24 Hours to prove I’m not a troll!
Nothing
surprises me anymore when it comes to UK brewers and pubcos - I’ve been around
too long to let their nonsense slip by unnoticed. Sadly, some still fall for
their crap and Propel journo Martyn Cornell seems to be one of them.
Last Friday Martyn and I got into an argument
on twitter after I called his pro pubco article on the recent London Economics
report on pubs inaccurate and delusional. He didn’t like it of course and gave me 24 to prove the report wrong or else become
a zythopilliac troll.
Here is the tweet exchange and my email to Martyn below,
More inaccurate, delusional gumph from @zythophiliac who feels important as he
continues to scrape of few crumbs of the pubco table.
@SteveC2712
"inaccurate, delusional gumph" isn't feedback, without evidence to
back that claim it's just you indulging in knee-jerk trolling
@zythophiliac claims of
"Trolling" are usually the first line of defence for those who know
their in the wrong.
@SteveC2712 Right, Steve -
send me a list of my inaccuracies and delusions. I'll give you 24 hours.
Otherwise you're just trolling.
Martin
Only 24 hours to supply you with rebuttal evidence or I become a troll?
A little harsh don’t you think Martin? The Fair Pint team are beavering away on
the LE rebuttal document as we speak – it’s a tad too long at the moment but it
should be good to go shortly. Once complete I’ll send you a copy. BIS officials
broke up for the hols a couple of days ago so there’s no point rushing it off.
I note that you’re a beer historian so I expect you have some experience
of the sector. I think we can all lay some claim to experience of one sort or
another. It’s not the experience of the people in it that enrich a particular
sector but more how we choose to apply it and whether, despite the opinions we
form as a result of our experience, we can continue to develop and learn from
the experiences we continue to have and the new information that comes to hand.
Part of that process is understanding and accepting criticism. I’ve always
known that unpalatable views, delivered to us by people we might not like, can
still be right.
So where are we now? The consultation has turned into a farce if I’m
truthful, the BBPA had a game plan as they continue to play games with some
inexperienced BIS officials. The LE reports a shocker, full of inaccuracies and
guess work, all supplied and rubberstamped by the BBPA. Their plan in 3 parts
was:
1 Manipulate the
consultation
2 Avoid a statutory
code
3 Go skiing.
So how did they get on? Their plan was to get the RICS back on track –
which was always going to happen because of the conflicts within the TRVG –
squeeze the FLVA to say more fluffy nonsense - get the ALMR on the firm and
cherry pick as many tenants and brewers to hand write glowing testimonials.
All of that would give them a chance of scoring some points with the
usual damaging tosh about self-regulated codes of practice. Once achieved the
game plan was to present the whole sham as a fait accompli and to marginalise
other voices pushing for change. It’s embarrassing really.
And then there’s the real world. Pubs still failing at record rates for
reasons denied by people causing it and then helped in doing so by people who
should know better. The BBPA think it’s all jolly unfair that people with money
and dinner parties should be outed as the bullies they really are. Like the
idiot who fronts the PMA, I think you’re looking for goodwill where it doesn’t
exist. It’s a plausible assumption to expect a high degree of honesty and
integrity from those operating public limited companies. That degree of honesty
and integrity is lacking in some of the larger pub companies and I would say
that there are some in the media, you included, that are naive of these issues.
I’ve seen some awful things over the years many include tenants that have been
misled. Lies are told about trading histories and tenants are advised that they
don’t need legal advice. Punch used to offer to pay for a lawyer to represent
the tenant “no changes to the draft lease” were to be made. A great many people
have been subjected to this sort of treatment which looks substantially like
nothing more than a ‘timeshare’ type scam. Similar methodology seems to have
been applied to dealing with investors. As you know, the pubco model was
devised largely by people who are no longer connected with the sector and have
long since departed with the cash leaving billions that will never be repaid to
the bondholders and eye-watering interest bills that suck hundreds of millions
out of the sector every year. The model leaves the tenants unable to maintain
the building and the pubco cannot afford to either.
As for Fair Pint – we have been rightly critical of so called “leading
figures”. In my own view the likes of Ted Tuppen etc are little more than
overpaid frontmen for a scam that took place some time ago. The BBPA truly is a
risible organisation that has sold its soul to serve the interests of large
pubcos and the tie. Its annual rounds of pleading with the treasury, seen once
more today, look more and more ludicrous, whilst saving pubs and jobs is given
as a reason for the pleading little or nothing will be passed down to
publicans. A duty cut and removal of the escalator hasn’t stopped pubs closing
so I can’t expect the treasury will fall for that one again.
All in all it’s a mess Martin. The men that set up the pubcos never had
a long term interest in the sector but spotted legal loopholes, the greedy and
less intelligent brewers, the naive trade bodies etc. Down at Fair Pint towers
we are interested in the root of the industry. The publicans, the customers and
the small creative brewers. We want them to succeed. The tie and the
anti-competitive, monopolistic mess the pubcos have created make that very
uncertain as we all unfortunately know.
Forgive my ramblings. I suspect nothing I say matches the news of
Nigella Lawson.
Very best wishes.
S.
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