Forget Healey; the gloves are well and truly off

It's a rare thing for MPs from opposite sides of the political divide to agree on anything.

So when representatives from the three main parties concur to a man they'd recommend that the Competition Commission examine the pub industry - as they did at last week's 'Pub Question Time' debate in Westminster - it was sure to send a shudder down the spine of any industry executive.

Throw in the GMB Parliamentary get-together, which saw the union's general secretary Paul Kenny plant his organisation's flag firmly into the ground on behalf of oppressed tenants everywhere, and last week was one to forget for the industry's 'Great and Good'.

In a robust rebuttal of the British Beer & Pub Association's (BBPA) threat of legal action if the GMB continued to advise tenants considering breaching their lease agreements that they were protected by Parliamentary immunity, Kenny said the industry's rental model was a "parasitic and decadent form of capitalism", one that "needlessly exploited tied lessees and ripped off customers".

Yet tenants' anger at being short-changed by their landlords is now matched by the BBPA, which believes that enough is enough.

The industry obviously believes in the validity and cause of its legal threat against the union. But following the BIS committee's latest report - the conclusion of which could have been far worse for the BBPA - it might have been a wiser move to assume the moral high ground, at least for now.

After what seemed like a positive shift in attitude a few weeks ago the tone from both camps is moving into uncompromising territory. The gloves are well and truly off.

What I find slightly ironic in all this is the GMB, one of Labour's biggest backers, getting into bed with licensees, many of whom are died-in-the-wool Tories. And, er, vice versa…