Perhaps CAMRA shouldn’t have put Real Ale in its name, but rather Real Pubs. The best place to drink real ale is in a great pub, or its garden. We still have thousands of great ones, but …. pubs are under threat from many different angles – multi-national corporations, property speculators, squeezed living standards, the crazy way electricity is priced in the UK, and many other sides.
CAMRA has a Vision for Pubs, our manifesto if you like.
If this sounds a little political that is because it kind of is – small p, not party aligned, but the kind of real-life politics that has a substantial impact on many people’s quality of life.
Pubs matter. Pubs really matter!
We relax there with colleagues after work, meet friends before/after the match/gig, go on first dates, if things go well second dates. We celebrate exam results, births, marriages, new jobs, promotions, retirement. We cheer our team’s victories, shake our heads at their woeful performances, see that teenage band who might, just might, be the next big thing. We throw darts with very variable levels of skill, shot pool imagining we can hustle and round my way sticks are thrown at a dolly on an iron (much harder than it looks). We eat simple snacks to high end food so exquisite magic must have been involved, and pretty much everything in between. We test our knowledge led by funny/fiendish/flamboyant/fastidious quiz masters, watch curiously while people play games we don’t know the rule of, tap our feet or sing-a-long to favourite songs, and just have fun in so many ways.
Pubs are there for us in the good times, and the bad. We find support there when we are down. That hour with a friend when times seem unbearably dark may not provide the solution, but it can lift us up to face the things that if we are alone can so easily overwhelm us. They are often where we mark the passing of friends and loved ones. They are one of the key places people feel community, and community really matters.
Yes, CAMRA really care about quality beer, consumer choice, etc. but probably most vital in all of that is our wonderful pub heritage. CAMRA is unashamed in our advocacy for independent pubs and defending their great history. It’s the best reason there is to join us.
John Winney – Chair Oxford branch of CAMRA
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