English pubs are dying

I read this article on a US website. It certainly romanticizes English pubs. The ones in London can be really nice but, lemme tell you, the ones near where I live are gross things, full of unhealthy people where fights break out and property is damaged.

In the old days, English men used pubs to avoid family life. You can still see them doing this today. On Saturday mornings when 'the wife' is shopping for the family, the husband will be in the pub, drinking pints and reading the paper or playing darts.

Here's the article, and you can see what you think:

LONDON -- Nothing can stay the same forever although Britain is one country where they try like the Dickens to fight that basic truth. The lyric of an old World War I song said it best:

There'll always be an England
While there's a country lane,
Wherever there's a cottage small
Beside a field of grain.

And down the lane from that cottage beside the field of grain there will always be a pub serving imperial pints (20 ounces) of beer. Well, that is changing rapidly.(Although you can still find some authentic pubs.)

Rural life is unrecognizable from 20 years ago and British drinking habits have undergone a sea change, as well. Both of these factors have led to a crisis for British pubs. Thirty-nine a week are going out of business forever.