Jim Goddard
- DRAFT

Dear Jim

Under the circumstances you will not be surprised that I'm approaching you again.

This is a direct appeal to you as an individual within a leviathon process which collaterally misses opportunity.

to pull some strings somewhere in a corporate landscape that is so detached from common sense and decency that it's led to thousands of pubs being financially crippled by a beer tie applied by visionless pub companies who have absolutely no understanding of what makes pubs work and have no concern for sustainable business, community, tradition or heritage - or even, for that matter, for beer.

I have owned this onerous lease for sixteen years. It was marketed as coming free of tie in 1998 - or else I would never have taken it on. My direct influence here, after investing my modest but nevertheless life savings, made it one of the most highly regarded pubs in London. That first flourish of success could never be properly be built upon because there was never enough profit left for it to be reinvested in the business. In 1998 I was forced/blackmailed by Inntrepreneur into signing a deed of variation which allowed it to be sold to S&N. This sealed my fate in a situation where most tied lessees last no more than five years. My 'success' has been to survive so long in a ground hog day state of perennial attrition of the business while working ever harder to keep it going. At no stage has the lease been worth anything like the amount I have continually invested in the property and so it has been a trap.