The news today is that our beloved leader "CallMeDave" Cameron gifted bottles of Fullers London Pride to each of 'Los 33', the Chilean miners who were trapped underground for 69 days until last week. In return, Chilean President Sebastian Piñera gave 'Dave' a lump of rock from the floor of the cave.
A couple of things occurred to me. While CAMRA were delighted that Dave had finally 'got it' with his gift of real ale (is Pride Real Ale In A Bottle? I didn't think it was), didn't he also 'get it' with his little beer trade with US President Barack Obama a couple of months back? And, why Fullers? Is that a little pat on the back for Michael Turner's support of the Comprehensive Spending Review? He signed the letter published in the Daily Torygraph a couple of days back.
If it had been me, I'd have been on the dog and bone to Demon Brewer Don Burgess, to blag a couple of cases of his excellent (and bottle-conditioned) Freeminer Deep Shaft Stout.
The final thing is this lump of rock. I remember going to Berlin during April of 1990. All along the western side of the Wall, people were knocking out chunks of it, preserved in little plastic bags. Turned out that enterprising 'Osties' were casting concrete, spraying it with paint and smashing it up to sell to people like me. If I were you, 'Dave', I'd make sure your bit of cave rock came with a certificate of authenticity before popping it on eBay.
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3 comments:
Bottle conditioned beer may be the holy grail of CAMRA weirdos but I'm presuming Dave wanted his gift to be of quality without risk of being off and not require storing upright for a week and pouring carefully to avoid being cloudy. Hence the brewery conditioning.
Had Dave handed over cloudy vinegar we could be in another war, for christ's sake.
And as nice as a free beer is, a crate of cheap lout per miner might be more welcome to remove the dust.
So you don't reckon the conspiracy angle with Fullers, Senor Lagero?
You never know Sid, but I'm more inclined to the view that a gift can often be a selfish rather than altruistic action.
If you are going to gift a traditional English ale to a cervesa swigging south american, make it a drinkable example of the type from a brewer that exports to the americas so they can buy it if they like it and then make sure it is one that is strongly branded with the provinence of "London", a place everyone in the world has heard of.
Cracking marketing for Dave's pal. Of more interest is whether Fullers gifted the beer or the taxpayer. Has a whiff about it if it's not an honest paid for by us gift, and instead a marketing gift given by us to Fullers.
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