Who would have thought Diageo dirty tricks?

Diageo again caught red-handed fiddling the result of a 'people's choice' awards ceremony, and exposed to the world via social media.

The powerful like to suffocate dissent, promote their agenda and eliminate competition. But like the Arab Spring - Syria, Bahrain etc. - social media has given volume to the small voice.

Before we get too carried away with Diageo's comeuppance, we need to remember the only reason this deceit came to light was because the winner's name was carved on the British Institute of Inn-keeping's trophy.

If this inconvenience had not occurred, it is highly unlikely the deception would have ever been uncovered; after all, it is not in the interest of either party to divulge their own complicity in corruption. That's how it works. Ask the Mafia.

Here, the weak beer of British Institute of Inn-keeping had no choice but to own up; and Diageo, caught red-handed, were forced in to making a crisis-managing, vacuous apology, to nip it in the bud. Yeah, "sorry" - sorry we got caught out.

As if it will change anything. Next please. Imagine all the other awards that have/ will be manipulated in a similar way? There is, I suppose, no such thing as a free awards dinner.

Brewdog, deservedly, will have got a lot more out of milking this scandal than actually receiving the trophy; oh yes, they get that too.

The dog bites back.

Brewdog MD James Watt says "We have info from the BII that the person who blackmailed them into cheating us out of our award them was a VERY senior Diageo team member."  But according to Just Drinks, a "close industry source" says the Diageo representative involved went 'rogue' and it was 'a personal grudge', rather than company-wide ill-feeling towards Brewdog.