{"id":16654,"date":"2017-11-03T12:11:14","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T12:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=16654"},"modified":"2017-11-03T12:11:14","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T12:11:14","slug":"would-you-like-some-politics-with-that-pitcher-wetherspoons-thinks-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/would-you-like-some-politics-with-that-pitcher-wetherspoons-thinks-so\/","title":{"rendered":"Would you like some politics with that pitcher? Wetherspoons thinks so&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A favourite pre-drink spot for millennials, JD Wetherspoon, is sharing its own Brexit manifesto on 500,000 beer mats within 895 pubs across the UK.<\/p>\n<p>JD Wetherspoon stated: &#8220;The message calls on Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn, Vince Cable and MPs to stop messing about and endorse Wetherspoon&#8217;s three point manifesto.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The three point manifesto consists of the following:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>1) &#8220;The UK should unilaterally and immediately grant rights of citizenship to legal EU immigrants.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>2) &#8220;The EU currently charges taxes on food imported outside the EU. From March 2019, the government can and should eliminate these import taxes. This will result in a reduction in food prices in shops and pubs.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>3) &#8220;From March 2019, the government should also stop paying the EU \u00a3200m per week. The money disappears into EU coffers, which have not been audited properly since 1994.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/jdwtweet\/status\/925635300189143040<\/p>\n<p>However, this isn&#8217;t the first time Wetherspoons have engaged in politics when cushioning our drinks. In 2016, they printed 500,000 beer mats campaigning for the country to leave the EU and &#8220;take back control&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s highly probable that the beer mats were unpopular with roughly 48% of people.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Wetherspoons just printed 500,000 more <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/EUref?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#EUref<\/a> beermats telling pissed people to Leave the EU <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DbteEO1vaa\">https:\/\/t.co\/DbteEO1vaa<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gymsxa1JtL\">pic.twitter.com\/gymsxa1JtL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Josh Barrie (@joshbythesea) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joshbythesea\/status\/744899403375349760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 20, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Commenting on the result of the UK referendum, Tim Martin, Weatherspoon founder, chairman and Brexiteer, said: &#8220;The UK will thrive as an independent country, making its own laws, and we will work with our good friends and neighbours in Europe and elsewhere to ensure a positive outcome for all parties.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But despite stating that the UK was in an &#8220;immensely strong position&#8221;, Martin is still putting his mark on brexit, quite literally.<\/p>\n<p>Can the popular chain really be using their name to reinforce their own political ideologies?<\/p>\n<p>Twitter didn&#8217;t think so.<\/p>\n<p>In a Voice of London Poll, we asked Twitter users if they thought it was right to print their &#8216;no deal&#8217; brexit manifesto on their beer mats. The results revealed that 69% disagreed.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Do you think it\u2019s right for <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jdwtweet?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@jdwtweet<\/a> &#8211; Wetherspoons &#8211; to print \u2018no deal\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Brexit?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Brexit<\/a> manifesto on beer mats? \ud83c\udf7b<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Voice Of London UK (@VoiceOfLondonUK) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VoiceOfLondonUK\/status\/926067864091709440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 2, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>One Twitter user responded that the beer mats were &#8220;very good&#8221; but the overall the response on Twitter was highly negative.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>&#8220;You&#8217;re a pub. Just a pub. Not a political party. Now bore off Tim [chairman]. You&#8217;re tiring me&#8221; &#8211; @elganio20<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>&#8220;Because I love propaganda with a pint and indifferently microwaved food. Drop the politicking, it just annoys people&#8221; &#8211; @SailorOfStars<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>&#8220;When I was old enough to legally go to the pub my Dad told me to avoid talking religion and politics. It was sound advice. It still is&#8221; &#8211; @PeteKitching<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>&#8220;Will be avoiding the spoons from now on then. Way to go alienating half of your customers&#8230;&#8221; &#8211; @TaylorandBesty<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>&#8220;I was never a fan of your pubs, but occasionally visited them. Not any more. Boycotted, for your Brexit propaganda&#8221; &#8211; @SnigsKitchen\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Looks like our meals could become a little cheaper alongside our brexit beer mats.<\/p>\n<p>That is if the Wetherspoons, who ironically use the EU colour scheme, manifesto gets a say.<\/p>\n<p>Tweet us your thoughts on political pubs at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VoiceOfLondonUK\">@VoiceOfLondonUK<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Words: Charlotte Racher | Subbing: Rituja Rao\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A favourite pre-drink spot for millennials, JD Wetherspoon, is sharing its own Brexit manifesto on 500,000 beer mats within 895 pubs across the UK. JD Wetherspoon stated: &#8220;The message calls on Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[713,998,2170,2182,4478,4934,5058,5817,6869],"class_list":["post-16654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-bars","tag-brexit","tag-eu","tag-european-union","tag-night-life","tag-politics","tag-pubs","tag-spoons","tag-wetherspoons"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}