Party conferences are opportunities to meet MPs, ministers and special advisors in an informal atmosphere and without their civil servants. It would take months to arrange such meetings in Westminster and the ‘minders’ would no doubt outnumber the people you wanted to see.
I also managed to meet David Heath, the new Lib Dem food and farming minister. While he may be a cider man, he also has responsibility for beer, which comes underthe Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’ umbrella. We spoke about beer’s natural ingredients, along with the provenance of ingredients like malt and hops.
Conferences also give us a chance to thank supporters. The All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group and Campaign for Real Ale host receptions in local pubs, with MPs and peers attending.
Lib Dem Dan Rogerson, Lord Kennedy (Labour) and Andrew Griffiths (Conservative) are all keen to do more to help our industry. Having achieved our 100,000 signatures, we are rallying support for a beer-duty escalator debate. I and others were able to speak, encourage and persuade.
At the Labour summit, the British Beer & Pub Association’s north-west region hosted a dinner with MPs. Jack Straw and Hazel Blears, to name but two, discussed pro-pub policies.
From 15 November we will have a new group of elected leaders to deal with, as elections are held for 40 police and crime commissioners. They will have public profiles similar to elected mayors, but with a crime focus.
Fringe meetings were dominated by talk of working with other public-sector bodies, without mention of the private sector. We have urged them to work with us, if elected, and back Best Bar None, Pubwatch, business improvement districts and community alcohol partnerships.
Finally I had the privilege of speaking at a 2020health fringe meeting on the subject of ‘Prohibition: does it work?’ I said it did not work in 1920s USA and it is not the answer now.
Education, working with target groups and supporting parents is preferable, and — of course — having a good record on stopping underage sales.
It has been a useful few weeks. We will follow this up at Westminster.