{"id":6663,"date":"2026-09-29T18:05:37","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T18:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/?p=6663"},"modified":"2026-09-29T18:01:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T18:01:45","slug":"introduction-to-the-october-november-2026-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/2026\/09\/29\/introduction-to-the-october-november-2026-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction to the October \/ November 2026 edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the end of August, readers may have seen articles about CAMRA in the <em>Times<\/em> and the <em>Guardian<\/em>.\u00a0 They highlighted the Campaign\u2019s reduced membership and loss for the 2024\/2025 financial year.\u00a0 The <em>Times<\/em> did forewarn CAMRA of their article and they were sent a detailed briefing explaining the situation but only one part of it, a quote from finance director Ian Hill, was used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Most of the financial loss related to the move of offices from St Albans to Luton because the purchase and sale fell in different financial years.&nbsp; That move was not \u2018downsizing\u2019; it saw us achieve a long-standing plan to combine our office and warehouse operations on the same site.&nbsp; The financial forecast for 2025\/2026 looks much healthier.&nbsp; We most certainly have not reached our \u2018nadir\u2019 as the <em>Guardian<\/em> claimed.&nbsp; CAMRA is not going out of business!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As regards membership, Ian Hill explained, \u201c<em>We are no different from many other membership organisations that have seen a sustained reduction in membership since the pandemic. &nbsp;We still have more than 140,000 members and a high retention rate, dedicated to campaigning to protect our beloved pubs and pints<\/em>.\u201d&nbsp; I understand that over 400 new members were recruited at the recent Peterborough Beer Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What was disappointing with both newspaper articles is that they clearly failed to grasp how CAMRA operates.&nbsp; Its strength lies in its members at local level, however many of them there might be.&nbsp; The <em>Good Beer Guide<\/em> is probably the most objective pub guide that there is.&nbsp; You cannot buy your way in; a pub is included only if local CAMRA members think that it meets the standard.&nbsp; Similarly, the GBG\u2019s brewery section is unique, with information provided direct from the source by CAMRA\u2019s brewery liaison officers.&nbsp; Our pub of the year awards, again judged by local members, are highly prized for precisely that reason and, similarly, brewers regard the Champion Beer of Britain award as one of the highest accolades available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That said, led by its expert staff, CAMRA is actively involved with lobbying on a number of national issues.&nbsp; In particular, we have for some time been pushing the Competition and Markets Authority to hold an \u2018access to market\u2019 investigation into the restrictions being placed on small brewers by the large pubcos.&nbsp; This culminated in the launch of our \u2018<em>Beer in the UK<\/em>\u2019 report which I recommend everyone to read.&nbsp; To be fair to the <em>Guardian<\/em>, in their article they did allow Tom Stainer, CAMRA\u2019s chief executive, to expound on this issue at length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In its early years, CAMRA built up a reputation as one of the most effective consumer protection bodies in Europe.&nbsp; Essentially, this has not changed.&nbsp; Ignore the doubters, keep campaigning!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Tony Hedger<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the end of August, readers may have seen articles about CAMRA in the Times and the Guardian.\u00a0 They highlighted the Campaign\u2019s reduced membership and loss for the 2024\/2025 financial&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6664,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6663\/revisions\/6664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londondrinker.camra.org.uk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}