TIME FOR REAL REPRESENTATION SAYS MULHOLLAND
March 12, 2009 8:00 AM
Following comments that the BBPA has said it needs to restructure and that it has failed to successfully lobby Government for the last 3 years Greg Mulholland, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group, has called for the industry to regroup and has said that it is time licensees had a real voice.
Greg last year attempted to bring the plethora of trade organisations together to campaign as an industry, an initiative that failed when the BBPA decided instead to launch its own campaign said:
"The beer and pub trade has suffered from having an array of organisations that in effect, represent their own particular member's interests and not the trade as a whole. It is a dog's breakfast. This is why lobbying has often failed, it has been easy for Ministers to pick-off different groups.
"My attempt last year to bring the many organisations together showed alas that it is difficult, if not impossible, to have a united voice for the trade, and that is made all the harder when there are organisations that are in direct opposition over certain issues and in effect campaigning against each other.
"It is also increasingly apparent that what is so desperately missing is an organisation to represent licensees and only licensees, all too often the ignored voice of the trader despite being the people actually running the country's pubs. If they had had more power, the pub trade would not be in the mess it currently is.
"So what we really need is a strong licensee's organisation that will have an equal voice to those associations who represent big pub companies and breweries. Then I would perhaps suggest an umbrella 'council' which brings everyone together and lobbies together on shared aims, this would stop the pretence with some organisations that represent parts of the industry trying to present themselves as representing all of it."
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