CAMRA at 50 & the Murdoch Times
The Campaign for Real Ale is 50 years old on 16th March (I’ve only managed 46 years membership). Its one of the larger voluntary organisations in the UK and like most the membership is ageing somewhat (myself included).
Still, the last year notwithstanding, people now live longer and are active for longer so this is not quite the statement it might have been decades ago. CAMRA has also made considerable efforts to ‘modernise’ and attract younger people who care about beer and pubs. Its not been without success but its work in progress.
At the moment its engaged in essential campaigning activity around the future of breweries and pubs and lots of related issues which if you are a pub goer you’ll be more than familiar with.
Against all this the Murdoch Times (6th March) has decided to publish a story about some on-line arguments between some members about various contentious issues. I cant usefully link to it because its paywalled. I happened to scan the story in the print edition.
CAMRA is genuinely, like the pub itself, a broad-brush thing, so opinions can vary but as CAMRA’s finance director Ben Wilkinson quoted in the piece notes whatever the disagreements, all are united in the need to defend and promote good beer and pubs.
As someone who remains actively involved in the labour movement and the left I’d say that while disagreements and arguments can be infuriating and time consuming they are sign that people care and are engaged. If all is quiet- and I’ve sat in those kind of meetings-it simply tells you people’s thoughts are elsewhere.
Hopefully before long the discussions can move off-line and back into the pub. And if you’re telling me Greene King renaming pubs called the Black Boy is ‘woke’ you’re wrong by the way.
Like the government spin doctor he is, Wilkinson’s dissembling comments hide the real nature of what happened. As he is mainly known for undermining CAMRA’s pub campaigning, this is hardly surprising,
But it could be a woke misunderstanding based on lazy analysis. It depends on the origin of the name Black Boy. Ours is a coal dust covered white juvenile so no problem with the name’s continued use.