After last week’s video asking whether CAMRA is losing touch with modern beer culture, I expected a reaction.
And I got one.
Some agreed.
Some disagreed loudly.
A few assumed I was calling for CAMRA to disappear altogether.
Which I wasn’t.
So this week I wanted to deliberately step back and talk about the other side of the argument:
What CAMRA gets right — and why it still matters.
Because it does.
First things first: the pubs we still have exist for a reason
It’s easy, in 2026, to forget just how bleak the British beer landscape looked in the 1970s.
National brands, homogenised pubs, bland beer, and a very real risk that traditional cask ale would simply fade away.
CAMRA didn’t just complain about that — it organised, campaigned, educated, and changed things.
Many of the independent breweries we now take for granted grew in an environment that CAMRA helped protect.
A lot of the pubs we still enjoy survived because someone fought for them when it wasn’t fashionable to do so.
That deserves respect.
Championing cask ale is still important
Cask ale is fragile.
It requires:
Skill to keep well
Turnover to stay fresh
Care, training, and attention
Left purely to market forces, it would disappear from huge parts of the country.
CAMRA’s stubborn, often unfashionable insistence that cask matters has kept it visible and viable.
Even people who never order a pint of bitter benefit from that work — because it keeps pubs interesting, local, and distinct.
Festivals and community still matter
For all the jokes about beards and tasting notes, CAMRA festivals have introduced countless people to beer they’d never otherwise have tried.
They’ve supported small breweries.
They’ve raised money for pubs and local causes.
They’ve created communities of volunteers who genuinely care about the pub as an institution.
That grassroots energy is something modern beer culture sometimes lacks.
Protecting pubs, not just pints
One thing CAMRA absolutely gets right is understanding that pubs are about more than alcohol.
They are:
Social hubs
Third places
Living rooms for people who don’t have one
Campaigning for planning protection, fighting pub closures, pushing back against asset stripping — this is vital work.
If all we cared about was beer styles, the battle would already be lost.
The problem isn’t intention — it’s evolution
Most of my criticisms last week weren’t about CAMRA’s aims.
They were about pace.
Movements that succeed can become trapped by the moment they were born in. The danger is not that CAMRA is wrong, but that it sometimes sounds like it’s still arguing with the 1970s.
Meanwhile the world outside has moved on:
Younger drinkers behave differently
Pubs serve multiple audiences
Beer culture is broader and more diverse
Acknowledging that doesn’t undermine CAMRA’s legacy.
It protects it.
Holding two thoughts at once
It’s perfectly possible to believe that:
CAMRA saved British beer
CAMRA still does important work
AND that CAMRA needs to rethink parts of its approach
Those ideas aren’t contradictions.
They’re maturity.
Where this leaves us
If you care about pubs — genuinely care — you end up in a complicated middle ground.
Grateful for what’s been preserved.
Frustrated by what sometimes feels outdated.
Hopeful that something better can grow from both.
That’s the space I’m trying to occupy with this series.
Not anti-CAMRA.
Not blindly pro-CAMRA.
Just honest about pubs as they really are.
Next week
The final video in this little arc will look forward rather than back:
“What a Modern CAMRA Could Look Like.”
Less criticism, more imagination.
As always, I’ll back it up here with thoughts, context, and responses to whatever conversations it sparks.
Thanks for sticking with the journey.
— James / WandoJames
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