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I have mentioned Tough Ted before. He is the boss of Enterprise Inns, one of the giant PubCos which are to many, Public Enemy Number One. Ted alleges that evidence presented to the Government by anti pub group campaigners is no more than heresay and has labelled the Government’s consultation into the statutory code for pub companies “a disgrace” and accused MPs and ministers of “deliberate distortion of the meaning of evidence” over the issue. He asked the Pub Company Summit if "we are going to let a small number of campaigners and a handful of MPs bugger up our industry?"

Disgruntled, he forecasts a few undesirable things that will happen if these pesky complainers are allowed to get their way. Putting aside the fair possibility that things must surely be a bit buggered now, or there wouldn't be this kind of ongoing concern by HMG about what the PubCos are doing, you can read Tough Ted's list of doom and gloom in detail in the lovely old Morning Advertiser. The main points can be summed up as: closure of country pubs; blocking the trade to newcomers; a huge reduction in investment in pubs; brewery closures; treasury tax losses. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't all of these already happen when the PubCos took over from brewers as the nation's biggest pub owners following the Beer Orders?

Now you might reasonably reach the conclusion that Ted is mixing up his buggerees with his buggerers. To be fair, he'd have been on less thin ice if he'd pointed out the utter failure of Government intervention in the industry in the past and that the Government should therefore keep their beaks out. Of course, while true and where this mess started, the PubCos have made a bad situation worse. Best keep quiet then as, to use his own analogy, he's buggered either way.

In the case of the PubCos, sadly, it seems like plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose!

Nearly all tenants (94%) would like to see a statutory code to regulate the pubco-tenant relationship, despite reporting improved levels of satisfaction with their pub companies accoding to an MA report.

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