Sadly people in the UK on the whole are very dim, and would not even know the difference between a good pint and a bad one (I've avoided using lager as a term, because there are many excellent lagers, you just rarely see them in pubs)
Most people only ever tend to drink mainstream lagers such as stella and fosters, very few appreciate quality anymore. Sadly real ale pubs are serving a tiny proportion of the market, hence the reason they are finding it difficult. I'm sure Mr weatherspoon will tell you the fosters flies out of the taps.
I really don't think you can blame the government, its the populace that swill the nasty crap, instead of buying decent beers. The same duty applies to a pint of fosters or carling as it does to something like a local microbrewery pint.
The micro breweries may be shooting themselves in the foot a little here too, as the government were recently kicking plans about to tax beer on its alcohol content, putting strong lagers at a disadvantage, and ales (that tend to be a little weaker) at an advantage.
