Gadget Man

I went to a meeting organised by my CAMRA branch, Stockport and South Manchester, last night, part of the Revitalisation Project being run at national level which I wrote about here.

CAMRA founder member Michael Hardman introduced the evening with an interesting overview of where cask beer was when the organisation was formed in 1971, and some of the wins and losses since, and then it was down to the main business: voting on questions flashed up on a screen via the electronic keypads with which we'd been issued at the door.

I'm not sure what the upshot of the Revitalisation Project will be, but it was good to hear the views of other members and the national officials running the event. I suspect though that, as others at the meeting said, it will be a mixture of market forces, Government policy and social trends that determines the future of pubs and beer rather than campaigning, and that CAMRA will probably evolve into a beer drinkers' club/pub preservation society, one which I'll happily continue to be a member of.