Why we should be hopping mad

The English don’t shout loudly enough about good news, says Dominic Roskrow, or stand up enough when it’s bad

Ask anyone from elsewhere in the British isles and they’ll tell you that the English are an arrogant race. I think this is a load of old poppycock.

The English might be bellicose and aggressive when roused, but by and large they’re a humble breed who queue up in an orderly fashion, rarely complain, and tear themselves apart with guilt and embarrassment whenever it come to collectively blowing the national trumpet.

And if you want proof, look no further than the beer industry. Virtually no other country on the planet is more reticent about shouting about its national food and drink than the English are. While the French, Irish, Scots, Americans, Italians...the list goes on and on...wave their flags in one hand and their glass of whatever their tipple is in the other, the English allow one of the finest, most natural and healthy drinks in the world to be reduced to a fat-inducing violence-fuelling sad apology of a drink.

How could this happen?

I live in Norfolk where we send tankers of the world’s finest barley to Scotland to make arguably the world’s greatest drink (after all, it’s beer with the dials all turned up). Our region produces some of the best ales in the country, has some of the best breweries, and is on the verge of having a whisky distillery of its own.

We also happen to have the world’s leading consumer magazines for both beer and whisky here – but enough about us.

And do we celebrate all these things properly? Do we finings...

Nope, instead we allow the drink snobs to make disparaging jokes about beer bellies and to mock ale fans as a bunch of sandal-wearing bearded hippies – and that’s just the women.

Celebrate beer? What a thought!

But this might be about to change, and not just in this part of the world. In this issue we have highlighted how microbrewers are setting about a communal project to stress the provenance of both English and more widely, British beer products, and to look at ways we can promote what the rock singer Sting described as fields of gold.

We wholeheartedly endorse and support this movement as we do Beautiful Beer and the burgeoning food and beer movement.

But we all need to step this up a notch and get political. On page 13 we report how the Government has withdrawn funding to the British hop research centre in Kent. I fail to see how it can justify a move that will seriously undermine a key component in creating one of Britain’s few remaining successful industries.

It is an appalling state of affairs and a body blow to all those hard-working people looking at new ways to protect the beer manufacturers from the whims of the weather and a harsh economic climate.

I am an optimist and believe that a body blow it might be but a knock out blow it is not. And with the support of beer lovers not just in Britain but across the planet, premium British beer can continue to thrive. But now’s the time for all of us to make some noise and for the Englishmen and women within our ranks to stand proud. If ever there was a time for a bit of arrogance about something, it’s now in support of our world class product.

And I doubt even the Scots and Irish would resent the English that much...

By Dominic Roskrow

Section : From the Editor

Page number : 5