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The Thoughts Of Chairman Mick
by Mick Lewis
We at CAMRA pride ourselves on the way we monitor the pub and brewing industry. After all, if we didn't, who would? Unfortunately, for many years, it has become impossible to know who owns which pubs. Take one such example - London & Edinburgh Inns. You may well ask who they are, but they started in 1996 and have recently purchased 252 ex Punch and Pubmaster pubs and 10 from Wetherspoon, taking their estate to 696 pubs and hotels. Any idea where they are, what changes, if any, have taken place, has the beer range altered? There are now so many pub companies that in somewhere like London, you cannot keep up with the changes. It was so much easier when most pubs were owned by breweries, at least you knew what to expect.
Well, It seems that pubs have been coining it in during the Rugby World Cup. Early opening, extra customers etc have all helped to put extra coppers into the tills. So it struck me that the obvious way to help our pubs survive is to come up with new global sports competitions. I suggest that they take place every two months, with at least three being situated where we have to get up at 6am to watch them. They must be team sports that will include England, and should be targeted to our boys getting to at least the semi-final. I will kick-off (no pun intended) with tripe eating, surely something so British that we must stand some chance of winning. Any other ideas?
I've just discovered that Mitchells & Butler have recently converted some farm buildings in Sussex into a pub. It is now one of their Vintage Inns. Now I may be a simple old soul, but I would have expected a vintage inn to be an old pub, oozing with character and characters, not a new conversion! Bring back fake Victoriana, I say.
Eldridge Pope had better watch out. They have appointed Miles Templeman as a part time chairman. You may remember Miles. He used to run Whitbread in the days when they seemed to have a policy of closing as many breweries as possible. Last year, he was involved with Bulmers, and helped to sell them to S&N. So Eldridge Pope had better beware.
With concern about the possibility of Youngs having to move their brewery if local plans to regenerate Wandsworth go ahead, I recently discovered a strange anomaly regarding planning consent. It seems that anybody can alter a listed building without the plans being approved by the local council. If this does happen, it is then up to the council's discretion if they take any action. So what's the point of the legislation if it doesn't have to be enforced?
Finally, Friday evening at London Drinker festival sees a blues band performing. I've had the blues, man, for 45 years. It's called watching Leyton Orient.
See ya at the cider bar.
Mick Lewis is the Chair of North London Branch.
Reproduced from the Full Pint, Issue 24.
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