The founder of Wetherspoons, Tim Martin, is blasting the UK's response to Covid after his company posted large yearly profits.
Like-for-like sales at the popular pub chain rose by 12.7% for the 52 weeks ending in July.
Revenue also rose more than 10%, while improvements were made in like-for-like bar sales (9.0%), food sales (17.7%) and slot or fruit machine sales (26.4%).
Martin said: "Wetherspoon continues to perform well. In the first nine weeks of the current financial year, to 1 October 2023, like-for-like sales increased by 9.9%, compared with the nine weeks to 2 October 2022."
The Chairman continued by adding that the biggest threat facing the industry is "the possibility of further lockdowns and restrictions."
"As we said last year, perhaps the biggest threat to the hospitality industry is the possibility of further lockdowns and restrictions.
"Those interested in the UK Government's response to the pandemic may like to read the reports by Professor Francois Balloux, director of the UCL Genetics Institute, in The Guardian, and by Professor Robert Dingwall, of Trent University, in the Telegraph.
"The conclusion of Professor Balloux, broadly echoed by Professor Dingwall, based on an analysis by the World Health Organisation of the pandemic, is that Sweden (which did not lock down), had a Covid-19 fatality rate "of about half the UK's" and that "the worst performer, by some margin, is Peru, despite enforcing the harshest, longest lockdown."
"Professor Balloux concludes that "the strength of mitigation measures does not seem to be a particularly strong indicator of excess deaths."
"Indeed, as some commentators have noted, lockdowns were not contemplated in the UK's laboriously compiled prepandemic plans. It appears that these plans were jettisoned, early on in the pandemic, in favour of copying China's lockdown approach - an example, perhaps, of Warren Buffett's so-called "institutional imperative" - "everyone else has locked down, so we will, too".
"The company currently anticipates a reasonable outcome for the financial year, subject to our future sales performance."
FTSE 100
The UK's top share index, the FTSE 100, was up 24-points at 7,476 shortly after opening this morning.
Brent crude futures were up 0.14% this morning at $84.19 a barrel.
Companies reporting today
JD Wetherspoon is reporting full year results.