Peter Luff has an excellent grasp of the situation as does, it should be said, the entire Business Enterpris Committee which is cross party membership.

The debacle of the recent OFT pronouncement that there's nothing wrong in the pub industry against the BEC's own report presents an interesting challenge to politicians:

Which findings should they act on? Those of their own detailed inquiry or the bizarrely out of touch assessment presented to the world by hands off beaureaucrats with an army of economists, market analysts, mathematicians, statisticians and faceless suits beavering away undereneath them misinterpreting evidence, ignoring real experience from the shop floor and taking hearsay presented to them by BBPA as gospel?

This is little England. Carry on chaps; head up; stiff upper lip and all that. Chest out. Don't listen to the oiks, plebs and hoi polloi, they don't understand why they're going out of business. No; Listen to the rich toffs who've never poured a pint in their lives, wouldn't drink in a pub unless it's for a photcall, think pubs are all about low ceilings and knackered Captain's chairs, who are shafting absolutely everyone, ruining the nation's heritage, creaming the trade for everything it's got, sending the lucre to offshore bond holders, repaying mountains of ill advised debt instead of investing as businesse ought to: sustainably, looking to the future rather at the sort term.