Not that I go in to pubs much now that I have stopped drinking altogether, but I certainly think this Youtube documentary about the cultural impact of Wetherspoons is worth a watch. At an hour and a half it is a tad long, but I think it’s a shining example of just how advanced and sophisticated online video journalism is becoming. The guy who made it, Tom Nicolas, presents it as a travelogue from Cornwall to Scotland, visiting various Wetherspoons pubs on his way. But he intercuts this with information about the history of the franchise, it’s position in British culture, and his interview with it’s owner, Tim Martin. This gives rise to an extremely insightful film about an aspect of social life which on one level we might be fairly dismissive of (a pub is a pub, after all), but which is actually pretty revealing about UK culture and politics.

We hear how many people view Wetherspoons pubs as the pub equivalent of Macdonalds or Walmart, and to be honest I agree. Martin is revealed in this film to be a shallow, vapid, Outist piece of shit, who thought nothing of using the magazine associated with his pub chain to fool the larger-swilling morons who drink there into voting to Leave the EU. My need to avoid alcohol aside, having just watched this film my determination to avoid Wetherspoons pubs is now even stronger. Pubs should be welcoming, social, friendly places; hubs of social life. By taking them over one by one, however, Martin has reduced them to cesspits of right-wing politics no person of any class, style or education would be seen dead in.