Kmflett's Blog

Tim Martin: The Thatcherite Hangover

LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 18: Wetherspoons pub founder Tim Martin talks at a Brexit Party rally on October 18, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Peter Summers/Getty Images)

Tim Martin has been in the news again and these days it’s rarely good news.

Martin told workers at his 850 strong Wetherspoons pub chain that he wouldnt pay them after the pubs shut due to the Coronavirus but they might find a job at Tesco. Indeed they might as it has reportedly been hiring 20,000 workers. It may not be an ideal employer but it recognises USDAW and pays the living wage which is more than Wetherspoons on both counts.

Fortunately the Bakers Union (BFAWU) who organise in Wetherspoons were on to it and forced a U-Turn on the wages issue.

Now he has announced a plan to re-open his pubs in or around June with no obvious clue as to what safety precautions will be in place for staff or customers

Tim Martin opened his first pub in Muswell Hill in the north London Borough of Haringey in 1979 and before expanding the Wetherspoons pub brand nationally he festooned the area with pubs converted from car showrooms and shops.

I certainly frequented that first pub and other Wetherspoons in the area and often ran across Tim Martin and chatted to him-about beer but certainly not politics.

His business model was successful for a reason.

In the 1970s many pubs sold only poor quality keg beer the result of a trend to monopoly in the brewing industry from the 1960s that had left Britain with just a few mega-breweries. They didn’t usually do much in the way of food and were often dominated by middle aged men with rather right-wing views.

Martin tried something different. He sold decent quality real ale at sharp prices and meals all day at reasonable prices too. His pubs didn’t have loud music, TVs or fruit machines. They were places where you went to have a chat or read a book.

As a result at that time in Wetherspoons pubs one could find a socially mixed clientele including far more women and ethnic minorities than might be usual in other pubs. They became often post-meeting gathering places for the left and trade unionists not least because as well as alcohol they also made a point of selling coffee and tea. In short a culture radically different to what Martin now stands for.

Fast forward four decades and things do look very different.

Tim Martin is no longer seen as someone who promotes a progressive model of pub-going.

Other pubs have caught up and passed his late 1970s business practices both in terms of the kind of beer and food sold but also in terms of being welcoming to people in the 2020s.

By contrast Martin has become closely associated with right-wing proponents of Brexit like Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson and has also become notorious as a poor employer even in an industry known for poor employment practice.

This then is a story of Thatcherism.

Martin started his Wetherspoons pub empire within a few months of Thatcher becoming Prime Minister in May 1979. Some of the free market changes that Thatcher’s Governments brought in helped Martin’s business. They boosted pub companies over the traditional brewery tied houses for example.

They also promoted a philosophy of individual freedoms (for some)which meant loosening restrictions on pubs. They could open all afternoon from 1988 for example.

No doubt these changes were welcomed by many but they came at a price. Pub workers for example doing long hours with low pay and in-secure employment, more recently often zero-hours contracts.

Perhaps Martin didn’t start off with these practices particularly in mind but over time his business came to depend and thrive on them. In due course he then came to publicly support the kind of Thatcherite politicians and policies that underwrote their continuation.