I ’m not going to bang on about it because regular readers know my views on such events as Dryanuary and anyway, it is over now. I just wonder why, at a time like this, people would want to deprive themselves of anything enjoyable. On the other hand, this year’s Tryanuary has been extended beyond the end of January until whenever the pubs reopen. Tryanuary is a volunteer-led, online community that encourages consumers to continue supporting small, independent beer businesses during January, a notoriously difficult trading month in a normal year, let alone when pubs and clubs are locked down again. CAMRA has supported Tryanuary since it began and has sponsored the campaign since 2020. People are also invited to join the Tryanuary online community to help their mental health and wellbeing. The website, which features an online directory of beer businesses and listings for virtual events that any groups, pubs or brewers are holding, can be found at https://www.tryanuary.com/.
Nowhere to go
This is an interesting, if sad, case study as to the effect of pub closures on particular groups. The Cock Tavern in Somers Town was not able to open in Tier 2 because it does not have a kitchen and will, of course, now be closed until further notice. The manager told the Camden New Journal (18 December), “It’s difficult because this is an old person’s pub really. It’s like their front room and it’s where they socialise. Many of our customers live by themselves and this is their community. At the moment I see them walking around Camden with nothing to do.” Let’s hope that they will still be around when the pub reopens.
Stepping forward
On the basis that their 28 pubs across the Home Counties and the Midlands have the space, some have car parks and, most importantly, they have large COVID-safe refrigerators, the Oakman Group pub chain offered their premises to the Government for use as vaccination centres. They see it as enlightened self-interest. Chief Executive Dermot King told the Morning Advertiser, “The only route to any normality is through mass vaccination and for that the NHS needs to be able to work at scale. The entire hospitality industry is desperate to reopen as quickly as possible before we have huge scale redundancies across the sector. The hospitality sector has the venues, it has the infrastructure, the venues are sitting empty, and our offer even includes a contribution towards the cost of the scheme. We want to help the Government and the people of the UK beat Covid-19 because the quicker we’re vaccinated, the more lives we save, the more jobs we save, the more businesses we save, and we’re prepared to do whatever it takes to see that happen.”
Over the next four months Oakman would be in line to collect something like £250,000 in business support grants, as announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 5 January. Oakman would however be prepared to forego the grants. As Mr King added, “Clearly, the money offered by the Chancellor would help us in the short-term, but realistically the only way all of us can get back to normal is to get the country vaccinated.”
BrewDog also offered help. On New Year’s Eve, James Watt, one of their founders, sent a Tweet saying, “We would like to offer our closed BrewDog venues to help with a quick roll out of the vaccine. For free. We have waiting areas, huge refrigerators, separate rooms for vaccinations and an ace team who can help organised. We want to help.” Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, acknowledged the offer, saying that the offer would be passed to her vaccination team.