Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Furlough ushers in a new chapter for book fan Daniel
AFURLOUGHED Waterstones worker has improved his mental health – by reviewing books and posting a colourful display with each one.
Daniel Bassett, 34, borrows items from his housemates for the images – and can spend hours getting the perfect shot.
He has become a book reviewer and takes mystical pictures of the ones he’s read.
Daniel was furloughed from the chain last March, and again during the latest lockdown, and struggled to deal with anxiety.
He decided to spend his time away from work focusing on his dream of sharing his thoughts about his favourite books.
Daniel, from Bristol, is gaining recognition from authors and booklovers for his in-depth reviews of new literature and his colourful images – displayed on his Instagram page @dantheman1504.
He likes to include a photograph of a vibrant display with each review he posts and borrows items from his housemates for the shots.
“Taking a picture can take 45 minutes to six hours,” he added.
“The photo is the important thing when it comes to a review. If I can just make one person buy a book and enjoy, that’s all I want.
“The biggest thing I’ve tried to highlight is during lockdown there’s been so many authors coming out with books during the pandemic.
“For obvious reasons, they’re so worried of their books just being lost and I’m as scared as they are for people to miss them.”
Daniel says for those struggling mentally during lockdown, books are the perfect way to escape.
“Books have never been so important as during the pandemic,” he said. “They’ve kept me going. This is nothing new, books have been escapism for years and years.
“It sounds cliché, but books are pure escapism – be it fantasy or literally just an autobiography. Anything you can open pages and get lost in – even if it’s half an hour at the end of the day.
“I want people to realise – Covid has been going on for a year now and yes there’s light at the end of tunnel, but books will still be crucial.”
THE United Kingdom “is over” and a new union should be crafted to reflect a “voluntary association of four nations”, Wales’ First Minister has said.
Mark Drakeford warned the breakup of the UK was possible if politicians only offered a “tweaking of the status quo”, and said Boris Johnson’s lack of engagement with the devolved nations undermined efforts to keep them together.
His virtual appearance at the Welsh affairs committee on Thursday was broadcast from an outbuilding at the bottom of his garden in Cardiff, where he was said to be selfisolating “as a precaution” after coming into contact with someone who had tested positive for coronavirus.
Mr Drakeford told MPs a new devolution settlement was needed after the pandemic had caused a rise in polarised opinions about Wales’ future, including support for Welsh independence as well as for abolishing devolution.
He said: “I do think the effect of the pandemic and the last 12 months has been to polarise opinion in Wales about the way it should be governed.
“What we have to do – to quote a Conservative member of the Senedd, David Melding – is we have to recognise that the union as it is, is over. We
have to create a new union.
“We have to demonstrate to people how we can recraft the UK in a way that recognises it as a voluntary association of four nations, in which we choose to pool our sovereignty for common purposes and for common benefits.”
Mr Drakeford said the “relatively random basis” on which the UK Government engaged with the devolved Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland administrations “is not a satisfactory basis to sustain the future of the United Kingdom”.
“There is no institutional architecture to make the United Kingdom work,” he said.
“It is all ad hoc, random and made up as we go along. And I’m afraid that really is not a satisfactory basis to sustain the future of the UK.
“And if I have an anxiety about the lack of regular engagement between the Prime Minister and other parts of the UK, it is more that I think without that then the security of the future of the UK becomes more difficult.
“Without the Prime Minster playing his part in all of that, I think it undermines the efforts of those of us – and I include myself certainly in this – who want to craft a successful future for the UK.”
Mr Drakeford called for “an entrenched form of devolution which cannot be unilaterally rolled back by any one party”, and one that “could not be interfered with in the way we have seen so vividly in recent months”.
His comments referred to the Welsh Government’s criticism of the UK Government’s replacing of EU Structural Funds by directly allocating funding in Wales on devolved matters through the Shared Prosperity Fund, as well as the controversial Internal Market Act.
Mr Drakeford described UK parliamentary sovereignty as “a redundant notion” and that the union should be recrafted to work like the
European Union, United States or Australia.
“The idea that sovereignty is held only in one place and is handed out to other places, but always on a piece of string so it can be pulled back to the centre at any moment when the centre requires, I think that is over,” he said. “The European Union will be an example potentially, but Canada, or Australia, or the United States, are examples of what I talked about, where sovereignty is dispersed amongst its component parts and pooled back together again for those central purposes.”
Stephen Crabbe, committee chairman and Conservative MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire, asked Mr Drakeford if there was a “meeting of minds” between him and Mr Johnson, describing the men as “both classic scholars”.
But Mr Drakeford described his relationship with the Prime Minister as “remote”.
“Both in the sense that I’ve met him only once myself – I’ve been at a number of meetings where there’s been large numbers of other people present – and he is yet to call a meeting of the joint ministerial committee of first ministers and himself,” he said.
“In that sense, I would say I’ve had a very modest level of contact with the Prime Minister. And the remoteness isn’t just in that way; I’m afraid we rarely have a meeting of minds.”
HOUSE prices dipped for the second month in a row in February, according to an index. They were down 0.1 per cent month-on-month, following a 0.4 per cent decrease in January.
Across the UK, property values were still 5.2 per cent higher in February than the same month last year, Halifax said.
But it cautioned that it would not expect the level of growth seen in house prices across 2020 to be sustained throughout this year.
The average UK house price in February was £251,697.
Russell Galley, managing director at Halifax, said: “Having enjoyed an extremely strong period of activity in the second half of last year, the housing market continued its softer start to 2021, with average prices down very slightly compared to January.
“However, with annual house price inflation currently at 5.2 per cent, property values remain comfortably higher than 12 months ago, when February was the last full month before lockdown.”
A stamp duty holiday extension was announced in this week’s Budget, alongside a new five per cent deposit mortgage guarantee scheme. The stamp duty holiday, which applies in England and Northern Ireland, had been due to end on March 31, but changes in the Budget mean it will not revert to ‘normal’ levels until October.
Mr Galley said: “The housing market has been at something of a crossroads at the start of this year, with upcoming events key to determining the path of activity and prices over the next few months.
“The Government’s decision to extend the stamp duty holiday – one of the main drivers of demand from home movers during the pandemic – has removed a great deal of uncertainty for buyers with transactions yet to complete.
“The new mortgage guarantee scheme is another welcome development from this week’s Budget. Whilst mortgage approvals have reached record highs in recent months, hitting levels not seen since before the financial crisis of 2008, raising a deposit continues to be the single biggest hurdle for first-time buyers to overcome.
“In the longer term, the performance of the housing market remains inextricably linked to the health of the wider economy. The pace and extent of recovery are still highly uncertain, and much will depend on the ongoing success of the UK’s vaccination rollout.
“Though there is the likelihood of an economic ‘bounceback’ from lockdown, with households not unduly impacted by the pandemic deploying the significant reserves of savings that they have built up, higher unemployment is likely to limit new buyer demand. Therefore, we would not expect the level of growth seen in house prices over the past year to be sustained throughout 2021.”
Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients, said: “The housing market softened slightly in February as it seemed too late for buyers to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday.
“But with the Chancellor announcing an extension to the concession in his Budget, more buyers are realising they could still reasonably expect to take advantage of the tax break, which will further help the market’s momentum.
“The introduction of 95 per cent (loan-to-value) mortgages backed by the Government from next month will also give first-time buyers and home movers a boost.”
Mr Harris said he had seen “a flurry of inquiries”.
MIKE Ashley’s Frasers Group has said the Chancellor’s new business rates holiday is “near worthless” for larger firms and makes it close to impossible for it to take on old Debenhams shops.
The Sports Direct and House of Fraser owner said the £2 million cap on the amount of relief a company could claim meant it would have to review all its stores to find any that might no longer be viable.
On Wednesday, the Chancellor extended the holiday on business rates, a tax that all shops and pubs must pay, until the end of June. An original relief package was due to run out at the end of this month.
The Chancellor said that for the rest of the financial year after June, rates would remain discounted by two-thirds, up to a value of £2 million if businesses were closed.
This cap shuts out many larger businesses, including Mr Ashley’s Frasers Group, and disappointed those hoping for a wider overhaul to the tax.
“Frasers Group wishes to note its disappointment at the business rates relief announced,” the business said yesterday.
“Whilst the retail industry as a whole has repeatedly asked for structural reform of business rates, none has been forthcoming. Frasers Group and many retailers would have expected suitable relief until structural reform is implemented.”
It added: “For Frasers Group, this cap will make it nearly impossible to take on ex-Debenhams sites with the inherent jobs created. It will also mean we need to review our entire portfolio to ascertain stores that are unviable due to unrealistic business rates. Frasers Group believes that retailers should pay the fair amount of rates in line with realistic rateable values, but instead we continue to have an unwieldy, overly complex, and out-of-date business rates regime.”
A judge issued a winding up order against department store Debenhams in January, and the company’s administrators have been selling off parts of the business.
Online retailer Boohoo bought the brand name and its website for £55 million later that month. However, it did not want Debenhams’ 118 shops.
Mr Ashley is reportedly trying to take over some of those stores, a move that could create jobs.
Frasers, which also owns the Flannels and Evans Cycles brands, has led calls for a complete overhaul of the current business rates system in recent years. The Government’s next business rates revaluation will take place in 2023, with rates next year set to be based on figures from the latest valuation in 2015.
The Treasury is currently undertaking a fundamental review of the business rates system, but last month pushed back the publication of its final report until the autumn.
Real estate adviser Altus Group has calculated that Frasers Group and its subsidiaries will have saved around £91.2 million for the 2020-21 financial year due to the current rates holiday in England and Wales.