POST FROM 30 January 2009 on The Publican website http://www.thepublican.com/story.asp?sectioncode=16&storycode=62606&c=3

Dear Mark, thanks for bringing this twitter up it reminded me of something that interests me. FMT... Twittering on about the real world... which for me is dominated, every living sleeping breathing moment of it, by my relationship with my freeholder S&NPE (but it might as well be Punch; Enterprise; or any of the other tin pot dictators because they behave identically to create a monopolistic hegemony between them). As I watched my rent review unfold (where the salaried suits have been trying to increase my rent from 54K to 96K with no justification other than they put a finger in the air that said "let's rip him off"), the surreal nature of the world of the tie unfurled before me: They argued that the FMT on my outlet is 18% higher (only about 150K) than what I really, truly, in pounds Sterling, actually achieve. They argued that the 'hypothetical tenant' or the 'competent operator' they imagine for the sake of fairness in assessing the potential performance of my pub - coming along and running my pub, all things being equal, would be a much better operator than me. Oh YEAH? I’ve been doing a twitter feed on my website for about six months now. Fourteen years ago I was one of the first pubs in the UK to hold regular art exhibitions. We were just about the first pub in the UK with a website (2006). These are now common across the industry in one form or another. I was the first pub in London to sell Fair Trade products. I was the first pub in the world to attempt to become Carbon Neutral (in 2002/2003) but that’s another story. I was the first pub in the UK to give free wireless internet access to its customers. I send out over 4,500 email invitations a week to our events. Sponsor local community events and the local community and business forum and take part in annual art and music festivals. Do free live music, film, and have won many awards for all kinds of things. We are frequently reviewed in London, national and international press. We do all these things partly because we are slap bang in the middle of two of the UK’s most socially and economically deprived wards. I have to work like Billy oh - all the time - to keep trade up at anything like the levels I achieve. I don’t mind hard work I do;t mind long hours, I don’t mind never getting recognition from my freeholder for being an exceptional tenant who always pays rent on time (even though it’s been killing me for years) and increases beer volume year on year when the rest of the market is falling. Tell me of ONE other lessee in the UK who does this year in year out for more than a decade and then find me a hypothetical tenant who would make this site generate 18% more turnover than I do. Go on. Prove me wrong. RICS trained expert.