Publican Sam

So the Parliamentary summer break is over, kids are back at school and students have returned to the hallowed groves of academe ... our 'once in a lifetime' summer is over so I thought it might be useful to recap on where we were before we left off in July ...

MP Aidan Burley called for an end to the “boozing, alcoholic culture” of the House of Commons on the 19th as the commons select committee on Health condemned the drinks industry for not doing enough to combat alcohol misuse ...

My website, How To Run A Pub, got hacked and has been undergoing a total re-build ...

Two of our brewers, Greene King and Adnams exhibited the schizophrenia endemic in our industry, the former supporting minimum pricing the latter condemning the relief from duty escalator for the smallest of brewers, whilst a major operator, Tim Martin of Spoons fame gainsays the minimum pricing argument ...

Marston's reported on the potential of Premium Bottled Ales (for the off-trade anyways) and Everards, the Leicestershire brewer decided to use some of its excess yeast to support a bake-house pub concept in Birmingham ...

The Joseph Roundtree Foundation made sense in telling government to stop cutting provision for young people ... you know those pesky things like youth clubs ... as an alternative to drinking alcohol and CAMRA's 40th Good Beer Guide celebrates a return to brewing numbers not seen in this country for over 70 years and we've got a new sobriquet for the residents of No 10 and No 11 ...

So not a lot changed really, which, means as the autumn politi-fest of party conferences is imminent and the pub trade's opportunity to hammer our message home is coming too with (at the time of writing) only 1,864 signatures needed on the Scrap the Duty Escalator e-petition ... so what can you do?

1) Sign the petition, if you haven't done so or get someone else who hasn't to do so
2) Write to your local MP and set out what you think is wrong with the pub trade and what government can do to help us or what they can do to stop screwing up our industry (your choice)
3) Remember that feeling of Super Saturday and Super Human Sunday when we all felt like lions and carry on showing the nay-sayers why pubs are the social lynch-pin of this country just as the purple clad volunteers were the social glue of the games ...