In a new sign of its reservations about Britain’s unique system of

In a new sign of its reservations about Britain’s unique system of tied houses – exclusive distribution arrangements between brewers and public houses – the Commission said the restrictions constituted an illegal trade barrier under the EU treaty.
The Commission was taking issue with the 1989 Beer Orders, which says operators of 10,000 pubs leased from Britain’s four biggest brewers may sell beers other than those produced by the brewery to which they are tied only where those “guest” beers are brewed to specific British requirements.”This rule is discriminatory because it has the effect of excluding draught beers from other member states and, as such, constitutes a disguised restriction of intra-Community trade,” the Commission said in a statement.”The Commission’s action is therefore aimed at securing the removal of this discrimination, which is not justified on consumer protection grounds and is fragmenting the single market.” It has given the British government 40 days to respond.The British brewing industry is currently lobbying strongly to keep the tied-houses system outside the scope of the EU’s competition rules. Their representatives were keeping a strangely low profile yesterday.. But the real villains of the piece are the big businesses who have sacked the switchboard operator and introduced hundreds of direct dial phones. Why didn’t he suggest changing to 020 something something a year ago instead of the halfway house of inserting a 1 after the 0? Well, he did actually propose that new subscribers be 020ers but consumer groups went ape at the thought of having to dial a four digit code just to ring next door.Presentationally, Mr Cruickshank could have made a better fist of it. The situation is even worse in London which will run out of 0171 and 0181 numbers by the turn of the millenium. The answer will be to switch to 020 and 022 (021 used to be Birmingham but that’s another story) followed by an eight digit number instead of seven.

In Reading, meanwhile you can already be reached on 01734 or 0118 followed by six digits or is it seven. Confused? You will be.In the space of a weekend Don Cruickshank, the director-general of Oftel, has gone from hero to villain with his proposals to find more numbers to keep up with our insatiable appetite for telephones. Until Pearson completes the restructuring – or until someone else steps in to do it from them – the City’s perception of the management, and probably the share price, will remain volatile.Oftel turns into villain over the ‘Bolton factor’If you were being beastly to Bolton you could probably think of 10 good reasons for not moving there Here’s another one It’s running out of telephone numbers. Phoneday last year might have given us another 8 billion of them but Bolton’s supply will still be exhausted by 2012 unless something is done.That something might be to be replace its existing 01204 code, which was only introduced in spring last year with a code starting 020 and then followed by a seven digit number. The problem is that, having started, the management has to complete the process. Shareholders see hidden value in the Pearson Television holdings, wonder why Lazard’s is still in the fold and ponder the advantages of spinning off Madame Tussaud. From oil services, china, books, newspapers and financial services, it has refocused along clear lines – broadly, multimedia.

And there is no doubt that Michael Lynton, former Hollywood Pictures head, is a catch for Penguin.The question is whether the company makes sense in its current configuration and whether present management can cope.Frank Barlowand Lord Blakenham have overseen one of the most impressive restructurings of any British company. The 95 per cent share Pearson now holds cost it about pounds 160m to amass, and is probably worth pounds 300m. The damage has been done, and the share price fully reflects it. There were a few other disappointments in the figures – not least higher than expected restructuring charges in the period and the confirmation of much higher costs arising from the retuning of VCRs in advance of the launch of Channel 5The big news items were – as intended – reassuring. Pearson did manage to get the Westminster Press sale off in quick order, even if the sale price is highly dilutive The Recoletos acquisition makes eminent sense. Pearson attempted just that yesterday with three big-league announcements: the appointment of a Hollywood hot-shot as head of Penguin; the purchase of nearly all of the shares in Spanish media concern Les Recoletos it did not already own; and the pounds 305m sale of Westminister Press to Newsquest.Let’s come back to the big announcements later The bad news was in the interim figures. No amount of advance warning could divert attention from the awfulness of Pearson’s plunge into the US electronic publishing market, through its ill-advised Mindscape acquisition.

If Labour gets in it would probably wind up the SFA and other bodies like it and hand their regulatory functions over to a beefed up supervisory body run by the Bank.Pearson proclaims diverting newsIt is a tried and tested formula to distract attention from poor figures with an avalnache of other news. The irony is that it may not have the time to prove the superiority of its approach. The slimline SFA believes it has the quality of staff to carry through its new regulatory approach. They must be capable of assessing the quality of a management and then making a mature decision about what level of compliance it must adhere to.