Tim Martin:

The JD Wetherspoon boss, Tim Martin, has said closing pubs, bars and restaurants will not help stop coronavirus.

Speaking before Boris Johnson announced the closure of every pub and restaurant in the country, Martin had vowed to keep his 867 UK pubs open as long as possible.

He said: “My instinct is that closure won’t save lives but will cost thousands of jobs and create unsustainable costs for the UK.”

....

“More people have caught the virus in one building, parliament, than in all our pubs combined.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/20/coronavirus-wetherspoons-boss-says-uk-pubs-will-stay-open-as-long-as-possible

 

 

 

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Our local Tesco Express has been closing for periods during the day to allow the staff a chance to restock. No sooner does it open than the shelves of "essential" stockpiling goods are bare once more.

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I hope he has a force majeure clause. But franchise agreements are generally written by the franchisor. The franchisee either has to accept what they're given or else they won't be accepted. Franchisees have to accept what they're given. 

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This evening. The Sainsbury’s was stripped bare. Nothing fresh, no meat, no veg. Nothing.

The supply chain is robust we are told, but how robust is it really. I’ve heard meat etc at source is now grinding to a halt.

Are food manufacturers actually still making stuff? I only ask as they have a workforce that could also be self isolating?

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With regards to this video, which makes Trump the centre of its attention, as though he was responsible in the first place:

https://youtu.be/bXjCKd3o7Lg 

• although it has some sound advice within it.

I responded to my brother as follows:

If you want to understand the real shitshow in Europe, it was that no European government took Chinese Corona virus seriously - not one!

 
OK the Yanks didn't either, but they are lead by a brain dead moron, so they have an excuse.
 
The Italians showed a bit of gumption early on when they stopped all direct flights to and from China. Did them a power of good however, since they are in Schengenland and any Chinese tourist in January/February could land in Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Amsterdam, or Geneva or anywhere and either get on a connecting flight to Milan or get a rail journey there. So long Italy!
 
Then, when the Italian outbreak occurred and became knowledge, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland and France should have immediately closed their land borders with Italy, but the EU pompously stated "a virus does not respect borders". Well no, a virus doesn't, but it is passed  on by people, people who cross borders, so Austria, Germany, France and Spain are in corona Hell now, along with the rest of Europe.
 
Finally the UK. Someone please tell me me, what was the freaking point of Brexit if we did not take advantage of it to close our freaking borders? We should have suspended all flights to China at the outset. When Italy broke out, we should have suspended all flights to and from Milan and told people "sorry people, but your ski holidays are cancelled for the common good!". When the government were introducing domestic restrictions, they were still allowing infected people to come here from every shitshow infected country in Europe! Insane!
 
Then we come to the WHO - a complete up the arse of China shitshow from the outset! The WHO were late to declare a PHEIC, were late to get in on the ground in China, should have called a halt to cruises in the Far East in early January and everywhere else by February and the WHO were like Comical Ali over declaring a Pandemic, when it was as plain as your nose to a blind man on  a dark night that it was a Pandemic! Also, the WHO refuse to recognise Taiwan, the one freaking country in the World who treated the contagion seriously from the outset!
 
So take the piss out of Trump by all means - he is a brain dead moron - but the one sensible thing he did was to stop all flights to and from Shitshow Europe!
 
Plus, it is a Chinese virus caused by their disgusting wild animal eating habits - bat->pangolin->Chinaman!
 

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Its all very worrying..we are packed in like sardines in the UK.

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Can't find any updates on the Dutch project that was discussed yesterday.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-netherlands-testin/dutch-test-blood-donations-for-unseen-coronavirus-spread-idUSKBN2161S4

IMO it's the most important short term piece of work taking place. 

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Don't think it makes much difference to be honest - look at France and Spain which have much lower population densities.

The key is personal isolation. Of course, that is much easier if you have a house and garden, instead of living in an apartment block or high rise.

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Fair enough. I thought that closing pubs would tend to reduce transmission of the virus. But if somebody an eminent virologist(I assume that he is a virology expert) like Tim Martin believes that closing pubs won't save lives, who can argue with that? His view must be an entirely neutral one after all and not at all self interested. 

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Imo todays announcement to basically tell the vast majority of the hospitality industry to close in the whole of the uk was a step too far,too early!! It would have made perfect sense to close down establishments in London as its the hotspot. Also I note there was no mention of hotels having to close even though you do not have to be a resident to eat in a hotels  restaurants or drink in a hotels bars!! Odd that! Anyway Boris doesn`t have to as all hotels in Bournemouth have now shed 90% of their staff,many have closed to try and survive and many have zero occupancy next week onwards. The measures announced by the Chancellor today do NOT protect the incomes of most in the hospitality sector as they are on zero hours/casual staff type contracts even though they work 40-50 hours week in week out.These hardworking people now face real extreme hardship!!

Imo and this will have to come if there isn`t going to be total economic collapse, is a universal income of say £200 per week for every single person of working age so that people can survive without worry.All the measures so far are full of red tape with too many hoops to jump throughand strings attached  to get both for businesses and individuals. At this rate we are looking at 10 million+ unemployed very soon.

I've got some sympathy for this point of view. 

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My mate has just texted me from the pub and says "it's rammed". I've told him he's an idiot but he's entirely unrepentant. I should add he's a 50yr old single man who rarely sees his family, which reminds me of another regular pub attender...

If the pics in the Tele are genuine it shows how ill prepared the NHS for this. Look at the shoddy masks and googles the nurses are wearing. The masks are certainly not FFP2 or higher. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/20/exhausted-nurses-overwhelmed-london-hospital-wore-bin-bags-protect/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

 

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They would have been better off making the announcement tomorrow morning. Presumably Boris didn't want to get out of bed too early. 

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Well, obviously I'm not setting out the plan but it's straightforward: (1) you allow companies to claim via the PAYE system for the 80% of salary that they've paid out, less tax and NI (which I assume will still be due), (2) you instruct the banks to make overdraft facilities available equal to the 80% payroll cost, guaranteed by the government.

That only requires days to put in place. For businesses paying their staff monthly it will be fine; weekly paid does require a rapid implementation.

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He's a selfish idiot. There are no excuses; it's a classic example of putting self-interest above your obligation to the wider community.

 

In other news our newspaper shop has just withdrawn the service due to the virus: the guy is 70 and can't deliver without breaching the guidelines.

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You think it wouldn't have been leaked and had the same result?

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My car is due its first MOT by the end of this month. Does anyone know whether MOTs are still going ahead? 

Edit: The answer is  here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/driving-tests-and-mots-for-heavy-vehicles-suspended-for-up-to-3-months-to-help-tackle-spread-of-coronavirus

 

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Godfrey Bloom is back. 

Well, we didn't close our pubs in the blitz
60,000 people killed then
What happened to our nation?

— Godfrey Bloom (@goddersbloom) March 20, 2020

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Well, they are on this side of the Irish Sea. I've got one at 9AM tomorrow 😳🙁

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Maybe the whizz-kids on here who have advice for the chancellor on how to manage the distribution of household income through this crisis could also turn their minds to how to stop the panic buying/hoarding/black marketeering that is rife. This is an equally serious problem for society - if you can't buy food it's more serious than not being able to pay the rent or your netflix subscription.

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Yes tricky one vulnerable with EHCP many special schools would rather pupils not sent but if no one at home to safeguard especially those of single parents families and those with social workers involved which is a positive for those who have one.

I think it’s probably a waste of time anyway as it’s a supervision day rather than a learning one I note the special schools around here are preferring parents  not to send ( I note it’s only a option if the above applies) I also have the feelings that the numbers in main stream and special will decline over the coming weeks with staff sickness  making it impractical anyway.

 

 

 

remove trolleys and insist on basket shopping?

The supermarkets are supposed to be putting measures in place to manage this. As I said earlier, our local Morrisons had security staff at the door today; rarely go there but not seen it before so assume it's a new measure.

If I were running a supermarket I'd have a leaflet handed to each customer setting out the rules and saying any breach would mean they would be escorted out with no shopping at all.

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Yes.  No more trolleys.  Film people being greedy and broadcast their pictures on big screens.  

Shame the scum into being less selfish  at the expense of their neighbours.

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