Video: 'free of tie world would lead to more pub failures'

"We must never forget to promote the pub as the home of responsible drinking".

You got that Karl? This man is the public face of pubcos, well, apart from Brigid Simmonds who is not a man and her cohorts Mark Hastings and Martin whassisname, and as you rightly highlight - the astute and erudite Robert Humphreys - who is also a man.

On the strength of this video Robert Humphreys, remarkably, appears better informed than Alistair on the fundamentals of tied pubs: "The tie is rather like a franchise, a business model that has been successfully rolled out across the western industrialised economies to great success". Yea and so it was spoken. That is where the rumour about the tie being 'like a franchise' began and where it ends - apart from the pages of the trade press where of course - anything goes when it comes to describing the crock of nonsense that the pub industry has been going through for decades.

Breathtakingly vacuous nonsense Alistair. You REALLY let the side down with that 'interview' but then, given the thin ice you're skating on - what else could we have expected. You are brave to have sat in front of Ewan's camera and devastatingly incisive interviewing style. NO one could have come away from that unravaged.

Look around the headlines on the MA and the Publican right now. See the sorry state this industry is in.

Some people blame their parents, I blame the pubcos - run by people just like you Alistair. People who do not know how to run pubs.

Oh. And by the way - join GMB now and get balloted.