"THE TIE IS NOT THE PROBLEM"

Semantics come into force with such statements.

There is a traditional concept of the tie being of mutual benefit to both parties; it's suppose to work as a symbiotic relationship... Unfortunately the contractual aspect of the conceptual relationship has been increasingly tweaked and abused to the serious detriment of the operator in favour of benefit to the landowner for decades. There lies the real problem.

The tie had validity as long as it was used to mutual benefit that sustained a working relationship and served the consumer well. That construct of the tie has been buried as it was incrementally and comprehensively abused over several decades; a process accelerated by the outcome of the Beer Orders: the invention of pubcos.

The tie no longer works in any cogent way: it has been redesigned to strip all profit from individual pubs and transfer it to the boardroom, shareholders and servicing debt of the pubcos. Pubcos are debt junkies and repeatedly prove themselves incapable of keeping the tie in check. The tie has become like MSRA to the pub industry; an infection that has spread far and wide; run out of control with no means of keeping it in check. Legislation is not enough. It must be fought with extreme prejudice and eradicated. There is no place in contemporary commerce business practice which protects and artificially advantages one part of the market - the pubcos - to the detriment and disadvantage of all other parts - brewers, retailers, consumers, tax authorities.