Editor's Blog3 mins ago
Why Do They Bother
Just read a report that opening the shops, cafes and pubs has failed to deliver the boost to the economy that's needed. Why do they print such tosh. Just out of interest did anyone on here expect it to? High numbers losing their jobs, some still on 80% and not knowing if their going to keep their jobs, but they expect the shops to be crammed full, and new car sales take off. Needless to mention they've only been open a few days.
Answers
Non-
12:17 Tue 07th Jul 2020
Non-essential shops have been open for three weeks. Pubs, restaurants and barbers for three days. It will need time to get where it's going to get to. But the government's lockdown has caused irreparable damage to the economy. Many establishments will not reopen, especially those that were on the brink of going skint just before lockdown (and there were plenty, large and small).
I hope that people are taking their futures seriously because for many of them it will be bleak. Unemployment will soar as soon as the government's furlough scheme ends. Firms are quite happy to keep people on whilst the taxpayer is paying their staff even they're doing little or no business. They won't be so keen to do so when that finishes.
Coupled with this is the government's insistence on their social distancing "guidelines". They are urging people to get out and spend. At the same time they are making unrealistic demands of the hospitality trade when asking them to comply with their guidance. This guidance will be rigorously enforced by Local Authorities and make many businesses completely unviable.
My LA has just completed fencing off many areas of the High Street to widen the pavements (which are plenty wide enough anyway). Congestion getting into and out of the town is now bad thus putting off anybody arriving by car. Buses which normally accommodate more than eighty passengers are limited to just twenty. Smaller ones with a capacity of 35-40 are limited to eight or ten. Should the children ever return to school that will be completely useless and even as it is not too many people are venturing out by bus.
If the government wants to rescue the economy from the abyss it has created for it they must move away from the idea of a "new normal". There is nothing normal about buses roaming about 75% empty leaving people at the bus stop; there is nothing normal in widening pavements so that people need not pass closer than 2m from each other; there is nothing normal in imposing one way systems in large shops meaning people have to pass through parts of the shop they don't need to.
Normal normality needs to be restored, and quickly. If it isn't many businesses will indeed wonder why they bothered.
I hope that people are taking their futures seriously because for many of them it will be bleak. Unemployment will soar as soon as the government's furlough scheme ends. Firms are quite happy to keep people on whilst the taxpayer is paying their staff even they're doing little or no business. They won't be so keen to do so when that finishes.
Coupled with this is the government's insistence on their social distancing "guidelines". They are urging people to get out and spend. At the same time they are making unrealistic demands of the hospitality trade when asking them to comply with their guidance. This guidance will be rigorously enforced by Local Authorities and make many businesses completely unviable.
My LA has just completed fencing off many areas of the High Street to widen the pavements (which are plenty wide enough anyway). Congestion getting into and out of the town is now bad thus putting off anybody arriving by car. Buses which normally accommodate more than eighty passengers are limited to just twenty. Smaller ones with a capacity of 35-40 are limited to eight or ten. Should the children ever return to school that will be completely useless and even as it is not too many people are venturing out by bus.
If the government wants to rescue the economy from the abyss it has created for it they must move away from the idea of a "new normal". There is nothing normal about buses roaming about 75% empty leaving people at the bus stop; there is nothing normal in widening pavements so that people need not pass closer than 2m from each other; there is nothing normal in imposing one way systems in large shops meaning people have to pass through parts of the shop they don't need to.
Normal normality needs to be restored, and quickly. If it isn't many businesses will indeed wonder why they bothered.
