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Friday, December 12, 2008

I may have missed it, but what happened with you guys when you went to parliament to discuss the the tied trade with with Giles and Ted?

From Kevin O'Connor.

Kevin. It's an interesting thing. Everyone from Fair Pint who was at the hearing was emotionally involved but we had all agreed to be completely civil and measured in our behaviour... On the other side, the way Fair Pint is organised means that we are all individuals and allowed our voice and none of us feel we have to tow a party line - we encourage each other to be frank and direct. So in part each of us was a representative of Fair Pint and also a tied tenant representing ourselves.

As far as the day went for me, it was like this: I introduced myself to Giles Thorley and he said "Mark" Long time no hear!" - we have had a few telephone conversations in the distant past. I introduced myself to Ted Tuppen and he said "I know who you are" - we have had no communication whatsoever.

None of this made me feel like there was a point to my introducing myself... This was in the hallway before the hearings when the general atmosphere was rather cordial and clubby and I was just being spontaneous - I mean introducing myself to people is part of my work. I didn't clear my head before ducking in and consider what really OUGHT to be said.

What I OUGHT to have said is this:

"Chief Executive Officer of the Company you represent; I hope you are ashamed of the misery you have brought thousands of people whose lives you have ruined and of the irreparable damage you have done to the industry you say you are proud of". I regret that I did not put either of them on the spot with a bit of up front honesty and see how they would react to it.

Ah well. I'm only fifty and still have a lot to learn.

Perhaps this is why I don't run a multi billion quid pubco and they do. However I have NO DOUBT that if I DID run a multi billion pubco I'd do a better job than either of them and not have an industry in tatters because of my involvement.

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