Give me chance to save my pub from going bust
IF THE Government had advised all businesses and organisations to use common sense about PPE or social distancing to get back to work there would be a little growth and less unemployment.
By trying to make all and sundry snap to attention with such strict regulations is stifling to so many. One size fits all has never worked and people need to be a bit more inventive in ways to accomplish a back-to-work attitude.
Those who can operate inside the guidelines are sitting on their hands in frustration, as I am.
I run a micro-pub with a massive garden and all my customers live locally. Self-distancing would be easily achievable.
Pubs with no outside space will bleat about it being unfair, but a lot of them will never open again. I am about to pour £1,000 worth of real ale down the drain. HORACE JOHNSON,
address supplied.
THE public have already shown what they think of the lockdown and businesses are finding ways of getting round it. People want it to end so they can enjoy the sunshine, go to the pub and watch and play sport. PAUL CHARLES COOK,
Huddersfield, W. Yorks.
Highlight SNP failures
SO we finally have a road map to take us out of lockdown which is suspiciously like that of the Westminster Government – what a surprise!
When this crisis began, political differences were supposed to have been relaxed but since day one, Nicola Sturgeon has used this as a political tool. Now is the time for Scottish Labour and the Scottish Tories to hit this clueless Scottish Government where it hurts.
They have plenty of ammunition when you consider the catalogue of disasters it has presided over: there was the secretive Nike affair, the treatment of the elderly in care homes and the shambolic test and trace initiative. The First
Minister continues to talk down to the public, there certainly has not been any adult conversation there. It’s time for change in Scotland and it’s up to the other parties to grasp this chance.
ROBERT MCDONALD, Glasgow.
We need you back, Ruth
RUTH Davidson was quoted recently as saying that watching the First Minister’s coronavirus updates was like watching a plusone hour channel on TV. She merely repeats exactly what was said on the main channel in the UK briefing previously.
Miss Davidson was equally scathing about the SNP policy of emptying hospital beds by discharging the vulnerable into care homes. She stated in characteristically plain words what so many are thinking.
It reminded me of how much Miss Davidson is missed. She is the Andrew Neil of Scottish politics. Even for those of us who may not agree with all her philosophy, she is a welcome and much needed breath of honesty and fresh air.
ALEXANDER MCKAY, Edinburgh.
Avert growing crisis
WAITROSE has put full page adverts in the Press supporting the UK Government’s ‘Pick for Britain’ campaign, which says ‘Britain needs 70,000 fruit and veg pickers’ (Mail).
With large numbers of overseas fruit pickers unable to come here because of Covid-19 restrictions, crops could be left to rot in the fields. The UK Government has financially helped millions of people during this crisis, so hopefully some will be grateful and come forward to help the farmers.
They will also be paid – in most cases tax-free.
Younger people, university students and those with no work commitments, should be jumping at the chance to earn money, pick crops and save a vital industry. CLARK CROSS, Linlithgow, West Lothian.
Pointless inquiry
PREDICTABLY, there are calls for a public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.
If past experience is anything to go by, it will take ages, cost a fortune and end up stating the blinking obvious.
No doubt, too, it will recommend lots of lessons — to be learned to add to an already sky high pile of them. I’ve lost count of the number of lessons the Government, civil service and public sector needs to learn.
By all means have an inquiry, but until we have accountability by highly paid managers of public institutions, nothing will change.
ANGUS LONG, Newcastle upon Tyne.
Talking shop
GIVEN the challenges the British retail sector is experiencing, Marks & Spencer’s results are not surprising.
As a shareholder, it is hard to swallow that dividend payments and the staff bonus scheme have been cancelled. Are the board taking a full salary and bonuses?
I always thought bonuses reflect good service and enhancement of the business, not failure.
R. WILSON, Boston, Lincs.
Covid-19 know-alls
WHERE are the statistics relating to the ever expanding number of pandemic experts who have appeared out of nowhere?
According to themselves, they know everything there is to know about Covid-19.
At the present rate of the spread of expert-virus, one in three of the British population will be a knowall on the subject; one third will be experiencing mild symptoms, believing that they know some of the answers, but not all of them; with the remainder determined never to trust the opinion of an expert on the matter.
ERIC WATERS, Lancing, W. Sussex.