New pubco code promises "transparency"

21 January, 2010

http://www.thepublican.com/story.asp?storycode=66215

Although this is exactly what we all expected, it is still a shock on reading to see how way off the mark BBPA is about what is needed to make a healthy, vibrant competitive pub industry - the reason BBPA is so far removed is because it is the voice of pubcos first and foremost, who have no intention of releasing anything to their tenants other than platitudes and hot air.

The document is startling in its lack of commitment to answering the observations made in the Business Enterprise Committee's 2008 review of pubcos.

It fails entirely to deal with deep concerns about the tie and the relationship between pubcos and their tied tenants. It is hard evidence of the disdain pubcos have toward the select committee.

Pubcos have a deeply seated general resistance toward reviewing the outdated feudal behaviour they have perfected over twenty years of their existence and here is the proof. Anyone reading this should deduce that it's not worth the paper it's written on to any tied licensee.

The committee has had to wait for this non binding publication, that will change NOTHING, for far too long. BBPA very obviously aspires more to delay, stall and weaken the momentum of opposition to their paymasters' business practices rather than to stimulate progress in the industry to where it should be.

J Mark Dodds
www.fairpint.org