Conflincts of interest

[GrandOiseau]

Interesting times

CAMRA leadership seems to be going to the dogs and going to sleep at just the wrong time.

[Lootman]

CAMRA is like UKIP - a victim of its own success.

In both cases, they achieved their primary mission, only to then find themselves with no real direction or purpose, and so start to unravel.

If CAMRA didn't already exist, nobody would now invent it.

[JMN2]

My opinion is the clue is in the name, real ale should be the focus, and craft/keg/cider should be left to others. So IIRC this is roughly Tandleman's reasoning and I agree with it.

http://tandlemanbeerblog.blogspot.co.uk/

[didds]

My opinion is the clue is in the name, real ale should be the focus, and craft/keg/cider should be left to others.

That would at least keep everything simple.

But then would we just end up with

CAMRA+CAMCI (cider)+CAMPE (perry)+CAMPU (pubs)+CAMKEG+CAMCRA (craft)... which as a large Venn diagram has a very large central multiple shared area?

FWIW I personally CBA to get embroiled on what beer styles CAMRA should or should not be arguing about. Frankly its pretty obvious to me what is "keg craft" and what is "keg naff" and those that insist on bracketing them together I feel have their own agenda, are being overly myopic, or both. A failure to at least try some keg craft so the distinctions can be at least appreciated is rather like rejecting opera when one has never read, performed or seen/listened to any.

Rather CAMRA's focus now on pubs and their future seems to be a totally pertinent position. I live in a brewery town that hasn't any of its pubs featured for the town in the GBG, and hasn't for at least three years - there is a very good reason for that. Meanwhile we read of 27 pubs closing per week

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/busin ... 53686.html

- but at the same time micropubs are opening and thriving
https://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Art ... -last-year.

No doubt there is a good reason for that too...

didds (CAMRA member and probably in a minority of one with the thoughts above )

[GrandOiseau]

It has always been a bit of an issue for the organisation defined by it's name - Campaign for Real Ale. Why do they campaign on pubs, cider/perry, drinking hours and foreign (not real ale) beers, to name but a few things? But essentially they always managed to stay on track and make the link without distracting from the core reason for the campaign. Good beer needed good pubs and good cider by it's side.

The issues within the industry that impinge on the consumer are still there. The avarice of business is still impinging on the customer. Sure things aren't as bad as they were. The range of beers and the outlets for them are arguably excellent. But as I've stated in the past the use of the word "craft", the jumping on the bandwagon, the purchasing of the likes of Doom Bar and Goose Island, show the old threats still alive and well.

The worrying bit comes in the second article with the CAMRA leadership seemingly going AWOL. With a lot of drinkers complacent and the corporates enjoying the fruits of the labour of the innovative and vibrant small brewing scene for their own end we are in dangering of slipping back a decade or two. I see lots of relatively young drinkers are shunning CAMRA's focus on price. You have to pay for quality right? Even keg quality. And isn't Wetherspoons a Corporate anyway.

I think it's CAMRA's job to keep things factual and on message. The leadership has to get the organisation back in the game it's meant to be playing. This is not about good keg versus bad keg. It's about ownership, openness, honesty. Informing the consumer and fighting for them.