High profile campaigner forced to close pub MA 23.3.09

4385 you are well out of touch and your position holds no water. Please, think before you post such flippant comments in future. Statements like this are OFFENSIVE to all tied licensees. Thousands of people are close to the same position as Inez and it's only hair on teeth that keeps them trading. This is NOT because they all failed to read the contract or don't know how to run a business.

Pubcos have been greedy and have NOT invested in or nurtured their own businesses and now they are all in dire straits. They do NOT support lessees; the way they structured their business does not allow it; they cannot support lessees because they need every cash penny that comes in to keep their own badly planned futures from imploding. The pubcos have only themselves to blame for their short sighted practices which bleed all profit from the shop floor and squander it on massive unsustainable returns for bond holders, shareholders and salaried plodders' bonuses.

The tied trade is based upon falsehoods, shoddy practices and broken promises. It HAS NOT been operated as pubcos say they operate it and that is why the whole pub industry is in such disarray now. The analogy of pubcos with a cancerous growth has been made many times and it's a good one; the rapid pernicious growth of pubcos has affected all parts of the pub industry detrimentally and weakened the whole. The recent melt down of BBPA is a perfect example of how pubcos' influence has weakened the pub trade's ability to even represent itself adequately. Pubcos are directly responsible for the state the industry is in NOW.