Tim Martin

Outside of the courtrooms, the British pub chain Weatherspoons also instituted a blanket ban on these devices in August.

CEO Tim Martin said in a statement, quote, the general code that applies in our pubs and most pubs, is that you can't film customers or employees without their permission.

Metaglasses seem to breach this code and common sense by enabling surreptitious surveillance.

So our instinct is to say, turn off the cameras.

So I think they could dial profits up to a considerably higher level.

But Tim Martin...

You know, he is, despite all the negative press he attracts, I think he's an absolute working class hero.

A hero for the working class.

Maybe you need a highly opinionated owner-manager to take bold calls like that because no sort of... on the payroll type of CFO would have made a call that big, I don't think.

So it just shows.

Tim Martin, I think he's a huge asset to the business.

Some people don't like him for various reasons, but I think he's brilliant.

Uh, it's now time for a little story that goes with interesting fact or quote of the week, and I'm gonna read it out to you now.

[gentle music] So this is the story of a certain Sir Tim Martin, who started a business called Wetherspoons.

Now, me and Chud's, uh, and Stevie, actually, we went into London and made some content about some famous brands, including Pret A Manger and Wetherspoons, uh, Lego, uh, WeWork, to name just a few.

Uh, but I was quite impressed by the Wetherspoons story, and so I'm just gonna break it down for you now.

How did they become, um, where are they at? In 1979, a 24-year-old Tim Martin decided to buy a pub in Muswell Hill in North London, with virtually no experience of running said pubs.

Tim Martin had studied law and qualified as a barrister.

But instead of pursuing a conventional legal career, he spotted an opportunity in hospitalities.

Britain's pub industry was dominated by large breweries.

... videos and stuff like that.

Um, as, um, Tim Martin said, and this is a quote from him, "Spoons are an oasis of tranquility and contemplation."

[laughs]

[laughs]

[laughs]

[laughs]

Said Tim Martin of Spoons.

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And I'm city editor Simon Hunt.

Coming up on the show today, we'll be talking about exclusive comments made by the outspoken Wetherspoon boss, Tim Martin.

And we'll also be talking about Jacob Coxon.

He's the former Anthropic researcher who is warning of impending AI doom.

But first off, let's talk about Tim Martin.

So he's been pretty outspoken for a while.

Um, he makes quite a lot of public interventions, uh, and he's made one such intervention to our retail reporter, Felix Armstrong.