BEERWOLF - Wolverhampton Campaign for Real Ale

Hi.....
I’m Jason Matthews.
the Public affairs
offi cer on the
Wolverhampton
Camra branch
committee. My role
on the committee
is to liaise with and
lobby local councillors and our local MPs,
and also to keep our members updated with
issues and legislation which affects us at
both a local and national level.
January was quite an exciting time for us.
On the 12th there was a House of Commons
discussion regarding the future of our
beloved pubs. This debate followed years
of campaigning by CAMRA, MPs, small
business groups and many others which
have led the Government to recognise
the existence of “unfair practices” in
the relationship between the large pub
companies and their licensees, along with
the failure of the pub companies to deliver
effective self regulation. However, the
proposals set out by the Business Minister
and the Business, Innovation and Skills
(BIS) committee last November have been
widely castigated as naive, unenforceable
and insubstantial.
MPs unamiously passed a motion criticising
the government’s response to BIS’s latest
report. The motion also called on the
coalition to commission an independent
review of self-regulation this autumn. The
motion was passed following a lively threehour
House of Commons debate, which
saw MPs from all main parties attack the
government’s inaction, the pubcos, and
highlight the diffi culties tied publicans face.
BIS chairman Adrian Bailey MP pointed out
that four select committees inquiries had
been conducted and the latest government
Public Affairs
response was “totally inadequate”. The
response, he said, “failed to meet the
aspirations of all sectors of the industry,
apart from the pubcos.” CAMRA has been
at the forefront of the campaign to force the
government to tackle the unfair practices
of the pubcos and many MPs highlighted
the group’s efforts. Ian Lucas, Labour MP
for Wrexham, said the campaign had done
“some superb work in this area” and quoted
CAMRA’s comment that the government
had broken its commitment to act.
In response to the motion, Business minister
Ed Davey, defended the government’s
actions and said it had come up with
the “toughest self-regulatory regime
imaginable” but it seems MPs of all parties
were unconvinced.
On 22nd February Mr Bailey again
challenged the government.Speaking during
Prime Ministers’ Questions, Mr Bailey said:
“The Government response to the unfair
relationship between pub companies
and their licensees so far has been self
regulation, not statutory regulation. On
January 12th of this year, this House
voted unanimously to set up a review
panel to be agreed by the Business select
committee to review the implementation
of self regulation. To date there has
been absolutely no response from the
Government.
Can the Prime Minister tell me: is he
backing the will of Parliament or the will of
pub companies?”
In response, the Prime Minister reaffi rmed
his support for Britain’s pubs and promised
to write to Mr Bailey and “get him a good
answer”.
We hope that Mr Bailey will be able to
persuade the Prime Minister that the
Government cannot ignore the clear will of
Parliament!
Beer wolf Spring 2012 29