ will be yet another nail in the traditional way of British life (Long pause here for a bugle playing the ‘Last Post’!) Topping it all, we now have the police invading Parliament.

We are definitely on a slippery slope. Hard fought freedoms are at stake and bit by bit the things we took for granted are being taken away.

If we’re not careful, the reality of ‘Big Brother’ may become more than a TV programme. Freedoms once lost are not easily regained.