Should we Shouldn't we?

The letter can be developed to be very hard hitting and authoritative and, as Paul suggests, it must be more succinct probably with only ONE message point, and as George was nudging toward above, some of these points we need to get over to the world can be delivered bit by bit as appropriate. Really we have more than two agendas:

There is with pubs:

the political,
the social and economic,
the historic, traditions, cultural heritage and sense of British Place

Aand more besides - and every publican has their own take on it all, and every publican is working flat out one way or the other so we do not have time to organise and coordinate our thoughts and actions. These things are used by pubco's and brewers and BBPA etc to their advantage. They speak to government frequently on a first name basis with policy wonks, MP's and Ministers in a club where the beer and canapes, at least, are always free. Licensees on the other hand, unless they can pay to be part of the club, are shadows on the wall outside the room that's got closed doors.

The voice of Licensees/Publicans ought to be put forward in the public domain referencing the current scandalous nonsense the rest of the press picked up in a flurry last week and leave the other agendas out.

And then hit hard with the rest one by one to the press. We need to seize the day.

As a group LSL should think this through seriously:

* One: do we move the group towards being a formal, constituted Licensees/Publican led organisation (which in my view the industry has sorely needed since at least the Beer Orders)

OR

* Other: do we keep LSL as a chat room for letting off steam and anecdotes?

If the former we have to accept we will have to adopt rules and raise money to become better organised which case we have to have at LEAST an elected committee and a paid for secretary and formal minuted meetings and a diary and a distribution list for members to get clear, concise updates on what's being done by the committee, and a feedback mechanism so everyone genuinely has an opportunity to contribute to the development of LSL.

If the latter - we must accept that Lessees/Publicans will NOT have a representative voice and will continue, like flotsam, to be washed over by events and swirls of the pub sector we have no hold over - even through the long established existing 'membership' organisations we know and have no respect for because they are all compromised.

That is it. One or the Other>

And if it's the One it needs focused work to bring it together

And it it's the Other we need to move on