THE boss of pub giant JD Wetherspoon has slammed the “catastrophically poor judgment” of economists and politicians who campaigned against the UK leaving the European Union (EU).
Arch Brexiter Tim Martin trained his sights on the Remain camp once again as Wetherspoon unveiled a 3.2 per cent rise in like-for- like sales in the 12 weeks to January 15. Total sales increased by 0.7 per cent over the period.
Mr Martin claimed the poor judgment of economists and politicians who support the UK staying in the EU is based on a “semi- religious belief in a new type of political and economic system, represented by the EU, which lacks both proper democratic institutions and the basic agreement for a successful currency – a government.”
“It also lacks any genuine commitment to free trade, other than to countries which are in, or on the borders of, the EU,” added Mr Martin, the pub trade’s most vocal Brexit supporter.
The pub boss took aim at Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane for branding predictions made ahead of the EU referendum a “Michael Fish moment for economists”, stating that these comments “demonstrate a deep misunderstanding of the situation.”
Claiming that politicians, economists and intellectuals had misunderstood the implications of the exchange rate mechanism, the euro and the consequences of leaving the EU over a 30-year period, Mr Martin said: “Michael Fish’s predictions were a misinterpretation of data on one evening, under great time pressure.”
Shares closed up by 3.9 per cent at 937.5p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel