'Time, please, to save the great British pub'

Everyone - except temperance societies - must lament the shrinkage of pubs as a loss to community life. In many places, churches, women's institutes and suchlike are almost moribund. There are ever fewer places where we recognise each other, except on the internet. Most of us know the people with whom we work better than those among whom we live. If the local vanishes also, more than ever we become strangers', writes Max Hastings in The Daily Mail​

Regent Inns: The embattled bar operator confirmed plans to leave the stock market as it revealed that its current like-for-like sales were down by 11.4 per cent - The Times​

Punch Taverns, Britain's biggest and most heavily-indebted pub operator, on Wednesday said it had made £91m of disposals in the first half to reduce debt.Punch, which operates over 8,000 pubs, reported a pretax profit of £82m ($119.4 million) for the 28 weeks to March 7, compared with £133m the previous year, in line with the company's expectations - Reuters​

Skint boozers are drinking 1.7 million pints a day fewer than last year.The credit crunch has hit pubs, bars, restaurants, supermarkets and off-licences. And six watering holes are closing every day, with 2,000 calling last orders over the past 12 months - The Daily Star​

A security boss arranged an execution attempt in a packed pub as he watched Manchester United from the terraces at Old Trafford, a court heard. Drinkers were watching the same game on TV two miles away at the Brass Handles pub in Salford when the gunmen burst in, Manchester Crown Court heard. But gunmen Carlton Alveranga, 20, and Richard Austin, 19, were disarmed and fatally shot. Bobby Spiers, 40, of Prestwich, denies conspiracy to murder - BBC ​