Pubs as vital social organs in villages. This Guardian story is heart warming stuff (unless you are the landlord in question of course) – though it is tainted by the hand of CAMRA a touch. It does put in mind the idea though that a country pub is a very different thing to even a suburban pub let alone the kind of boozers in Central London I usually peruse. The myth perpetuated by the Queen Vic in Eastenders is rarer in London now than it once was, but as a focus for a community a pub is a much better choice than a sort of one size fits all community centre.
That said though I don’t want to hear radio reports with interviews with Community Leaders who happen to be publicans.