Portillo to address BBPA

Michael Portillo and former England rugby player Martin Bayfield have been named as guests at the British Beer & Pub Association’s annual dinner next month.

Portillo has been asked to talk about the coalition’s agenda and the beer and pub industry’s place it.

The former Tory minister will be a guest speaker at the BBPA’s revived annual dinner due to be held at the Hilton Park Lane hotel on 13 October.

The evening has been billed as, “an elegant networking and socialising event” for the “elite of the British brewing and pub industry”.

The last dinner took place in 2004 but the aims of the evening remain the same – to improve both inter-industry and government relations and promote beer as Britain’s national drink.

The dinner comes not long after Diageo’s request for alcohol taxation to be re-evaluated and the BBPA’s own call for an alternative solution to the government’s ideas for licensing law reform.

Both are likely to be hot topics for discussion over the course of the evening.

For more information visit www.beerandpub.com

Rupert Millar, 15.09.2010