News, nuggets and longreads 25 July 2026: Grimscribe

Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got West Wales, South Wales, Belfast and Edinburgh. First, news of an immediate change announced by the new UK Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, which is intended to help pubs: Pubs, social clubs and live music venues in England will be given a 20% cut to business rates from April, with new Prime Minister Andy Burnham calling it a “first step” to help the industry… It is his third policy announcement since entering No 10, and the government estimates the plan will save firms around £1,100 next year… With a cost of £100m, it will be funded by a review of tax relief on firms such as vape shops which “do not make a positive contribution to local communities”, the government said. And, for the first time since we can remember, CAMRA is happy with a government announcement, rather than saying “It’s too little, too late.” We’ll have more thoughts on this in the footnotes on Patreon but, in brief, it…