If he thought he could get away with it Tim Martin of Witherspoons would sell meths to fellow pissheads like himself 
Not very much different to the Yatesâ Wine Lodge of an earlier age from which comparision to Witherspoons is now drawnâŚ
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I have fond memories of the Yates wine lodge company. Thier trademark pup was at Blackpool where they had no seating and sawdust on the floor and an amazing array of guest beers. They then decided to effectively relaunch the Yates brand name and opened up a number of theme pubs.
In the 80âs I won a number of contacts to create thier expanding chain and have great memories of my company doing the work. They really did think outside the box in terms of interior design which made the work very exciting.
We had some memorable contractorâs nights which were designed to test the staff before opening to the public and everything was free!
The MD of Yates would be there and make a presentation of the final contract payment to me, that was the best bit 
My memory is as a young lad in Manchester watching people out of their faces comatose on the street or in the gutter outside YWL - not pretty!
They turned the Post Office sorting office into a Wetherspoons in Stroud.
One day I was passing and the pavement was overflowing with cigarette ends as their small box for them was overflowing.
UI went in and pointed out how unpleasant it was for passers by and the young lady apologised and cleared it up straight away.
Neither Wetherspoons nor the Council were monitoring the litter coming from these appalling pro Brexit premises.
I think that they had one in Preston too.
Not my sort of drinking establishment.
Yates in Preston is reasonably up market these days,they made Leyland post office into a â spoons
I didnât really like going into Preston, everyone looked so drab.
They must have had a deal with the Post Office.
Preston is now a student city so quite lively, there are a lot of Chinese students ( well maybe not this year) as ULAN has close links with some Chinese establishments. It is not my favourite place I must admit but I go if I have too
"When you start to understand this, the contention by the author of Gomorrah, Roberto Saviano, that the UK is the most corrupt nation on Earth, begins to make sense.
"These activities are a perpetuation of colonial looting: a means by which vast riches are siphoned out of poorer countries and into the hands of the super-rich. The UKâs great and unequal wealth was built on colonial robbery: the land and labour stolen in Ireland, America and Africa, the humans stolen by slavery, the $45tn bled from IndiaâŚ
âA no-deal Brexit, which Boris Johnson seems to favour, is likely to cement the UKâs position as the global entrepot for organised crime.â
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Itâs a joke isnât it?
Mind you the process of tendering for Government projects is not without its own problems even if âopen and transparentâ. Iâve been peripherally involved from the inside so I know how the sausages are made and itâs not pretty.
The first issue for any company wanting to tender is to decide if you a) want this project and b) want future projects.
The tender will generally go to the lowest bidder - but any idiot can bid ÂŁ1 for a 1000 man-year project at which point even the government might smell a rat.
So, if you want the project you need to bid low but not so low that 1) you look like an idiot (quite hard with government procurement but not impossible) and 2) not so low that there is no way to actually make a profit.
In fact the last point is not that important, though you do need to be a bit wary of underselling yourself too much but the simple fact of life is that government projects are always badly specified and once past the initial requirements phase youâll make up the shortfall in change requests.
If you donât want this âproject but might be interested in the next you need to bid low, not so low that you actually win the tender but not so high that you will be out of the running for even getting a look in next time.
Oh, and as an extra ruse - if you are not that interested and think itâs all going to be a bit of a disaster anyway you might want to leak a not too low but plausible figure claiming that is what you will bid to a competitor in the hope they will try to undercut you, actually win the bid and be lumbered with the resulting white elephant.
All of which nicely explains why large government projects, especially IT projects have a tendency to go over budget and not deliver.
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This used to be a lovely cinema 
https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/pubs/all-pubs/england/kent/the-peter-cushing-whitstable
Paul, this is how tendering has always worked, be it for government departments or private industryâs.always has and always will.
Once you have established your position as a good contractor the work continues by agreement.
Read my book BRICKS AND MORTAR in which there is a full chapter on how it all works.
Many people knock Spoons but they have created 0000âs of jobs and taken on buildings that were often redundant.
Yes, that is my point precisely - itâs not really a very good system, is it?
Good summary here of the continuity between thatcherism and brexiters on the Tory right with regard to the UK economy - and why whatâs happening now is neither just incompetence nor simply brexit strategyâŚ
A similar article might be written, I believe, on almost all of the aspects of UK life that used to be most respected by people all over the world: the courts and legal system, education in general and academic freedom in particular, housing, the NHS - indeed pretty much any public service - the whole idea of public service! - the charity and voluntary sector, arts and culture, the BBC, etc, etcâŚ
This weekâs blog from Chris Grey
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But have they really, Tim? The number of pubs in the UK has fallen by 20% since the year 2000, and another view is that the expansion of Wetherspoons has been part of the problem - and contributed even more to the loss of buildings and decline of decent jobs by replacing good small local caring employers with mega-pubs that only work on the basis of precarious minimum-wage jobs.
The view of CAMRA as I understand it, for example, is that in a whole range of ways - such as the fundamental structuring of supply terms - the multinational drinks industry has facilitated the growth of mega-pubs and chains like Wetherspoons - even if they are poorly run - much to the detriment of both staff and customers.
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I couldnât possibly comment 
Pub numbers actually increased in 2019 and Wetherspoons have plans to open more in the next few years, as a chain they do have an effect in towns and cities but in the countryside a lack of trade is the main reason why pubs have closed.
All you ever wanted to know about our lawbreaking governmentâs new bill. Fascinating
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