Interbrew's planned closure of Dutch beer culture pushes on remorselessly. The latest coup has been to change the character of the Hertog Jan beers subtly to those of its Leffe and Hoegaarden brands. We know that the Arcen products have no future as they are not mentioned on the company's website for potential shareholders. We predict that the next move will be to allow it to leak that some brews are indeed being made in Leuven and Hoegaarden because of "technical problems".

It is all very reminiscent of "Havana" Jim Stevens, who was responsible for cutting your editor's hair from the age of 13 to 27. He had a collection of three quotations that he kept next to his front door for the benefit of travelling religious peddlers. When confronted at the door by earnest faces enquiring whether he had ever thought of turning to the Lord, Havana Jim would ask them whether they agreed with the following three basic tenets of faith, and duly read them out. Inevitably they would agree in order to get a foot in the door, at which point they would be told that the first came from "Mein Kampf", the second from the "Thoughts of Chairman Mao" and the third from "Das Kapital".

Jim had read all three books because he wanted to know how to obliterate all competition in the area.