Alcoholics Anonymous (Great Britain) and Diageo (Distillers)

Continuing our investigation (here and here) into how AA somehow decided to go into the distilling (and brewing) business with a sideline in tobacco manufacture and marketing …....

We are informed that the official investment policy at AA HQ (General Service Office) is that NO investments should be made in companies involved with the alcohol trade. According to the 'party line' our original investment brokers Morgan Stanley ended their involvement with the charity side of their business and sold it to Credit Suisse. In the course of the transfer someone (?) forgot to mention the bit about not investing in booze (the tobacco trade is fine apparently. After all what's a 100,000 deaths a year (in the UK alone) matter!). Thus AA ended up with a modest investment in Diageo (one of the world's biggest distillers). Apparently some kind of meeting has been held to discuss the matter but nothing has been announced so far.

But here's some suggestions:

Get rid of the booze shares with immediate effect (at a loss if necessary)

Get rid of the 'coffin nail' shares while you're about it. If we've got to have investments (a question to be investigated) then let's try and not have them in companies whose products kill millions of people every year

While we're about it maybe we shouldn't put members' money (Yes! It comes out of OUR pockets!) into dodgy companies which engage in aggressive tax avoidance scams (Google, Starbucks, Amazon, eBay, Vodafone, British American Tobacco (there they are again!), Tate and Lyle (sugar – the new heroin!), Vedanta, nPower...... the list goes on and on and on ….). Why should we subsidise their profits with our taxes!

The General Service Board need to admit this error publicly and make an apology to the fellowship for bringing the name of AA into disrepute

That should do ........ for now

Cheers

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous … and no friend of any of the above companies!)

To be continued

And yeah we know our blog is hosted on Google - and just as soon as  a credible alternative appears we'll be off like a shot!