peter fox

Just released under the 30 year rule.

from
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4565880.stm>
<quote>
The prime minister's plan to protect local breweries by nationalising
them as part of an initiative to show he was sensitive to small problems
that caused people concern, called "little things that mean a lot".
</quote>

Weird. Thank goodness CAMRA appeared in instead.

--
PETER FOX Not the same since the deckchair business folded
peterfox@eminent.demon.co.uk.not.this.bit.no.html
2 Tees Close, Witham, Es***.
Gravity beer in Es*** <http://www.eminent.demon.co.uk>

petere

At the time there was a lot of opinion in CAMRA in favour of public
ownership of the brewing industry. It is a policy advocated in "Pulling a
Fast One" by Roger Protz, in the days when Protz actually was a socialist.

People didn't seem to appreciate the standardisation and mediocrity it would
have led to - instead of a Big Six there would have been a Big One.

--
http://www.stockportpubs.org.uk
"If a river bridge were not guarded by a pa****t, the slackness of the
defaulting authority deserves the blame, not the people who fall in" -
Lieut. Col. Mervyn O'Gorman.

peter fox

Following on from PeterE's message. . .


That's interesting.

Then the Tories would have done a 'British Rail' sell-off and we'd have
vastly increased prices, no accountability and appalling standards of
quality provided by a few foreign-owned conglomerates. There would be a
few preserved breweries and a hugely complex and expensive bureaucracy
that serves no purpose. How lucky we are this nationalisation never
happened.

--
PETER FOX Not the same since the e-commerce business came to a .
peterfox@eminent.demon.co.uk.not.this.bit.no.html
2 Tees Close, Witham, Es***.
Gravity beer in Es*** <http://www.eminent.demon.co.uk>

alan

In message <54p+L0AoT8sDFwzj@eminent.demon.co.uk>, Peter Fox

Isn't this what we have now for the majority of beer sold in the UK?

--
Alan
news2005 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com

michael jones

I don't know that this would necessarily have transpired like that, after
all I seem to remember that the old Carlisle State Brewery wasn't too bad.

petere

Yes. But presumably under a nationalisation scenario there would also have
been restrictions on private individuals starting breweries (as there were
with coal mining) and so the micro-brewery revolution would never have
happened.

--
http://www.stockportpubs.org.uk
"If a river bridge were not guarded by a pa****t, the slackness of the
defaulting authority deserves the blame, not the people who fall in" -
Lieut. Col. Mervyn O'Gorman.

valeofbelvoirdrinker

On Thu, 29 Dec 2005 11:13:44 +0000, Peter Fox

British Rail had no accountability and appalling standards of quality
too.The problems in the rail industry stem in large measure from
decades of neglect before the sell off.
But look what happened to the telecom industry-could a state owned
monopoly have given us the system we have now?

steven pampling

Yes - by using the same model of monopoly infrastructure provider reselling
to both their end user division and other providers at the same cost.
Although the current status does have the bonus of the state having no
financial liability despite giving the orders about level playing field
pricing to the end providers.

--
Steve Pampling

john c

Yes - but look what happened when it was privatised!

John C

anthony morgan

This popped up on the h2g2 section of the BBC web site
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A644645
It gives some background to the Carlisle State Brewery and a nice bit on the
development of the pubs themselves.