James Wilmore: MPs care... no, really

Visiting the Houses of Parliament still gives me a buzz.

May be I need to get out more, but over the past few years I've spent a fair bit of time clip clopping around Westminster's vast corridors of power, relishing it for the most part.

The reason for a good chunk of this activity has been the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group's inquiry looking into the plight of community pubs.

Launched in December 2005, it was meant to wrap-up in June 2006.

But for one reason or another the inquiry has dragged on and on…and on. Closing time was eventually called this week.

I'll be honest, having sat through most of the evidence sessions, it hasn't been a bundle of laughs.

But one thing that has struck me is how the inquiry's focus has shifted over that period.

Red tape was the big issue back in the heady days of 2006. By the end, all the talk was of cheap supermarket booze, the smoking ban and rising alcohol tax.

Nobody needs to be reminded of the myriad pressures the trade now faces.

But what the inquiry does show is just how much hard working publicans have had to cope with in the last two and a bit years. Staggering really.

The other thing that occurred to me is that some MPs do appear to genuinely care about the pub trade. No, honestly - just look at how many are visiting pubs in Proud of Pubs Week.

MPs have a massive number of issues to get their head around and are an easy target for abuse. But some - notably LibDem Greg Mulholland and Tory Nigel Evans - have a better grasp of trade issues than others.

And to be fair to them, during Wednesday's final session, they did not hold back when licensing minister Gerry Sutcliffe was in the hot seat.

Questions and demands came thick and fast, in possibly the smallest room I have sat in in Westminster. It meant Sutcliffe was forced to box clever, but unfortunately did not give too much away.

Will anything come of this inquiry? Who knows? But rest assured, there's some important people fighting the trade's corner…