Brexit, Beer & the Beerage
Philip Hammond at Fullers in 2018 when he was still Chancellor & Fullers were still independent
David Edgerton, Professor of Modern British History at Kings College, London has written an interesting piece for the Guardian about Brexit, capitalism and the Tory Party:
Edgerton’s point is that the Tory Party no longer represents the interests of the majority of British capitalism, but rather a hard-right clique representing just a small section of it. However, even if it did, this wouldn’t make a huge difference. The role of British capital in influencing events is much reduced since most major concerns operating in the UK are based elsewhere. For them Britain is just another market and they have little interest in influencing specific UK politics. If it comes to it, they can always go elsewhere.
An interesting example in 2019 is British brewing. Two companies that have been the mainstays of the Beerage, that is brewers who supported and gave money to the Tories, Fullers (to Asahi) and Greene King (to a Hong Kong based property company) have sold up.
Of course the new owners have interest in how British capitalism does (and will have factored in Brexit when buying the breweries) but they are very unlikely to be interested in influencing Tory Party policy…
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