What's your Wetherspoons number?

[fhills]

Shite food, bigoted owner, poor employment practices, shite food, smell of stale beer, sticky carpets, shite food, entrance full of fag fumes, overall ambience of despair...

Tbf, and in the context of the discussion upthread, I am teetotal, and therefore have no experience nor opinion on the beers available.

Well honest of you to eventually say so but in view of the fact that you don't like beer, fresh, stale or otherwise, I'm not sure that pub criticism is your patch.

A very strong and vulgarly expressed critiique of the food which I find bizarre/odd - no one on here has claimed it is restaurant food and few would. It's just handy at times. With a good pint. And in truth most of it is stuff a large part of the Brit population, and doubtless a fair lot of folk on here, eat day to day - supermarket packaged food. And Chicken. Eggs. Bacon. Baked beans, various sandwiches, steak and chips, jacket potatoes etc etc etc. Hardly deserves the S word.

>>bigoted owner

A serious charge.

Can you substantiate this?

As a it's a publicly listed company he isn't the "owner" surely?

By the by, telstarbox is clearly keeping his list to himself.

[clarion]

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/wetherspoons-pub-deansgate-joshua-fox-8388002

http://www.mancunianmatters.co.uk/content/271159477-%E2%80%98i-know-what-you-queers-are-like%E2%80%99-manchester-wetherspoons-barmaid-refuses-serve

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/irish-travellers-win-case-against-jd-wetherspoon-1.2216603

https://network23.org/wsol/2014/10/29/pubs-to-avoid-prince-of-wales-st-marys-street-cardiff-welcomes-fascists-and-turns-away-the-opposition/

https://network23.org/wsol/2014/12/30/an-open-letter-to-jd-wetherspoon/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3205984/Horrified-Wetherspoon-customer-finds-racist-Lord-Kitchener-style-poster-pub-s-noticeboard-telling-Muslims-f-countries.html

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-05-29/wetherspoons-in-10k-payout-after-another-pub-discriminates-against-travellers/

https://twitter.com/peteiwwcymru/status/526034460320747523

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/wetherspoon-boss-all-wind-and-piss.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/wetherspoon-boss-tim-martin-should-shut-up-and-pay-his-taxes-a7622736.html

[Cudzoziemiec]

<non-Wetherspoon content>
Wall of links from Clarion, clicked on the network23 at random and... "Wessex Solidarity", that's probably the first time outside Thomas Hardy I've seen "Wessex" used in non- let alone anti-EDL type way!
</sup up>

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've only been in about 3 Spoonses but I'd say the beer is good (and sometimes very cheap), the food is not good but it's not expensive, served quickly and predictably. Atmosphere varies but reliable pubs for a mid-audax feed rather than a pub to visit as a pub.

[citoyen]

A very strong and vulgarly expressed critiique of the food which I find bizarre/odd

What I find bizarre/odd is how keen you are to defend Wetherspoons against dissenting opinion. I'm starting to wonder if you're not a disinterested party...

Whatever you think of his choice of words, Clarion's opinion on the food is not in my view unjustified. The few times I've eaten in a Wetherspoons I've found the quality to be below even the low standard I was expecting. I understand the breakfasts are popular with some of my fellow audaxers but I would need to be in a situation with no/worse alternatives before I would consider eating in a Wetherspoons again. (Based on my experience, if the choice was between Wetherspoons and McDonald's, I'd go for the golden arches every time.)

[fhills]

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/wetherspoons-pub-deansgate-joshua-fox-8388002

http://www.mancunianmatters.co.uk/content/271159477-%E2%80%98i-know-what-you-queers-are-like%E2%80%99-manchester-wetherspoons-barmaid-refuses-serve

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/irish-travellers-win-case-against-jd-wetherspoon-1.2216603

https://network23.org/wsol/2014/10/29/pubs-to-avoid-prince-of-wales-st-marys-street-cardiff-welcomes-fascists-and-turns-away-the-opposition/

https://network23.org/wsol/2014/12/30/an-open-letter-to-jd-wetherspoon/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3205984/Horrified-Wetherspoon-customer-finds-racist-Lord-Kitchener-style-poster-pub-s-noticeboard-telling-Muslims-f-countries.html

http://www.itv.com/news/2015-05-29/wetherspoons-in-10k-payout-after-another-pub-discriminates-against-travellers/

https://twitter.com/peteiwwcymru/status/526034460320747523

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/wetherspoon-boss-all-wind-and-piss.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/wetherspoon-boss-tim-martin-should-shut-up-and-pay-his-taxes-a7622736.html

Care to answer the points and use your own words?

The vast majority of those bits don't relate to the "owner" as you call him.

The wessex piece is clearly fevered to say the least. I've rarely seen such blatant editorialising.

I see  no signs of "bigotry" from the owner.

Hell one of the blog writers even seems to be blaming mr martin for making him drink quickly. I trust this wasn't you.

[clarion]

Indeed, citoyen, many pubs can provide decent food (even if only Brake Bros fare).  Marstons seem to be particularly good in this respect.  And even Toby Carvery has more vegetarian options than Spoons.  As for children's menu - forget it!

[clarion]

So, evidence that the chain is a recidivist racist, that the working conditions are terrible, and that they discriminate against gay people is just coincidence across the several branches involved?

OK, Martin only owns 25% of the business these days, but he is certainly its controlling influence, and is completely devoid of reason in his frequent fevered Brexit pronouncements

[fhills]

A very strong and vulgarly expressed critiique of the food which I find bizarre/odd

What I find bizarre/odd is how keen you are to defend Wetherspoons against dissenting opinion. I'm starting to wonder if you're not a disinterested party...

You think i am mr martin? Or have shares? Or handle their PR? None true.
I just like good beer. And if it's cheap all well and good.
They serve it well.
I like their easygoing air.
If you need to plug something in for a while they are easygoing about this and their new wonder in ramsgate even has power sockets and usb charging points at many of its tables.
I am also aware that there is abroad what can only be called snobbery about the places.
Which i find sad. And worse.
My local one is a worthy successor to the now largely lost idea of the "local". All sorts in there.all ages, range of backgrounds, all races, clubs having post meeting feeds there, kids running around.
So no conspiracy or hidden agenda whatsoever.
Oh, their cider festival, tbough it was rather weak this year.

[fhills]

So, evidence that the chain is a recidivist racist, that the working conditions are terrible, and that they discriminate against gay people is just coincidence across the several branches involved?

OK, Martin only owns 25% of the business these days, but he is certainly its controlling influence, and is completely devoid of reason in his frequent fevered Brexit pronouncements

No evidence for him being racist.

Ah, brexit. I read one of his bits in the runup. There was nothing racist in it as i recall. He's entitled to his opinions. As was tony benn who he quoted a fair bit in it.

I do recall that he didn't use that awful word chav. Which you have in the past.

I fear that there is a circularity to all this.

[ian]

Some people like 'spoons. Some people don't. I wouldn't go to war over it. They vary, I'm sure. I wouldn't class them as a destination. I imagine that a faux posho like me would be on the menu in some of them. They'd smell the stink of Waitrose on me.

I celebrated my entry into debt bondage at The Capitol in Forest Hill (we arranged our first ever mortgage in the KFH branch down the road, it was one of the dullest experiences of my life). We often commiserated there after another evening or Saturday afternoon viewing houses that barely qualified as habitable. Intact roofs aren't fucking optional.

I think we should agree on Tim Martin being a bit of a cunt though.

[Jakob W]

A very interesting piece by the FT on how Spoons targets its prices by location (incredibly precisely & in complex ways): https://amp.ft.com/content/acf3d457-c787-3a51-b265-cb607c7e2ecb