Lou
It all depends on which side of the tracks you approach this issue from. Its great for me as a guy who rarely frequents corporate clubs and is a member of a member club. Its not so great for guys who own courses and are trying to make money. In the end, I don't think it will matter much in the big picture of UK golf.
Ciao
Sean,
I am looking at the big picture- to paraphrase your own Andy Haldane on financial regulation in this morning's WSJ, the thunderstorm as opposed to the individual rain drops. I am addressing golf in the aggregate, and money being left in the industry- note to Niall: private clubs are part of the industry; quite possibly more important in your country than in the U.S.- seems like a good thing. Having said that, as others have noted not so directly, government's insatiable appetite for revenue likely means that this decision will be reversed at some point, or new legislation will be enacted to grab more money from other people's pocket. Unfortunately, history suggests that this doesn't stop until one becomes Detroit.
Adrian argues that in a segment of the market, price, not quality or value drives volume. Ron Whitten made the same point a few years back in Golf Digest in an article analogizing golf to the pizza business. I suspect that the price sensitivity Adrian and Ron lament is very real in certain segments, but I'd be much more concerned had the decision been made to take more revenues from the market.
The USGA in the "Rules of Golf" stresses the underlying theme of treating like things alike. Government, unfortunately does precisely the opposite. It rewards activities which it finds meritorious (or helping in its endeavor to keep growing), and punishes those which it deems able to bleed more. For example, the great state of New York is currently advertising a new initiative for businesses moving there- no taxes for 10 years. How is that for structuring a competitive disadvantage for those loyal NY businesses who've managed to keep their doors open.
Though I understand Adrian's concern that his not-for-profit competitors have been dealt a better hand, I would have been much more moved if he had instead came out for removing VAT from all green fees. I know that in this day and age, what I am suggesting is akin to Don Quijote prevailing over the villainous windmills (and I don't mean Trump fighting the proposed wind farm near his course in Scotland), it just seems much more noble than lamenting a slight reversal of the very real trend we're all on toward serfdom.