The UK’s 70,000 publicans have every justification to feel the media has harshly treated them in recent years. Having waded through the re-licensing procedure in 2005 – in most cases, pubs countered the allegations about ’24-hour drinking’ by simply opening a bit earlier to serve breakfasts or afternoon teas – the pubs now find themselves having to handle draconian legislation against smoking, on top of their existing problems: staff shortages, mountains of red tape, supermarkets selling cut-price beer by the cartload and an increasingly militant anti-alcohol lobby.

The landlord can, therefore, be excused for having a quiet moan behind the bar, but in reality the prospects are now more cheerful than they have been for a while, and this Mintel report looks to the future with some optimism. Smoke-free pubs will, in the long run, be far more conducive to broadening the pub’s appeal; the licensing situation, although controversial, is much clearer as regards opening hours and the provision of entertainment; and pubs are starting to reap the benefits of some fascinating innovations and diversifications of the new century.