A jaundiced view of life from the darkest recess of the saloon bar...
Interesting article here examining what the pub trade would look like if the tie were to be abolished. Far from ushering in a brave new world for consumers, the author argues that in fact it would lead to more pub closures, less investment in pubs, higher prices, a reduction of choice and a greater concentration of the brewing industry. It would also, ironically, boost the pub companies’ profits.
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"The era of big, bossy, state interference, top-down lever pulling is coming to an end." (David Cameron, 2008)
"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." (H. L. Mencken)
"The final nails have now been hammered into the coffin of the freedom to smoke in enclosed public places. This piece of legislation must be one of the most restrictive, spiteful and socially divisive imposed by any British Government." (Lord Stoddart of Swindon)
"Raising taxes on alcohol to prevent problem drinking is akin to raising the price of gasoline to prevent people from speeding." (Edward Peter Stringham)
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." (C. S. Lewis)
"People who deal only in 'craft' beer do not care about some dirty old pub and the dirty old people who are in it and the dirty old community that it holds together." (Boozy Procrastinator)
"The simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies." (Robert Conquest)
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Any proposals of marriage will be given serious consideration - there must be some cash-strapped drunk cat ladies out there!
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I agree almost entirely with this. It is what I have been arguing for a long time.
ReplyDeleteThere are some who gormlessly believe that abolishing the tie will lead to a golden age of genuine free houses. It won't, and this article will, with any luck, put an end to their uninformed twittering.
ReplyDeleteI'm astonished that such incorrigible old lefties like Tandleman and Red Nev are still supporting the weapon of mass pub destruction AND agreeing with its banker apologists.
ReplyDeleteHilarious.
I think RedNev has summed it up well. Old righties like you Jeff just bang the same old drum and pretend it never happened when it all turns out wrong.
ReplyDeleteHilarious.
I knew this would happen. I knew it was inevitable that because I believe the tie system needs severely restricing; that craft beer would benefit hugely from increased competition in the market that that someone would accuse me of being a Tory. Bollocks!
ReplyDeleteOh how I laughed! Oh my aching ribs!
I feel a blog post about political beliefs and beer beliefs coming on.
I don't see that ending the tie would do much if anything to increase the opportunities open to craft brewers. Over half the pubs in the country aren't tied anyway, so it would make no difference to those, and they already get into a lot of the others through central purchasing arrangements. It would tend to lead to a concentration of the better, busier pubs in the hands of managed pub operators and many of the tenants of small, low-end pubs would be happy to buy all their supplies from a single wholesaler. "Want a cask beer? We have a range of ten different ones!" A lot of Punch tenants stock craft beers because Punch suggest it would be a good thing to do. Ending the tie just would not open up a brave new world of opportunity. It would be more likely to be wall-to-wall Stella, Carling and John Smith's Smooth.
ReplyDelete