online magazine | spring 2021 WETHERSPOONNEWS UK EDITION on our potlight derful staff READ BY S won 2 MILLION CUSTOMERS WETHERSPOON, ITS CUSTOMERS AND EMPLOYEES £428 MILLION IN FREE SHARES AND BONUSES HAVE PAID £6.1 BILLION OF TAX IN THE LAST 10 YEARS PAID TO EMPLOYEES SINCE 2006 The government needs taxes, but there should be 83 per cent paid to pub staff tax equality between supermarkets and pubs Pages 40–41 Page 16 WETHERSPOON RATED TOP FOR FOOD HYGIENE TIM'S VIEWPOINT – DOES TRUTH MATTER? Our pubs are squeaky clean Yes, it is the essential foundation for any good outcome Pages 36–38 Pages 4–10 1890 Manila. Spain’s colonial capital, and the home of the first brewery in Southeast Asia. 1903 Hong Kong. Continuing our journey, we brought the finest beer we could to Hong Kong. 1933 New York. With Prohibition lifed, it’s time for a San Miguel. 1957 Spain. Time to return home, opening our factory in Lleida. 1965 Africa. Discovering new worlds and refreshing more people. We reach Africa. 1967 London. Love, rock and the fight for social rights. We can say “we were there”. 2020 Nearly 130 years through our story, it’s a journey that is still far from its end. DO LOCKDOWNS WORK? Wetherspoon News presents Tim’s Viewpoint on pages 4–5 and 11 articles on this important subject, all with a different angle, on pages 48–60, inclusive. INSIDE FEATURES Hotels rated highly Tim’s viewpoint – Does truth matter? in Which? survey Wetherspoon has been rated highly in a Which? survey Yes, it is the essential foundation for any good outcome 4 of the best and worst hotels in Britain 50 Lauding our apprentices What does that fish label mean? and looking for more Therein lies a tail… Company celebrates its amazing achievers and looks forward to renewed recruitment at online ceremony 12 Piscatorial picture signifies that our cod and haddock are sustainably sourced 54 Press corrections Unfortunately, a small number of inaccuracies was Tree-mendous – how native reported in the early part of this year 14 forest species have inspired pubs’ names Wetherspoon, its customers and Ash, cherry, elm, oak and willow are just some employees have paid £6.1 billion of the woody wonders to have inspired the titles of tax to the government in the above our doors 72 last 10 years The government needs taxes, but there should Six of the best celebrate be tax equality between supermarkets and pubs, their silver anniversary says Wetherspoon 16 During November and December 2020, six Wetherspoon pubs celebrated their Spoons caused a stir silver anniversary 78 for reluctant reporter Simon English, senior City correspondent at the London Evening Standard, tells how he was won over by Wetherspoon 18 THE REGULAR STUFF A convenience truth New Wetherspoon pubs 42 – you can’t beat our loos Wetherspoon reigned supreme, once again, Meet the brewer 58 in the Loo of the Year awards 20 Our people 11, 25, 33, 34, 49, 53, 56, A lot of history in our Huntingdon pub 61, 63, 65, 68, 70, 77 Sandford House has existed in various Community 60, 62, 64, 67, 69, 71 incarnations since the 19th century 30 Shrove Tuesday battles leave Birthdays 80, 81, 82 their mark on The Wicket Gate Manic form of football which was CLIC Sargent 26, 66 outlawed in 1934 is remembered in pub history of Chester-le-Street hostelry 35 CAMRA’s bar talk 83 Wetherspoon rated top for food hygiene Our pubs are squeaky clean 36 Written and edited by Eddie Gershon, along with welcome contributions from £428 million in free shares Wetherspoon staff. 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App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. lend their names to several of our pubs 44 PB Wetherspoon | Spring 2021 | jdwetherspoon.com jdwetherspoon.com | Spring 2021 | Wetherspoon 3 Tim’s viewpoint Does truth matter? Yes, it is the essential foundation for any good outcome In a world dominated two, we can sit down together claims.” Belfast and Glasgow However, these opposing by political spin doctors … and try to figure out what natives, of a certain age, will approaches, so far, have and social media, you worked well and what did not recognise the rhetoric. had better outcomes than the sometimes wonder work well.” O’Brien argues that UK, in terms of both health whether the truth exists. It’s definitely true that the truth non-lockdown Sweden and the economy. Years ago, a famous historian and, therefore, superior has pursued a “failed Indeed, the main question is was asked this question. outcomes are helped by debate strategy” and that “Stockholm’s why the UK has fared so badly, He replied that truth does – and by democracy. hospitals overflowed”. compared with many countries. exist, but it’s hidden in a Role In fact, Sweden’s all-cause It may be because the fog by a lack of both That’s where the press and mortality rate (see opposite government is putting politics information and perspective. programmes like Today and page), probably the best and presentation above the But does the truth matter? Question Time, for all of their measure, is eight per cent truth – an emphasis on spinning Obviously, yes. As ultra- faults, play a vital role. higher in 2020 than its average to the press, reliance on narrow successful investor Ray Dalio Unfortunately, in the modern of the last five years. groups like the ‘quad’, use of explains: “Truth … is the world, at least, there’s a strong For England and Wales, the emergency powers to limit essential foundation for any movement to stifle debate by all-cause mortality rate is debate (see Lord Sumption’s good outcome.” no-platforming, ad hominem worse – 14 per cent higher than article on page 9), excessive reverence for academia- If you act on the basis of attacks and media vilification. its average for the same period. dominated SAGE and so on. something untrue in the world If you can kick a top opponent Debate of investment, for example, you out of the game, as happened Unsurprisingly perhaps, O’Brien Closure of pubs can lose your shirt. to the great Pelé in the 1966 turned down an offer to debate The evidence on which the government relied for the Hence, the legendary World Cup (not by the eventual COVID-19 with Professor Carl latest closure of pubs is writer Mark Twain lost all winners, of course), you gain Heneghan, one of those he paper thin and contained in of his money by investing in short-term advantage. vilifies, who is a practising an ‘EMG/NERVTAG’ paper dud mines – and famously But guess who won the doctor and a director of the of 22 October 2020. defined a mine as “a hole in World Cup in 1970? Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University. The New and Emerging the ground owned by a liar”. If you kick an opponent out of Respiratory Virus Threats One problem with COVID-19 is a game in which there are According to The Times (see Advisory Group, reporting that the issue has, in the words many unknowns – a lot of fog ‘Coronavirus world update’, to Public Health England, of one US politician, been – as in the COVID-19 debate, it opposite), the UK, now in its (NERVTAG) is a group of “weaponised and politicised”. will reinforce your own side’s third lockdown, has the greatest number of fatalities academics, including Professor Dogma prejudices and reduce the per million of population of Neil Ferguson of Imperial Once politicised, logic and opportunity to find the truth, any large country. College, formerly of SAGE. truth become secondary to the worsening outcomes. The NERVTAG report need to prove that your dogma Neil O’Brien, Conservative MP In contrast, Florida (see New completely ignored the is correct – or to gain favour for Harborough, is a good York Post.com, opposite), which, evidence of extremely with your tribe. example of a politician who has like Sweden, avoided a harsh lockdown, has had a better low transmission rates in A good basis for any discussion tried to silence critics of the outcome than that of California, UK pubs since they reopened on coronavirus was the government’s COVID-19 policy which, like the UK, locked after the first lockdown last comment to the BBC last by kicking them off the field. down hard. summer – as demonstrated summer by a German professor: Sceptics by the test-and-trace system Quarantine “There’s a lot we don’t In a Guardian article (see page 6), and by trade organisations Australia and New Zealand understand about the virus.” O’Brien uses the inaccurate such as UK Hospitality. description ‘COVID sceptics’ to locked down early and hard, The professor was perplexed that Wetherspoon, for example, describe critics of government closing borders and there appeared to be few cases of has had over 50 million COVID-19 policy.