Pete Brown: Who really cares about the future of the pub?
Every week the pub trade press carries tirades from disgusted publicans about the plight of the pub. There's a fair chance that these missives will lay at least a chunk of the blame at the feet of the government. But I'm starting to fear that the trade is, in many respects, its own worst enemy.
The Axe The Beer Tax campaign is three months old. It cites the support of 120 MPs and a Facebook group that has garnered 24,000 supporters as evidence of success in its aim to persuade the Chancellor to abandon his beer duty vendetta.
Success? Well, it is and it isn't. I'm afraid these figures show that Westminster has embarrassed the beer and pub community.
Proportionately, one in five MPs has signalled their support by signing the EDM to save the great British pub. That is an astonishing success. But 24,000 supporters from the world at large? That's pathetic.
That 24,000 actually represents 0.16 per cent of people who visit pubs on a weekly basis. If every signatory was a member of the Campaign for Real Ale (which we can't assume) it would equate to roughly one in four CAMRA members. If every single person who signed the motion was a publican (which of course they aren't) that would mean under one in three had shown their support for the campaign. In pure statistical terms, MPs care more about the future of the pub than beer drinkers or publicans themselves.
Given that the campaign is organised jointly by the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) and CAMRA, and has been extensively publicised in the trade press, no-one can say they aren't aware of it. Maybe they think it's futile - people are always bitching about the BBPA - well, one in five MPs would disagree.
I think it's apathy. I drink in pubs every day of the week, visiting as many different ones as I can. Not once have I seen a petition in a pub, or been asked by a publican to show my support for them in any way apart from continuing to drink myself. The recent campaign to bar Alistair Darling from pubs was inspired, but I saw the posters in maybe three of the many pubs I visit around Central London. The average punter would be completely unaware that there was any resistance to government policy - or indeed any issue to resist.
The beer and pub industry rarely speaks with one voice, and this campaign is the closest it's come to doing so for years. This year's Budget is later than ever and a fifth of MPs are on our side. There's still time to do something that will make a real difference.
Perhaps you disagree. But it takes less time to visit www.axethebeertax.com, add your name and lobby your MP, than it does to write to this magazine complaining about the government or telling me I don't understand the issue. If you haven't yet done the former, I really don't think you have any right to do the latter.
