Brewing Monopolies And Avoidable Closures

EDM number 358 in 1995-96, proposed by Alan Simpson on 31/01/1996.

That this House notes the article 'Mr Bung the Brewer' in Private Eye of 26th January detailing the loss of 250 jobs at the Home Ales brewery in Nottingham along with a further 200 at Courage in Halifax in the closure decisions made after the takeover by Scottish and Newcastle breweries; condemns the Government for blocking a referral of the takeover to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission which could have prevented this closure; recognises that Scottish and Newcastle has been a regular and generous donor to the Tory party but that its commercial interests are far from synonymous with the public interest; and calls on the honourable Member for Gedling, in whose area the Home Ales brewery is located, to ask his Conservative constituency party to return the ú5,000 donation made to them by Scottish and Newcastle.

This motion has been signed by a total of 33 MPs.