Condon calls for unity to cure drinks conflict'

by Ewan Turney

Chairman of the Portman Group's independent complaints panel Lord Paul Condon has warned that "something has to give" to harmonise the conflict between the regulation of pre-produced drinks and those made up in pubs.

The former Metropolitan Police Commissioner feels there is a yawning gap in the regulatory process, which was highlighted by the panel's recent decision to blacklist Charles Wells' Sex on the Beach cocktail muse. "It seems daft to us that we ban a product because of its name, but then a cocktail with that name can still be served in a bar," he said.

"It is one of those inconsistencies, and other associations are looking at that. It's a live debate the whole time but something has to give to harmonise the situation. Ei-ther the on-trade takes a tougher stance or this (the code) has to be relaxed.

"We feel quite un-easy when our role, which is about pre-produced drinks, is juxtaposed to what can happen with drinks on a [pub] premises. We could ban, after a complaint, say Screaming Orgasm, and that gets withdrawn but then you could go [into a pub] and get exactly the same thing," he added.

Condon admitted that recent rulings on Sex on the Beach and Kalashnikov vodka had caused the panel "a lot of angst and a lot of deliberation".

He hinted that if Kalashnikov producers, Joint Stock Vodka Company, were to change its name to General Kalashnikov, the product may be allowed.

"Our thinking was that the producers can choose any name they want and they could have called it General Kalashnikov's vodka but they chose to brand it Kalashnikov," he said.

The code itself is drawn up by the industry through a consultation process and Condon believes the panel's role is simply to uphold the standards the industry has set for itself.

He said the latest version of the code was "pretty strong" and set a "fairly low threshold to offend against".

l Behind Portman doors - p25