Death by a thousand voices
With Government and the health lobbyists constantly on the attack, it's time for the trade to provide some new vocals, and with one voice
It's certainly very obliging of Mean Fiddler magnate Vince Power to take such an interest in the affairs of pubco tenants. And it's gratifying to see how quickly his name and connections have brought results. Whether anything will come of Fair Pint is another matter . However useful his contribution turns out to be, he cannot be relied upon to appear and reappear magically like Aladdin's genie.
Neither Mr Power, nor Fair Pint, nor indeed any other specific, single-issue organisation, will be able to accomplish what the trade so desperately needs: consistent, determined, focused, and powerful representation across the whole spectrum of issues, at the highest level, and over the long term.
For the last three or four years the trade has been under ceaseless attack from the ogres of the health-industry lobby both in Whitehall and in the media, which loves a good health-scare story whether it's justified by the evidence or not. Despite the best efforts of your representatives and advocates, you have proved incapable of defending yourselves.
The result has been calamitous. Two blows in particular — the smoking ban and this year's dreadful Budget — are crippling the whole pub trade. And the health industry lobby's offensive continues unabated. Who knows what's next?
The trade desperately needs to organise — and right now — to head off the threats. Licensees urgently need an effective voice. There's a heartbreaking story to be told of small businesses going to the wall, communities deprived of hubs, and tax revenues withering as a result of the jihad of ill-informed and bigoted zealots. But nobody's telling it.
The trade does have its defenders. This very newspaper is vocal and eloquent. The All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group is the biggest all-party grouping in the House. Many licensees are members of the Federation of Small Businesses. And there are more trade associations — BBPA, IFBB, ALMR, BII, BHA — than you can shake a stick at. But it's a matter of shame that the trade's own representative body, the Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations (FLVA), has only 1,000 members.
The FLVA is run from Brighouse in Yorkshire by Tony Payne. Tony has been in trade protection for more than 20 years and works incredibly hard. The FLVA engages in traditional trade protection activities — handling individual cases and giving business and legal advice, representing the trade in political and legislative issues; and liaising with other industry bodies.
There is one key area where the FLVA, with its tight budget (1,000 members x £120 a year — you do the maths), simply can't compete with the opposition, and that's public relations.
People often dismiss PR as mere puffery; but in politics it's an absolutely essential companion to all that behind-the-scenes lobbying. Politicians don't necessarily believe what they read in the papers; but the more intense the coverage of a particular issue, the higher up it is on their agenda. The health industry lobby has proved a master of PR, placing stories across the national media pretty much at will, and rarely challenged on its many distortions. Take the "big wine glasses" story. It turned out on examination to be completely unsubstantiated, as you will have read in this very organ. The detailed and accurate rebuttal that was issued, though, went completely unreported.
With its institutionalised presence in Whitehall and manipulation of the media, the health industry lobby has things all its own way. Today, the challenge for the trade is to mount an aggressive and inventive hearts-and-minds campaign. And the PR campaign has to be ceaseless.
Nor can this be left to the BBPA. Its efforts are welcome, but thanks to Mandy Rice-Davis, it has little credibility. She, famously, first remarked: "He would say that, wouldn't he?". That is precisely the health industry lobby's devastating and unanswerable response to anything the brewers' lobby can throw at it. Only licensees, the little people, and a body of men and women with far more PR credibility than the BBPA, can tell their own story effectively.
And that means you.
Sustained and effective PR takes energy and money and expertise. The National LVA used to have 18,000 members. The FLVA should have just as many and more. At national level, Tony needs the money and clout that a big membership brings. At local level there has to be a core of activists doing the legwork — and even those who aren't active can be valuable, just by paying their subs and displaying and distributing campaigning literature.
And before you say you're too busy and haven't the spare time to get organised, be warned: if you don't, pretty soon you may be less busy than you'd like and have more spare time than you want. Perhaps trade protection as it was 20 years ago can never be revived; but if licensees don't hang together they will undoubtedly hang separately.
