Ortus Secured Finance: The pub always helps

The pub always helps




At Ortus we follow any news story involving pubs. Therefore, we watched with interest as Prime Minister David Cameron was televised having a pint and fish and chips with President Xi Jinping of China..

At Ortus we follow any news story involving pubs. Therefore, we watched with interest as Prime Minister David Cameron was televised having a pint and fish and chips with President Xi Jinping of China.

It was a nod to Britishness and carefully choreographed.

Firstly, Mr Cameron’s organisers chose a pub which is a free house, so that they couldn’t be accused of lining the pockets of a pub company - although the Prime Minister may feel he owes the pub companies a favour, having seen the beer tie broken under his watch. Either way, the pub he chose (The Plough at Cadsden) was perfectly photogenic.

They drank IPA. Good choice. A sensible, middle-of-the road option for two mature gentlemen. Imagine if they’d drunk Stella or Carling out of those labelled pint glasses. Not statesmanlike at all.

And fish and chips was a good choice too - because it came in a basket and could be eaten like finger food at the bar. You have to sit down to eat a curry or pie, and this presents a problem of group dynamics. The small, bag-carrying chap who seemed to follow President Xi Jinping around everywhere (interpreter?) would have needed to sit down too, and he didn’t have a drink… a bit awkward. 

And finally, Mr Cameron remembered to bring a £10 note. Imagine if he’d only had a £50 note… a disaster with all that Eton/Bullingdon business. But he was able to hand over his £10 note and do his duty as a host by paying. In fact, I think I heard him say, “No Xi Jinping, you can keep your foreign currency reserves - I’m paying because you’re the guest and, anyway, you paid for the nuclear power station yesterday.”

President Xi Jinping played his role perfectly. He effortlessly slipped into the British tradition of polite banter. When Mr Cameron told him the story about accidently leaving his 5-year-old daughter down the pub a couple of years ago, the President gave a little laugh. He didn’t react like a Scandinavian and look back blankly, saying, “It’s best to check you have your kids before you leave a pub.” He even resisted mentioning the merits of China’s one-child policy.

However, there was one massive problem. They only stayed for 20 minutes. Now, 20 minutes is fine if you’re on a pub crawl. But Prime Minister Cameron and President Xi Jinping were not on a pub crawl. They were on a photo shoot. Or a publicity stunt.

But it doesn’t matter because, even if they’d stayed all night, it would only have been a ‘traditional British evening’ - in a picture-postcard sense.

The reality is that fish and chips isn’t Britain’s most popular dish anymore. It hasn’t held that status for years. In September last year, the Independent on Sunday did a study which confirmed that pasta, pizza and tikka masala were all more popular than fish and chips - although the winner was the good, old roast dinner.
And if Mr Cameron had really wanted to reflect the changing tastes of the British people, he’d have taken the President to the pub for some breakfast or a coffee.

The important thing is that the status of the pub in British life was reaffirmed. You can play out the same scene in countless different ways. Two work colleagues popping out for lunch at a city-centre gastro pub and talking through a deal… A mums’ group meeting with the kids at a child-friendly pub and having coffee… Some old friends getting together at a boozer and drinking ten pints without a thought for food - because the pub doesn’t sell it!

 Whatever the issues, however high - or low - the stakes, it always helps to go to the pub.

 Attributed to Jon Salisbury, Managing Director of Ortus Secured Finance

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