The Fair Pint Campaign

[Brendan]

Following on from D_C's post re. the CPT. I think this warrants its own thread.

The Fair Pint Campaign

Supporting tied landlords and consumers

24,000 of Britain?s pubs are tied to PubCos. Even though tied landlords can buy cheaper beer - they are tied to the PubCos for their supply.

?Tied pub landlords must buy all of their beer and some other supplies from the PubCo.

?Consequently the consumer is usually paying a significanly inflated price for a pint of beer, and tied pub landlords are being forced to sell beer at a loss.

?Around 27 pubs a week - just under four a day - are closing

Write to Tessa.

[mockney piers]

i've a feeling Sco46 is one of the key people behind this.

[david_carnell]

Indeed he is. Having been PM-ing him over the last few months I'm up to speed on the issues (roughly).

The Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Select Committee announced this week they are to have a formal inquiry into the PubCo industry - mainly due to the pressure from Scor46's campaign.

[KoolBananas]

Nice work!(tu)

[badger]

sounds like someone needs a competition lawyer...

[Townleygreen]

This is a great idea, Brendan, I am gonna write to the lovely Tessa asap. Let's hope others do the same, save those lovely pubs!!

[Mark Dodds]

Update

This past week Fair Pint has moved from the national trade press into the mainstream. A mention in the Telegraph and two half pages in Evening Standard by Simon English in the finance section: "New blow for pubs as MPs roll out a probe".

The early day motion (EDM 1328) has fifty signatures now; Ted Tuppen, CEO of rather large PubCo Enterprise called the MPs who have signed the EDM 'moronic' when speaking to city analysts about three weeks ago. So I emailed them all to point out his wise words.

Three licensees and several people who live in the Camberwell / E Dulwich bounds are responsible for this, quite frankly, historic campaign.

Oh yes and the Business Enterprise Committee has announced that it will re-investigate the PubCos this Autumn.

Have you ever tried to 'roll out a probe?' Ooh er missus.

[Keef]

Lot of good that did then. I don't understand why the number 10 petition thing exists, because is is a bloody waste of time!!!

[louisiana]

One could say the same of EDMs. Many do.

Don't shoot the messenger (Tom Steinberg et al's implementation of the 'e' in e-petitions). Considering this came out a tiny NGO operating on a teeny-weeny shoe-string, I think its impact has been fairly astonishing.

If the govt. does not sit up and take note, that's another matter. The government can't be forced to do anything, but as an exploration of new ways of interacting with/presenting public concerns to the government of the day it is no bad thing. And somewhat of a step forward from handing boxes of paper over to some minion in Downing Street.

[david_carnell]

Well the petition was never the real aim.

The BERR Select Committee hae re-opened the inquiry into PubCos and if all goes well the OfT could do the same. That's the important, decision-making bit.

And louisiana is certainly correct in her assumption that EDMs are rather a waste of time yet MPs sign hundreds each year and they are spoken of in the press as some great parliamentary procedure when they're nothing of the sort.

Best bet if you want to support this campaign is to write to your MP expressing support for the campaign.

There is another/joint campaign currently running out of the All Party Parliamentary Beer Group highlighting the cultural importance of the great British Pub. So, all is not lost.....

Hopefully Mark or scor46 can update us with more details soon. Best of luck guys.

[mockney piers]

"All Party Parliamentary Beer Group"

This sounds so much more fun than I suspect it really is.

[david_carnell]

Well it's a whole lot more fun than the All Party Parliamentary Gas Safety Group.

And I've not made that up!

But, it's not that interesting - aside from the odd jolly and some free beer. You have to be a MP or a Peer though - and that is dull!