http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news.ma/ViewArticle?R=90749

I've almost lost the will to live. All these years have taken their toll on me. Years of dealing with stupid, rapacious incompetent pubcos who get away with absolutely anything they want in their private little world of the Beer Tie.

It's as clear as night follows day that all this is a complete scam - but government fails to intervene on the back of the say so of a bunch of complacent self serving lining their own pockets while they close Britain's pubs by sucking every past drop of profit out of them.

The Enterprise leaseback scheme really takes the biscuit. Alarm Bells! The most obvious one in a long line of initiatives from across the spectrum of stupid pubco initiatives of pushing beer uphill that just proves beyond any possible shadow of a doubt that the pubco tied model is utterly bankrupt and has to all intents and purposes failed (other than to continue to pour cash into the pockets of a number of CEOs and MDs of insolvent companies of course).

They just come and go as they please with impunity. God knows what their bond holders really think. The ONLY reason this situation does not substantially change is because no one in a position to make change happen is inclined to do so - in case they get it wrong like the Beer Orders set it up so this catastrophic situation we have today became the very low ebb of the pub industry's status quo.

We ought to be able to be proud of the British pub industry. Instead it's a shameful indictment of the way our society and culture sees and values itself. This industry makes me sick. It's disgusting.

By the way - what are the current stats for pub closures? I reckon I get more than 30 a week just through Fleurets; and they're all former pubco pubs by the way.