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Greg Mulholland-Working Hard For Leeds North WestTIME FOR REAL LEADERSHIP IN THE PUB TRADE - MULHOLLAND
June 10, 2009 4:40 PM
Greg Mulholland, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Save the Pub Group has today called on Pubco bosses to step down and allow new leaders to help lead the trade towards necessary reform.
On the day that Parliament debates a motion of no confidence in the Government, Mr Mulholland has said that those who have led the trade to the unsustainable position have also lost the confidence of the trade and should go:
"Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling should accept that this Government has lost its authority and call an election. Similarly, the Business and Enterprise report in pubcos has shown that those who have led the pub trade into the current mess it is in have also lost their moral authority and should step down.
I signed the motion of no confidence in the Speaker of the House of Commons, because he could not have led the house out of the mess it has got itself into over the expenses scandal. It is the same with the pubcos bosses who have done all they can to prevent investigation and reform; they too have lost the confidence of the pub trade.
After years of aggressive denial and breathtaking spin, now followed by humiliating backtracking, we now have the bizarre spectacle of the pubco's bosses finally admitting that reform is needed and suggesting they will lead this process.
It is clear to all that reform is needed, but it has to be real, not just window dressing and it is simply impossible for certain industry figures to lead this process.
Re-branding and renaming will not cover up the disaster that the pubco model has become. Talk of 'partnerships' is laughable, we couldn't have got much further away from that concept and unless there is real change in the way tenancies are operated, we will continue to see tenants unable to make a living and pubs closing.
The talk of Enterprise Inns setting up and funding a licensees group is a sick joke. Licensees are finally being heard and it is time there was a strong, independent, licensee's voice in the trade but it is simply absurd and rather sinister to suggest this should be pubco funded".
"It is time for new leadership in the pub trade and the shareholders of Britain's pub companies must realise that and ask the people who have led them into debt and discredit to stand down.
"The pub trade needs new leadership if it is to get itself out of the mess it is in and to help save the British pub".
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