A SHEER UNADULTERATED FLANNEL !
So in the end Government just couldn't get anything to help
tied tenants over the line, despite the countless meetings, press statements
and expressions of wishful thinking from Cable, Swinson, Willot and co.
Exactly what many feared when Cable declared the inept Ed
Davy was wrong has come to pass: a self-proclaimed Minister of business role
that was really minister of misinformation.
Like the idiots who let off flares at football games, the
task of Government’s business department was to create a smokescreen. Provoking
all and sundry - be it MP’s or officials - unsettling those already pushing for
change and misleading the masses into expecting some positive action to take
the industry forward.
The only tasks Cable and Co don’t look to have achieved yet
are in seeing off the rest of the tied tenants and closing down another 20,000
pubs so that the ones left are owned by the cuddly family brewers.
All the talk, all the planning, all the meeting and all the
expense culminating in absolutely diddly squat! We should have known really.
Perhaps we did.
So the consultation was a complete waste of time and money
with the result being all too inevitable. The ridiculous decisions by the OFT
should have taught us what to expect. “Don’t worry boys, the money’s safe in our
hands, lets continue to take the p*** out of those gullible tied tenants”. You
almost want them to be proved right, that's how genuinely screwed up this
country is.
For a country obsessed with saving money and reducing head
count, there are two quick ways to trim the wage bill: abolish the roles of the
Secretary of State for business and Minister for business, on the basis they
have no discernible purpose.
The annoying thing here is that we've seen this all before -
and not just with the OFT – the 1989 beer orders were sufficiently watered down
when the brewers convinced Maggie that a complete levelling of the playing
field wasn’t the right thing to do. They were wrong of course just as they are now.
The beer tie was to blame then and nothing has changed 25 years later. The
shortcomings of many previous efforts have been repeated in what may be the
ultimate false economy and short-sighted piece of narrow minded
non-legislation.
So what do the coming months hold for the Secretary of State?
A few more cringeworthy interviews or perhaps a well-earned holiday in the
Caymans’.
This window of opportunity may be closed, but the clock is
still ticking. Like a set of smalls on a washing line, pubs and publicans have
been hung out to dry. And while this all plays out to a sorrowful conclusion
over the coming months, the damage done to this industry grows more
incalculable - and the body count will undoubtedly mount.
Well done Cable and Co and thanks for nothing. You had your
chance and you blew it. At least when the dust settles and we’ve had a chance
to survey what’s left of the industry, we’ll know exactly who to blame!
Steve Corbett
June 2014
June 2014
