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Help CAMRA Support Community Pubs
CAMRA is asking members to take two minutes to email their MP and ask them to sign EDM 210, an Early Day Motion or parliamentary petition which calls on the new Government to bring forward a package of measures to support our community pubs.
This EDM builds on our General Election Charter campaign, which almost 2000 CAMRA members took part in and helped make the campaign a great success - with 150 MPs supporting the campaign.
It is now vital that we capitalise on this support and ensure that these 150 MPs act on their commitments to champion the community importance of well-run pubs, and to promote the interests of Britain's pub goers.
For more information and to take part, please visit our campaigning website, select 'email your MP' and send the email that we have drafted for you asking your MP to sign EDM 210, 'Community Public Houses'.
It is vital that as many MPs as possible sign this EDM so that we can put pressure on Government to make protecting pubs a priority and help prevent further pub closures.
No Happy New Year for pub goers after VAT increase
VAT increase means combined VAT and duty rates on a pint in the pub to hit £1 in New Year
VAT increase means up to 10p increase on a pint
CAMRA has predicted that the impact of a VAT hike to 20% in January 2011 will force the rate of pub closure to increase above the current devastating rate of 39 a week.
A sobering thought!
SIBA Great Northern Beer Festival
SIBA Great Northern Beer festival in association with Manchester CAMRA and the Palace Hotel in Oxford Road, Manchester will be hosted from 28th to 30th October 2010·
The SIBA North competition will be held in the Grand Room of the Palace Hotel, on Thursday 28th and will be followed by a beer festival exhibiting 300 cask beers from SIBA North members (121 breweries).
All beers to be dispensed by hand pump (48 at any given time) with sparklers and a fresh glass on each fill.
Open to the public from 4:00pm to 10:30 pm on the 28th October, Noon to 10:30pm on 29th and 30th.
Door entry (tbc: probably £5,) with discounted entry to card carrying CAMRA members.
Refundable Souvenir lined glass on deposit/purchase; food available all sessions; entertainment on Saturday.
As always, volunteers required to staff the festival, for set up (Sunday 24th October) and take-down on (Sunday 31st October).
If you are interested in staffing or require further information then please contact Graham Donning by email g_donning@yahoo.com
or ring him on 07961886696.
Glossop Beer Festival
Unfortunately the Glossop Beer Festival will not occur in 2010
Misrepresenting Real Ale Images
This year's CAMRA Members AGM agreed that individual members should complain to media sources which run stories on binge drinking or alcohol related violence but the accompanying photographs seem to focus on what appears to be real ale or a bar with handpumps displayed. CAMRA Members felt that since the problem mainly relates to folk who get tanked up at home before going to pubs or to youngsters drinking cheap alcopops on street corners and that the use of images showing real ale were misleading and damaging CAMRA image as a promoter of responsible drinking.
Steve Prescott (SE Lancs) spotted a BBC article about Binge Drinking becoming well established in the North West. The article includes a picture of a what could be a pint of real ale. Why didn't they use a picture of a bottle of WKD or a picture of a poster from outside an off licence selling cheap lager at hugely discounted prices?
Several CAMRA members from various branches within the region complained to the BBC about the possibility that the image
they had chosen to use could be associated with real ale and damage our credibility. The response so far from the BBC was a stock response
"A man drinking beer from a pint glass seems to me to illustrate very nicely a story about the drinking intentions of people questioned while out
in the north west of England. It could just as easily be a standard keg beer as a real ale. My own experience of witnessing drinkers out in Manchester
in Liverpool is that you don't have to look far to find someone who has clearly had too many pints of beer."
Those who have complained have not been happy with this response and have pushed the matter further.
If any CAMRA member sees an article containing an image that seems to link real ale with binge drinking or some other alcohol problem, be it by the BBC,
in
the newspapers or online then please raise a complaint with the publisher.
Then let us know who you complained to and their response as we will be submitting details of all complaints and responses to the CAMRA HQ Press Office who
are collating the data.
Axe the Beer Tax
Britain's pubs are under severe and sustained pressure. Sales of beer in pubs are now at their lowest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and 36 pubs are closing every week. More than 44,000 jobs were lost from the industry between 2000 and 2005 - and further redundancies are inevitable. CAMRA predicts that up to 7,500 pubs could be lost by the end of 2012.
The situation is being made worse by the impact of the wider economic slowdown, and the Chancellor's announcement of yet another increase in duty - on top of plans to increase the tax on beer above inflation next year and for the next three years. The Chancellor increased beer duty by 9% in March this year and by a further 8% in November 2008.
This campaign aims to give a voice to ordinary British pub-goers and consumers, and send a strong message to Whitehall and
Westminster that we've had enough.
The main demands of the campaign is to:
- axe plans to increase beer tax even further
- enforce existing laws – not create new ones - to deal firmly with irresponsible drinkers and premises
- end the irresponsible promotion of alcohol in supermarkets, pubs and elsewhere
- trust responsible adults to make informed choices about what they drink, not punish them for the actions of an irresponsible minority
- support the British pub as a vital part of social life in local communities
Please join our campaign. Go to www.axethebeertax.com and sign up as a supporter.