Weighing in the fish down at the Jolly Anglers |
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In order to understand a situation you need to ask questions so you get the big picture. You can do this by making statements and people will then respond from their angle...r and if it pushes their buttons then they will certainly feedback.
I had no knowledge of the Jolly Anglers until this afternoon when I received notice that if I wanted a story involving the local MP then if I got my butt along this evening I would find out more... Well, within the hour of me publishing Save our local pub the Jolly Anglers, I received the reply below from Colm Daly, a campaigner for fair play and hats off to him. I’m aware that Tesco’s buy up land all over the nation to prevent other retailers from competing against them and no-one questions it... or very few... and we all keep buying their stuff because it’s convenient and cheaper than the local shops. Perhaps we have to empower councils to make decisions based on the purchase of retail space on who should and shouldn’t be allowed to buy based on local competition. Market forces have been left unchecked for too long... There is a chap over in Norfolk who is fighting the local seat under the Party name: Put an Honest Man into Parliament Colm linked me up to this video... enjoy and go take action if this is your local pub or you feel it might happen in your street, learn from these chaps before your local boozer becomes a block of flats... sorry, river frontage penthouses! This is Colm's feedback in all it's glory... Dear Jonathan I read your thoughts at about the closure of The Jolly Anglers and must say you seem to miss the whole point. The Jolly Anglers was a thriving pub when closed by Enterprise Inns (previous owners) under a blatant lie that it was losing money, it was not. Further, they imposed a restrictive covenant on the buyers not to use it as a public house and this was despite their promise at parliamentary level to discontinue this anti-competitive practice, see: Enterprise Inns to drop restrictive covenants. This is not a case of locals not supporting local business; it is about corporate greed in the social sector. Enterprise Inns only business model was to run pubs down and then turn around and say they are not viable and duly turn them into flats or housing. For far too long they got away with it and ducked the outcry of parliament and CAMRA and publican representatives. Now with the property slump they are in seriously deep trouble but instead of owning up to their mistakes they scurry about selling properties at a loss simply to put some hard cash in the bank. I also think you are misguided to infer that there should be no public accountability in the social sector and allow business do as they see fit. Business is not separate from the social community, they are both inter-dependent, and shady business models should be challenged if they wreck the communities they operate in, for every other business is then adversely affected. I therefore take offence when you say it is no use ‘bitching about things afterwards’ for in the first place if the business sector regulated itself as it should for the benefit of the community then these issues would not arise, but they don’t. I would be obliged if you inform yourself better before publishing your thoughts, or better still joining the campaign. Colm Daly On behalf of the Reopen The Jolly Anglers Campaign M: +44 (0) 7776 373 906 T: +44 (0) 118 967 7408 184 Liverpool Road Reading Berkshire UK RG1 3PH |
