Euro: people good, cash bad

Tourists who look like they could do with a pint.

Pubgoers across the country will breathe a sigh of relief to hear that although Wetherspoon's strongly opposed the introduction of the euro a few...

Pubgoers across the country will breathe a sigh of relief to hear that although Wetherspoon's strongly opposed the introduction of the euro a few years ago, Europeans are still "warmly welcomed into its pubs as both colleagues and customers".

Wetherspoon's famously introduced anti-euro propaganda such as beer mats, posters and magazines in its pubs back in 2001, to warn that the euro would wreck the economy.

But boss Tim Martin insisted the pubco's opposition to the euro had nothing to do with opposing Europeans."It was based on economics and the fact that all previous attempts, around the world at similar monetary systems had always crashed and burned after a few years".

Martin obviously felt he had not sufficiently vented his anger at the "one interest rate fits all" policy and therefore used 80% of his chairman's message in the latest Wetherspoon magazine, Wetherspoon News, to slag off advocates of the euro, such as "Dick Branson".

The JD Wetherspoon boss also offers a "prize dunce award" to the then editor of the Financial Times, Richard Lambert, "who stifled a proper debate in his newspaper on the issue and used the newspaper as a propaganda tool for his own views".

A former president of the CBI, Adair Turner, also comes under fire, having recently produced a government-sponsored report advising the nation on the best way to deal with the pension crisis."Why would you have someone who got it so wrong about the euro advise you on pensions?" asks Martin.

Snifter, for one, is relieved he won't be turned down at the door of his local Wetherspoon's.

Being European, he should be alright.