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Sunday, 19 January 2014

Micro-brain

Ed Miliband is on the Andrew Marr show.  He says he wants to start two new banks.  He went to a micro-brewery last week and hey couldn't get a bank loan.

You want to know why?  Because micro-breweries sell mostly to pubs as guest ales, without the benefit of long term contracts.  They are relatively undifferentiated and the micro-brewery business has relatively low barriers to entry - the only thing keeping most of them afloat is the fact that it isn't easy for wannabe new entrants to get a loan.

But the worst factor is the decline of the English pub, largely as a result of the smoking ban introduced by the last Labour government.

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