MyShout

The defence

of pubs should be a priority

for all those connected with the trade, says Tony Jennings

I can't remember a time when the pub business has been under so much negative pressure on so many different fronts all at the same time.

Whether it be in commercial, social or legal spheres, you can't get away from the feeling that forces are at work out there that are determined to scupper this great British institution, the pub.

If I were given to the conspiracy, rather than the cock-up, interpretation of history, I would be looking for the dark forces manipulating those plaguing our business at the moment. I am thinking of the sinister powers behind the over-zealous law enforcers; the creators of ill-thought-out legislation empowering hordes of local government prod-noses; the PC medics pushing dubious medical research and, most of all, the bien pensants of the British chattering classes, always uneasy about allowing other people to exercise freedom in any way they disapprove of.

I mustn't get all Da Vinci Code about this however, but come to the point - that the beleaguered British pub urgently needs defending against these assaults, and by all of us in this industry.

Beside the obvious fact that the livelihoods of thousands of people in this country depend on the economic health of the pub as an institution, it is also at the very core of the Britishness that our prime minister is always extolling - so it must be worth defending.

It recently occurred to me that whilst so many of us in the rear territories of this particular war are happy to talk and write about the need to support our colleagues up at the front, we're not very good at coming up with practical things to help them. So I decided to stop talking and do something - and the result is the programme Budvar is now running in tandem with the MA to encourage jazz in pubs.

The winners of this particular programme will get the opportunity to perform at this year's Cheltenham Jazz Festival in May with immortals such as Eartha Kitt. Here we are trying in a very small way to cherish one of the many traditional functions of the pub - its time-honoured role in developing musical talent. We went for jazz because it draws together people of both sexes and all ages and social backgrounds.

We hope our programme will help to give participating hosts a positive profile and demonstrate - albeit in a small way - just how useful their role in the community can be, not to mention what it might do for their till receipts and thus their futures. This approach can only mean anything if an increasing number of suppliers to the trade make a similar contribution. And I don't mean only the big beasts who have always sponsored and promoted, but all of us who make our living from the pub trade in one way or another.

There are certainly enough activities and causes to choose from, and they don't have to cost the earth to put in place. And remember - it's time to give something back.

Tony Jennings is CEO of

Budweiser Budvar UK