CAMRA

Once upon a time The Campaign for Real Ale was a very necessary group of people. Draught beer was dying and the giant breweries were doing all they could to snuff it out. Single handedly Camra turned this round and in doing so became the most influential consumer pressure group of all time. Nowadays it is almost impossible to walk into a pub or inn and not find a couple of handpumps dispensing draught beer. So be grateful!

Sadly though Camra has allowed itself to become a forum for all sorts of other issues. Real fires, quiet pubs, cider and bottled beers to mention a few. This has meant they have taken their eye off the ball, they have been distracted from their reason d'etre.

So while there are many pressing issues that surround the subject of draught beer, Camra is busy debating the merits of different ciders and bottled beers. While a growing number of pubs serve poor quality real ale Camra concerns itself with whether they have a real fire or not. Camra has a role to play, a job to do but it must return its focus to draught beer, to the quality of that beer and to the pubs that serve it. It is now not enough that a pub has a couple of handpumps, what is important, in my opinion, is the the stuff that flows from them and until Camra turn their attention to this and stop praising the big brewers bland products in their newspaper I, for one, shall not be renewing my membership!