I’m calling time on the anti-pub rules
AS HoSPITALITy is brought to its knees and the events business is cast into oblivion, tens of thousands of people working in the sector prepare to face an unknown future. For many it will bring poverty, ill health and hopelessness. For some it will be too much; it is no exaggeration to say that lives will be lost in the economic tsunami about to engulf us. As a licensee and business operator, I have to ask: how has it come to this? When the Government closed us down and told us to flatten the curve, we obeyed. When the Government put onerous restrictions on us reopening, we obeyed. But now we don’t know what is the aim of the restrictions being thrust upon us at the same time as much-needed support is being withdrawn. The NHS has the extra capacity and PPE it did not have at the start of this crisis. We know lots more about how to treat the virus. But when it comes to supporting those businesses worst hit by Government decisions, every question that’s asked of the Prime Minister results in the same answer: ‘We’ll put our arms around these people.’ I don’t want Boris Johnson’s arms around me. I want answers. I want to operate my business without restriction. I want people to be able to decide for themselves whether or not to visit my business. I want people to decide whom they want to see and where they want to see them. I want people to sing, to dance, to hug loved ones, to enjoy life. By decree we have had our freedoms stripped away one nonsensical decision at a time. Life censored, risk forbidden, fun prohibited. Mere existence is all that remains. Most of the public support the Government restrictions. No doubt they are fearful for their lives after being bludgeoned for the past six months with daily death graphs, endof-the-world public health announcements and a poster, radio and TV campaign that would be more akin to a zombie apocalypse rather than an upper respiratory illness.
We are trapped in a seemingly never-ending cycle of go out, stay in, eat out, go home, get back to normal, do not see your family, go back to work, work from home. I voted for Boris Johnson, but he seems frightened after his close brush with death due to coronavirus. After his own life was threatened, he feels a civic duty to stop anyone else experiencing the same trauma. A noble cause, but a misguided one. As great a leader as I am sure he is, Boris is just not the one we need right now. In language he would understand: tempus est ire (It’s time to go).