Well done Greg Mulholland. Greg is spot on here and good on him for sticking his neck out about this pointless, toothless campaign which cannot possibly achieve anything because it doesn't involve - and will not involve - the people who pull pints - the people who actually KNOW what is going on in the trade. It's BBPA and Camra window dressing while floundering about what to do.

The sad fact is there isn't a snowflake in hell's chance that all the trade bodies and representatives will come together to agree on anything to help this industry overall. The tensions between poachers and gamekeepers in this industry are too great and their private agendas are totally at odds with each others'.

Everyone wants more customers in pubs and for more beer to be sold but this is just an old fashioned romantic sentiment long gone by the wayside since pubcos, with their cosy cohorts of professional hangers-on like BII and RICS, have learned to utterly dominate the entire retail pub market through inflating rents and wholesale supply prices and, ultimately dictating that the retail price of an On Trade pint will be three to four times higher than it is available through the Off Trade.

Pubcos tightly control every aspect of On Trade wholesale supply and retail and have geared themselves up to the hilt on borrowing against future income from wholesale supply and cannot possibly afford to either bring prices down or lose the tie. So they are DEFINITELY NOT going to get together with anyone else to Talk Turkey about saving pubs, or in setting up a meaningful campaign via BBPA and Camra.

Rome's burning, the pubcos are playing the fiddles, the fat lady's still singing but her voice is hoarse and her skirts are catching fire.