Inquiry Line (Signal only)

Live Broadcast

What's behind Wetherspoons boss Tim Martin pulling the pub giant off social media?

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Pocket
WhatsApp

It's a rich irony given that the way Mr Martin expresses his views could easily be said to encourage the very sort of troll he takes aim at

Wetherspoons arch Brexiteer boss Tim Martin has created quite the social media storm with the news that he is pulling the company and its 900 pubs off social media.

Before you start cheering, it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate the irony that positively drips from the company’s statement explaining the rationale for the decision.

“It’s becoming increasingly obvious that people spend too much time on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and struggle to control the compulsion,” Mr Martin opined, stating that he doesn’t believe abandoning a promotional tool most businesses have leapt upon will affect his trade.

Read more

The statement also cited “recent concerns regarding the misuse of personal data” and “the bad publicity surrounding social media, including the ‘trolling’ of MPs and others, especially those from religious or ethnic minorities”.

There are many who would raise a glass to such a sentiment, myself included.

But with the way Mr Martin expresses his views he could easily be said to encourage the very sort of troll he takes aim at.

Consider the tasteless proselytising beer mats cheering Brexit being put out on tables by Polish bar staff, or the results statements that force investors to wade through his rants before getting to the relevant information about their company’s performance, or his “Tim’s Viewpoint” blog on the company website.

Mr Martin just can’t seem to resist shooting his mouth off.

And he’s often quite nasty about it.

The latest blogpost penned by the mullet sporting multi-millionaire, who once described a rival as “a Vichy style collaborator”, personally attacks a number of remainers accusing them of “fibbing” and “misinformation” while lambasting the fact that they went to either Oxford or Cambridge University.

While the stranglehold Oxbridge has in public life can be irksome to those of us who went elsewhere (Mr Martin went to Nottingham, for the record I went to Manchester) it is frankly risible to claim that the campaign against Brexit is solely the province of its graduates.

And, to my mind, it is ridiculous for a former public schoolboy whose father was a Guinness executive to be moaning about elites.

More to the point, Mr Martin’s statements risk a certain kind of Brexiteer trolling social media accounts he no longer has but his targets probably do.

There is, it is true, a certain logic to a business that relies on people being social abandoning platforms that could be said to be profoundly anti social, and are certainly deeply uncivil.

But Mr Martin isn’t always very civil himself and arguably does far more to put people off Wetherspoons than their social media habits do, starting with those beermats.

It’s fair to wonder whether this is really a part of the “techlash”, as it has been characterised in some places, or if there’s a another reason for Mr Martin’s decision.

Through the course of researching this piece I naturally put “JD Wetherspoon” into Facebook’s search box. It led me to a page badged “JD Wetherspoon Head Office”.

Business news: in pictures

Business news: in pictures

  • 1/4

    Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold

    AFP/Getty

  • 2/4

    The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rue’s contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process.

  • 3/4

    Phillip Rasmussen, finance chief of technology company IQE, was killed in an accident while on holiday over the weekend. The company confirmed the 47 year old man had died while cycling in Menorca. A 25-year-old American man was arrested on suspicion of drink driving, after failing a roadside breath test.

  • 4/4

    The Beast from the East wiped £4m off of Flybe’s revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airline’s estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

I don’t know whether it is official or not but I do know that it is full of mostly unflattering reviews.

Social media is sometimes unpleasant. People often spit out things they wouldn’t dream of saying were they face to face with someone in a pub.

But it also provides companies’ critics with a chance to answer back and call them to account when they perform badly. Is that what Mr Martin doesn’t like about it? I think we should be told.

Reuse contentRead the Original Article

Facebook Comments
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Pocket
WhatsApp

Never miss any important news. Subscribe to our newsletter.

Recent News

Follow Radio Biafra on Twitter

Editor's Pick