http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/forum.ma/view-thread/4880?PagingData=Po_10~Ps_10~Psp_Id~Psd_Asc

Antony, you highlight a fundamental flaw in the tie system... The simple point, is that the tie COULD work but it DOES NOT work and the tie is NOT ok at all because of the way it has been wildly abused by the corporations who preside over it - while publicly saying they are the bedrock of pubs and community in the UK.

If the tie were ok, there would be no issue here and there would not be so many tied licensees in DIRE straits. Someone, a free trade licensee, pointed this out on another thread on another forum: When free of tie licensees achieving 70%GP on beer are experiencing hard times now; how can tied licensees getting 42-50% expect to survive at all?

The fundamental problem is that the strictures placed on pubs and their licensees through two decades of serial abuse of the tie by laissez faire freeholders has left tied pubs in such dire neglect there is no point discussing applying a fairer version of the tie. It is too late. We have yet to see the true impact of freeholders' greed and neglect. They have milked the system dry for their own and shareholder profits for so long there is no slack left. It will take decades for the industry to recover from the underinvestment and neglect that has stemmed from freeholders' insatiable need to satisfy shareholder value.

The tie MUST go. Pubcos MUST go. Government intervention in this market is ESSENTIAL - as it has been with banks - and redistribution of power MUST be implemented or the culture of Britain will be left the poorer for ever as a result.