@BrewDog, a leading global craft brand, creating a ~$500 million global craft brand beverage platform. Accretive acquisition of select assets includes global brand IP, UK brewing operations and 11 strategic brewpubs.
The above is what the news US owners of Brewdog have to say.
Below is what Unite the Union has to say
Unite, which represents thousands of hospitality workers, said it was a “devastating day” and pledged to secure “legal and financial justice” for its members.
Sharon Graham, the union’s general secretary, added: “BrewDog workers built this brand. They deserved respect. Instead, they were treated as disposable pawns.”
Bryan Simpson, Unite’s national lead for hospitality, described the conduct of senior management as “nothing short of a national disgrace”.
He added: “For the CEO to tell workers that they were redundant with immediate effect, on a conference call with only 25 minutes notice, has echoes of P&O and is deplorable.”
Being made redundant by Brewdog. 15 minute call. No questions
38 Brewdog bars were shut with immediate effect on 2nd March and 484 workers were made redundant.
Below is an account from STV of what happened on the call.
Unite the Union which represents Brewdog workers have rightly said that it is reminiscent of the notorious P&O sackings.
As a union officer I deal frequently with redundancies which are invariably voluntary not compulsory as with Brewdog.
However the employment law process is very similar. There is a requirement to consult (not just inform) and to allow for counter proposals. Clearly this was not done. Since Sky Business has revealed that James Watt’s rejected bid would have saved more jobs and the investments of EFP shareholders the failure to consider alternative proposals with impacted workers seem particularly poor.
Those with over two year’s service (likely a minority in bar work) will be eligible for a statutory redundancy payment- again not mentioned- and of course payment of notice which will again in the industry be brief.
Unite the Union have revealed that since Brewdog was declared insolvent, any money due sacked workers, unpaid wages, redundancy will be publicly funded via the Insolvency Service.
The whole thing has a strong element of contempt for bar workers who kept Brewdog going. Hopefully they won’t get away with it
Staff heard the news on the call, hosted by chief executive James Taylor and Ian Partidge of restructuring specialists AlixPartners.
“There is no viable interest in these bars”, staff told in the Teams meeting, heard by STV News.
“These will close immediately.
“Your role is no longer required. Your position has formally been made redundant. Clearly, we recognise how difficult this news is to hear, and we are truly sorry for that, the impact that this will have.
“We recommend you contact your local job centre as soon as you receive your redundancy letter to ensure your statutory entitlements are not affected.
“We are not opening this call for questions today.”
A staff member, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: “All but 11 bars were made redundant.
“We were made to wait until 3.45pm, then given a 15-minute call, telling us we had no job anymore.
“The staff were in bits, upset, worried, panicked about paying rent. Hundreds of staff on a Teams call, no microphones or chance to reply.”
Brewdog’s Ellon brewery, brands and intellectual property has been sold to US based cannabis and beverage company Tilray for £33m after going into administration. The sum appears significantly lower than previous valuations of the company.
What will happen next remains to be outlined in terms of Brewdog off sales contracts with supermarkets and with Wetherspoons. However Tilray have only taken on 11 pubs leaving 38 to close with a reported 484 job losses.
733 Brewdog workers will be TUPEd to Tilray Brands UK Ltd although under employment law there is nothing to stop further redundancies post transfer under ETO principles. I haven’t been able to establish yet if Tilray in the US is unionised.
Unite the Union which organises workers at Brewdog but has never been recognised has spoken out on what General Secretary Sharon Graham has called ‘catastrophic mismanagement’. Indeed but a key architect of that, James Watt, although he appears to have lost out on the sale, already pocketed a substantial sum from an earlier private equity deal.
Brewdog bar workers will now face looking for other jobs in a difficult hospitality market….
Labour Governments & US Wars. Starmer, Blair and Harold Wilson
Keir Starmer who opposed the 2003 Iraq War because it was illegal has now agreed that the US can use British bases for ‘defensive’ purposes in Trump’s illegal war on Iran. Trump had a rant about this, noting Starmer should have acted sooner, before someone put the Mango Mussolini’s dummy back in
What Blair did on Iraq is well within current memory. He backed Bush because he claimed it was important to keep in with the US. Perhaps Blair had a smidgeon of influence on Bush. Starmer has none on Trump.
What that altogether more wily politician Harold Wilson did on Vietnam was slightly different while achieving some of the same ends.
Unlike Australia and New Zealand, Britain did not commit forces to US efforts to prop up the corrupt Diem regime in South Vietnam from 1962-1975.
If Britain did not commit front line troops in Vietnam, British Government support for American action was largely unwavering. In March 1965 Harold Wilson told the Commons that the Government fully supported ‘the action of the United States in resisting aggression in Vietnam’.
He was echoing a line developed by the Tory PM before him Alec Douglas Home and backed by the Tory PM after him, Heath, as well.
What did this full support mean?
While no troops were officially committed, the SAS fought in Vietnam under the banner of the Australasian forces. Other troops were seconded to the US and fought under that auspices.
These were not rank and file soldiers but specialists and experts in jungle warfare.
Indeed Britain trained US, Vietnamese and Thai troops in its Malaysian facilities in the late 1960s.
It was not just training and expertise that was provided.
The British monitoring station at Little Sai Wan in Hong Kong was used by the Americans to help them target bombing raids on North Vietnam.
All that said Wilson also resisted considerable pressure from Democratic President Johnson to publicly back the US with troops. He resisted, perhaps because he recognised the potential political consequences and that may well have been related to the strength of opposition to the Vietnam War in the UK.
Wilson also, at least up to the Tet Offensive in Spring 1968 when it became clear that the US was in any case losing the war, associated himself very closely with international negotiations to secure a ceasefire and peace in Vietnam, albeit essentially on US terms.
The seminar was an important and illuminating insight into the politics and activities of Big Flame but also with some pointers about left politics in 2026
Right up to polling day the opinion polls reported that the Gorton and Denton By-Election was a narrow three way race between Reform, the Greens and Labour. In fact the Greens had a 4,000 majority over Reform.
Even Omnisis which had the Greens at 33% was way out.
The likely issue (Times 28th February) is that while the pollsters found it relatively easy to seek the views of white working class voters they struggled to judge the views of Muslims, other ethnic minorities and those switching from Labour to Green. They were fairly accurate on support for Reform and Labour but not the Greens.
Green voters it seems are part of a world of which pollsters have little conception
Verdant Putty DIPA & Puttty TIPA. Has the thrill gone & if so, why?
With Verdant Putty DIPA (85) and Puttty TIPA both released for 2026 I pondered again why the annual release of these beers is such a thing. There are after all other double and triple IPAs out there and in a taste test one might struggle to identify which was which (depending on the hops used).
Putty which is an 8% double IPA was released in January 2026 and cost £7 a can direct from Verdant (plus carriage), the same price as in 2025
Puttty its 10% triple IPA relative was released in February 2026 and cost £10.50 a can direct from Verdant (plus carriage). Again the same price as 2025.
I’ve drunk and enjoyed both. Murky, hoppy, dangerously drinkable.
Of course if you’re not at home during the day during the week (I work mostly from home) buying direct from a brewery can be awkward. The bottle shop is an alternative but their prices will be higher because after all, no normal profit no bottle shop.
The beers are expensive but allowing for inflation and duty changes I don’t think the price has actually increased at least in the last couple of years. Putty was originally brewed for Hop City at Northern Monk in 2017 and what it cost then I don’t have to hand.
While the beer is good the general buzz around it can I think be explained by an understanding of the Society of the Spectacle. A theory developed by the Situationists in the 1960s it argued that market capitalism had developed in a way that meant advertising and image were the most important representations of material reality.
They marched in an anti-Vietnam War protest in London in 1968 chanting ‘hot chocolate, drinking chocolate’.
In this sense Putty can be understood as a reified object. That is while it is not human (clearly) it takes on human qualities. Its enjoyable, fun to be with, and generally a positive thing.
I doubt those drinking Putty, myself included, quite saw it like that but there is a related way of explaining things. Both Putty and Puttty are released early in the calendar year. The weather is miserable, and there isn’t a huge amount going on beer wise for the most part.
As above both Putty and Puttty are reassuringly expensive. That is for those who can afford the price in a continuing cost of living crisis. You can certainly get beers that are quite like Putty at rather lower strengths (say 7-7.5%) more cheaply. Check Lidl.
It’s a division that also exists in wine and whisky. It’s a feature of market capitalism but you can start to over theorise. Generally you get better quality for a higher a price but unless you have a refined palate it may not be that noticeable. What you like might be more important.
Putty is both a brand and an event.
To be honest as an example of both its possible to think of much worse. And it remains very drinkable. Whether its quite the thing it was is another matter. Putty sold out on the day of release, Puttty was still on sale several days after its release. Perhaps the thrill has gone, a reminder that capitalism is eating and drinking itself perhaps…
A History of the present. From Iraq in 2003 to Iran in 2025. The politics of ‘regime change’
If Netanyahu’s comments on Iran appear eerily familiar in 2026, it is because they are. The same Netanyahu, and Iran hawks in the US, pushed a similar argument in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Iraqis then, like Iranians now, the world was told, would welcome the removal of Saddam. The Middle East would be reshaped. The fall of dictators in Iraq and Iran may well have been welcomed. What came after certainly was not
Meaningful regime change, however (whatever that means in practical terms), is not the same as regime destruction. Regime change can only ever come from below, not as the whim of Bush or Trump.
In Iraq, where ultimately an incompetent US effort was made at nation-building, and Libya – where it was not – there followed periods of bloody chaos, which continues in Libya.
Peter Beaumont writing in The Guardian, 17th June 2025 was spot on about Netanyahu’s agenda
A reminder that Britain’s largest ever march took place on 15th February 2003 when well over a million people marched against war with Iraq.
The marching and protesting needs to continue because international law gone and with what Tariq Ali refers to as the Wild West running amok pretty much anything could happen next. Trump declared war on Iran at 2.30am from his Mar A Lago nightclub. He got the approval of no one and was content that this was the case. Protest in the US might shake that a bit. We can hope.
At least Bush made a pretence of getting UN approval. Instead with Trump we have a Board of Peace with Tony Blair firmly in place on it.
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