University update. I'm a "mature" postgraduate student so my experience is not typical, however I'm finding WFH as a learning experience really quite good, at least for the theory side. It remains to be seen how the vocational aspect will function.
There's a stark difference however between teachers who have recorded lectures and sessions specifically for this new reality, and those who have just released the recordings of last year's in-person sessions.
I also find that those who break lectures up into 15-20 minute "podcasts" work much better than those doing the traditional 1 hour lectures. Makes it much easier to review and keep concentration at home. Especially if you have other commitments.
I am very bitter that I do not get the opportunity to at least have 1 pub visit with everyone on the course to start to build relationships. That was such an important part of last year's course, and helped with support doing the work, revision, and for help with job applications, etc. Not being able to do this is a massive, massive downside.
That's good to know. I'm recording lectures as 20-30 minute episodes rather than the traditional hour. And compositing slides with demonstration material as I go.
The bad news is that it's unbelievably time-consuming. If I spend all day on it, with no other distractions, I can just about manage one episode per day - and be exhausted at the end of that day. I hope students appreciate the end-product...!
--AS
In my experience it is certainly appreciated! Like I said it's very obvious where lecturers have spent a lot of time and effort in preparation for the online learning, rather than those who have just re-released stuff from last year.
And the shorter lectures are great because you can complete one without your concentration starting to waiver, tick it off your to-do list, get the dopamine rush of achievement, go and walk the dog for example, and then come back ready and raring to go for the next one!
Thank you so much, on behalf of your students, for your efforts!
We are going to have to have an adult conversation about how long we can continue responding to Covid in the way that we are pretty soon. I was looking at the draft budget for our management company yesterday and thinking it was wildly optimistic (in fairness the figures were prepared before the second lockdown). The trade off between the economy and lives is going to have to change, it really is.
To be honest £35bn of borrowing, while bad, is not as bad as it could have been.
Worth remembering that the Bank has done £310bn of Quantitative Easing this year so far (and will probably do more yet) and the UK borrowing total so far during the pandemic is £174bn - so unless I'm being naive there is still some headroom left is there not?
Anyhow, Wednesday night was reasonably busy in daughter’s pub. Last night it was dead. Second night this week that it’s been like this. Feels to her like the days leading up to the first lockdown. She fully expects a second one. But if there isn’t and trade does not pick up, she won’t make it to the end of October, never mind Xmas.
Depressing.
Still, more time to panic buy for a No Deal Brexit. So there is that ......
I think everyone I've known who's had a pub either loses every penny they've got or gets divorced or, more usually, both. It seems like an awfully precarious business where you end up being a feudal serf of the brewery or pubco and making yourself 2p every time you pull a pint for a drunken arsehole.
University update. I'm a "mature" postgraduate student so my experience is not typical, however I'm finding WFH as a learning experience really quite good, at least for the theory side. It remains to be seen how the vocational aspect will function.
There's a stark difference however between teachers who have recorded lectures and sessions specifically for this new reality, and those who have just released the recordings of last year's in-person sessions.
I also find that those who break lectures up into 15-20 minute "podcasts" work much better than those doing the traditional 1 hour lectures. Makes it much easier to review and keep concentration at home. Especially if you have other commitments.
I am very bitter that I do not get the opportunity to at least have 1 pub visit with everyone on the course to start to build relationships. That was such an important part of last year's course, and helped with support doing the work, revision, and for help with job applications, etc. Not being able to do this is a massive, massive downside.
That's good to know. I'm recording lectures as 20-30 minute episodes rather than the traditional hour. And compositing slides with demonstration material as I go.
The bad news is that it's unbelievably time-consuming. If I spend all day on it, with no other distractions, I can just about manage one episode per day - and be exhausted at the end of that day. I hope students appreciate the end-product...!
--AS
The trick is to record the videos in one take. No editing. If you make a mistake, or um and ahh tough. That's you being a real person, and it is what happens in actual lectures. It's tough to do at first, but to get everything done in a sensible time it has to be done that way.
Saying that the seats chosen were either Tory seats or Tory targets is absolutely meaningless when almost without exception virtually every town in England is either a Tory seat or a Tory target.
Especially when the definition of 'target' was a majority under 10,000 - I challenge you to name a handful of non-Tory town seats in England with a majority over 10,000.
Almost without exception the non-Tory seats with majorities over 10,000 are in cities not towns. So this is a totally meaningless story. May as well say every town chosen had a Tory candidate on the ballot paper.
We are going to have to have an adult conversation about how long we can continue responding to Covid in the way that we are pretty soon. I was looking at the draft budget for our management company yesterday and thinking it was wildly optimistic (in fairness the figures were prepared before the second lockdown). The trade off between the economy and lives is going to have to change, it really is.
To be honest £35bn of borrowing, while bad, is not as bad as it could have been.
Worth remembering that the Bank has done £310bn of Quantitative Easing this year so far (and will probably do more yet) and the UK borrowing total so far during the pandemic is £174bn - so unless I'm being naive there is still some headroom left is there not?
It's not exactly headroom - the BOE buys bonds on the secondary market - but yes.
Borrowing less bad than feared for the period to August (but obviously the second wave still to hit).
Anyhow, Wednesday night was reasonably busy in daughter’s pub. Last night it was dead. Second night this week that it’s been like this. Feels to her like the days leading up to the first lockdown. She fully expects a second one. But if there isn’t and trade does not pick up, she won’t make it to the end of October, never mind Xmas.
Depressing.
Still, more time to panic buy for a No Deal Brexit. So there is that ......
I think everyone I've known who's had a pub either loses every penny they've got or gets divorced or, more usually, both. It seems like an awfully precarious business where you end up being a feudal serf of the brewery or pubco and making yourself 2p every time you pull a pint for a drunken arsehole.
Plus the hours are shocking you have to be there, smiling, at all hours of the day and watch, presumably usually sober, as people disintegrate around you believing themselves to be the funniest/most acute/sharpest in all the land.
Saying that the seats chosen were either Tory seats or Tory targets is absolutely meaningless when almost without exception virtually every town in England is either a Tory seat or a Tory target.
Especially when the definition of 'target' was a majority under 10,000 - I challenge you to name a handful of non-Tory town seats in England with a majority over 10,000.
Almost without exception the non-Tory seats with majorities over 10,000 are in cities not towns. So this is a totally meaningless story. May as well say every town chosen had a Tory candidate on the ballot paper.
I wonder if anyone in government or Brexit ultras has doubts when they heard about the policy to have special passes to enter Kent. Did anyone pipe up and say ‘Hang on chaps, we might be making a mistake here’? You have to wonder,
The culture of fear being run by Cummings means that neither SPADs nor Senior Civil Servants are willing to raise doubts over policies. Only "yes men" are welcome. Hence poorly thought through policy is routine.
The problem with that no doubt satisfying premise is that the quality of decision making by our Civil Service was abysmal before Cummings arrived on the scene. It has been for a long time now.
Not a premise, information from one of my old friends in the Civil Service.
Not sure it is appropriate for Cummings to be chairing cabinet committees either.
Hospitality and Entertainment Sectors need tailored and specific support. These are the ones who are going to have the worst impact (when socialisation is strongly discouraged, the sectors that service socialisation are going to be hugely hit - it doesn't take a superforecaster to work that out). Why not something like: "Pubs, restaurants, bars, clubs, theatres, cinemas (plus any obvious ones I've missed) get a monthly grant equal to their running costs as of the last two years accounts filed with HMRC." Yes, it'll cost, but the impact to the Treasury of letting otherwise viable businesses go to the wall in wholesale fashion would be far greater.
Students being required to sit in their rooms in Halls of Residence over Christmas is not viable. If ordered, the instruction would be ignored en masse. "Never give an order you know will be disobeyed." Start setting up the process for directed testing of all students at each university in the final week before Christmas (together with a ban on socialisation FOR THAT WEEK, noting that anyone caught breaking it may be liable to go through with the stay-in-Halls-until-two-weeks-is-up rule). You'll get some false negatives, but it should be enough to prevent any surge from it.
I don't think these should be that difficult to enact?
Lockdowns should target the activities that spread the virus, they should not be blanket restrictions that actually cause resentment amongst those they are supposed to help. I’ve never seen any figures that tell us the main causes of spread but these should be published to help people modify behavior. Shutting everything down when you reach some magical infection rate per 100,000 may not even solve the problem. There needs to be a much more data driven approach, alongside local knowledge to determine the best way forward for a community.
Do people know?
There was that comical illustration of people standing and sitting with for the former the virus hitting them square in the face and for the latter it sailing over their heads.
And people on this very site were citing it as proof if proof be needed that pubs where people are sitting at tables provided more protection against it.
There is, in short, a lot of bollocks out there.
For example, I simply don't see how someone by virtue of their age can be any different in receiving and passing on the virus (ie children). But then, unlike others on PB, IANAVE.
I naively thought that records would be kept of the mostly likely source for each infection, they wouldn’t be 100% accurate but would be a guide. In Spain roughly 50% of transmission is through family gatherings, before they were shut 25% through night clubs, 10% through work related, mainly agriculture, situations. That will be changing as the Effect of schools and universities feeds through. There must be similar intelligent estimates In the UK.
I wonder if anyone in government or Brexit ultras has doubts when they heard about the policy to have special passes to enter Kent. Did anyone pipe up and say ‘Hang on chaps, we might be making a mistake here’? You have to wonder,
It’s lost in the news priority system, it justified two sentences the other day when the Gove letter was published. No comment, no analysis, no talking heads, on to the next item. This government is useless at most things but news management isn’t one of them.
They will have doubts about a week before the thing has to be used. Then Boris will capitulate to the EU and Brexit will be a massive success and the preparations a waste of time and money.
Anyhow, Wednesday night was reasonably busy in daughter’s pub. Last night it was dead. Second night this week that it’s been like this. Feels to her like the days leading up to the first lockdown. She fully expects a second one. But if there isn’t and trade does not pick up, she won’t make it to the end of October, never mind Xmas.
Depressing.
That's not depressing. It shows that people are taking the warnings seriously and limiting the amount they mix socially with others, especially in settings where alchohol is likely to reduce inhibitions on behaviour. If we are to stand a chance of putting a lid on the scale and duration of the second wave, behaviour needs to change. So it's good that people are choosing to avoid pubs.
What is depressing is how limited Sunak's post October package of support was for even for businesses such as your daughter's, let alone those effectively unable to trade at all. There are plenty of businesses that are viable in the long term but which won't ever see it because they will go to the wall in the short term. There are also those in retail that would be viable if only they had the assurance now that there are to be long term changes towards easing business rates and introducing at least equivalent taxes on online retail. The sort of thing that could have been announced in the phantom Autumn Budget.
Agree strongly with the second para.
My daughter’s customers are not the type to go mad.
If people are meant to avoid pubs then say so, close them and provide proper support. Not this dishonest - you can drink but only until 10 - which just means that they slowly suffocate.
Plus the hours are shocking you have to be there, smiling, at all hours of the day and watch, presumably usually sober, as people disintegrate around you believing themselves to be the funniest/most acute/sharpest in all the land.
This could be a very accurate description of being on pb.com. It should be on the banner on the top.
Yet average earnings in new Tory seats first won in 2019 are not only below those of Conservative seats also won in 2019 but even 5% lower than in seats Labour held last year
Saying that the seats chosen were either Tory seats or Tory targets is absolutely meaningless when almost without exception virtually every town in England is either a Tory seat or a Tory target.
Especially when the definition of 'target' was a majority under 10,000 - I challenge you to name a handful of non-Tory town seats in England with a majority over 10,000.
Almost without exception the non-Tory seats with majorities over 10,000 are in cities not towns. So this is a totally meaningless story. May as well say every town chosen had a Tory candidate on the ballot paper.
Im more annoyed that my tory held town still didn't make the cut, I think.
Hospitality and Entertainment Sectors need tailored and specific support. These are the ones who are going to have the worst impact (when socialisation is strongly discouraged, the sectors that service socialisation are going to be hugely hit - it doesn't take a superforecaster to work that out). Why not something like: "Pubs, restaurants, bars, clubs, theatres, cinemas (plus any obvious ones I've missed) get a monthly grant equal to their running costs as of the last two years accounts filed with HMRC." Yes, it'll cost, but the impact to the Treasury of letting otherwise viable businesses go to the wall in wholesale fashion would be far greater.
Students being required to sit in their rooms in Halls of Residence over Christmas is not viable. If ordered, the instruction would be ignored en masse. "Never give an order you know will be disobeyed." Start setting up the process for directed testing of all students at each university in the final week before Christmas (together with a ban on socialisation FOR THAT WEEK, noting that anyone caught breaking it may be liable to go through with the stay-in-Halls-until-two-weeks-is-up rule). You'll get some false negatives, but it should be enough to prevent any surge from it.
I don't think these should be that difficult to enact?
It seems to me that we have just been fiddling around the edges. We need to appreciate that dealing with Covid is akin to fighting a war and run our economy accordingly. This means taking some difficult decisions.
Saying that the seats chosen were either Tory seats or Tory targets is absolutely meaningless when almost without exception virtually every town in England is either a Tory seat or a Tory target.
Especially when the definition of 'target' was a majority under 10,000 - I challenge you to name a handful of non-Tory town seats in England with a majority over 10,000.
Almost without exception the non-Tory seats with majorities over 10,000 are in cities not towns. So this is a totally meaningless story. May as well say every town chosen had a Tory candidate on the ballot paper.
He hath arrived!
Clocking in at 40,650, any bets on today’s final total?
Plus the hours are shocking you have to be there, smiling, at all hours of the day and watch, presumably usually sober, as people disintegrate around you believing themselves to be the funniest/most acute/sharpest in all the land.
This could be a very accurate description of being on pb.com. It should be on the banner on the top.
Plus the hours are shocking you have to be there, smiling, at all hours of the day and watch, presumably usually sober, as people disintegrate around you believing themselves to be the funniest/most acute/sharpest in all the land.
This could be a very accurate description of being on pb.com. It should be on the banner on the top.
Anyhow, Wednesday night was reasonably busy in daughter’s pub. Last night it was dead. Second night this week that it’s been like this. Feels to her like the days leading up to the first lockdown. She fully expects a second one. But if there isn’t and trade does not pick up, she won’t make it to the end of October, never mind Xmas.
Depressing.
Still, more time to panic buy for a No Deal Brexit. So there is that ......
I think everyone I've known who's had a pub either loses every penny they've got or gets divorced or, more usually, both. It seems like an awfully precarious business where you end up being a feudal serf of the brewery or pubco and making yourself 2p every time you pull a pint for a drunken arsehole.
Her place is independent. No pubcos are involved. It’s very much a community pub and she knows and likes most of her customers. There’s a real friendly buzz about it. I am not really a natural pub person but even before she took it over it was a nice place to go to, meet people and chat, have a meal or just sit quietly in the corner reading.
Edited: and she made a profit in her first year and increased turnover by 60%. People want to use it. This is not an unviable business. These jobs are not unviable. It’s this wretched government which is unviable. Grrrr........
There's a stark difference however between teachers who have recorded lectures and sessions specifically for this new reality, and those who have just released the recordings of last year's in-person sessions.
Yes in a proper Uni course the content will be taught differently each time, different pace, content etc. By boxing yourself in to a corner by using teaching material from a previous semester you are certainly going to lose the tailored aspect of the course which the students will quickly pick up on.
Having said that, lecturers in Spring were having to adapt so quickly I do not blame them from utilising past teaching material as a one off.
Anyhow, Wednesday night was reasonably busy in daughter’s pub. Last night it was dead. Second night this week that it’s been like this. Feels to her like the days leading up to the first lockdown. She fully expects a second one. But if there isn’t and trade does not pick up, she won’t make it to the end of October, never mind Xmas.
Depressing.
That's not depressing. It shows that people are taking the warnings seriously and limiting the amount they mix socially with others, especially in settings where alchohol is likely to reduce inhibitions on behaviour. If we are to stand a chance of putting a lid on the scale and duration of the second wave, behaviour needs to change. So it's good that people are choosing to avoid pubs.
What is depressing is how limited Sunak's post October package of support was for even for businesses such as your daughter's, let alone those effectively unable to trade at all. There are plenty of businesses that are viable in the long term but which won't ever see it because they will go to the wall in the short term. There are also those in retail that would be viable if only they had the assurance now that there are to be long term changes towards easing business rates and introducing at least equivalent taxes on online retail. The sort of thing that could have been announced in the phantom Autumn Budget.
Agree strongly with the second para.
My daughter’s customers are not the type to go mad.
If people are meant to avoid pubs then say so, close them and provide proper support. Not this dishonest - you can drink but only until 10 - which just means that they slowly suffocate.
I think this has been the failure of messaging all along. If the govt wants to stop something then stop it.
Is your daughter in touch with the local shoots? Perhaps a packed tea or something post-shooting or packed lunches which might help shoots out under current circs?
Anyhow, Wednesday night was reasonably busy in daughter’s pub. Last night it was dead. Second night this week that it’s been like this. Feels to her like the days leading up to the first lockdown. She fully expects a second one. But if there isn’t and trade does not pick up, she won’t make it to the end of October, never mind Xmas.
Depressing.
Still, more time to panic buy for a No Deal Brexit. So there is that ......
I think everyone I've known who's had a pub either loses every penny they've got or gets divorced or, more usually, both. It seems like an awfully precarious business where you end up being a feudal serf of the brewery or pubco and making yourself 2p every time you pull a pint for a drunken arsehole.
One of the reasons that pubs are in decline is because of large pub companies. Every margin is cut to the bone, every penny that can be squeezed out of a landlord is being wrung from them. A few years back, I wrote more than one IT system that was designed to do the squeezing
It really is a knife-edge business and on teh drinks side it can even be a loss-leader why is why so many pubs switched to gastro. Food was where the profit margins lay.
We are going to have to have an adult conversation about how long we can continue responding to Covid in the way that we are pretty soon. I was looking at the draft budget for our management company yesterday and thinking it was wildly optimistic (in fairness the figures were prepared before the second lockdown). The trade off between the economy and lives is going to have to change, it really is.
To be honest £35bn of borrowing, while bad, is not as bad as it could have been.
Worth remembering that the Bank has done £310bn of Quantitative Easing this year so far (and will probably do more yet) and the UK borrowing total so far during the pandemic is £174bn - so unless I'm being naive there is still some headroom left is there not?
It's not exactly headroom - the BOE buys bonds on the secondary market - but yes.
Borrowing less bad than feared for the period to August (but obviously the second wave still to hit).
There were plans for the BoE to skip the bond market altogether if necessary
Anyhow, Wednesday night was reasonably busy in daughter’s pub. Last night it was dead. Second night this week that it’s been like this. Feels to her like the days leading up to the first lockdown. She fully expects a second one. But if there isn’t and trade does not pick up, she won’t make it to the end of October, never mind Xmas.
Depressing.
That's not depressing. It shows that people are taking the warnings seriously and limiting the amount they mix socially with others, especially in settings where alchohol is likely to reduce inhibitions on behaviour. If we are to stand a chance of putting a lid on the scale and duration of the second wave, behaviour needs to change. So it's good that people are choosing to avoid pubs.
What is depressing is how limited Sunak's post October package of support was for even for businesses such as your daughter's, let alone those effectively unable to trade at all. There are plenty of businesses that are viable in the long term but which won't ever see it because they will go to the wall in the short term. There are also those in retail that would be viable if only they had the assurance now that there are to be long term changes towards easing business rates and introducing at least equivalent taxes on online retail. The sort of thing that could have been announced in the phantom Autumn Budget.
Agree strongly with the second para.
My daughter’s customers are not the type to go mad.
If people are meant to avoid pubs then say so, close them and provide proper support. Not this dishonest - you can drink but only until 10 - which just means that they slowly suffocate.
I think this has been the failure of messaging all along. If the govt wants to stop something then stop it.
Is your daughter in touch with the local shoots? Perhaps a packed tea or something post-shooting or packed lunches which might help shoots out under current circs?
Good idea, thanks. Will mention to her.
(Very Downton Abbey, mind. Perhaps I could be the Maggie Smith character making acerbic comments in the background.......)
Lockdowns should target the activities that spread the virus, they should not be blanket restrictions that actually cause resentment amongst those they are supposed to help. I’ve never seen any figures that tell us the main causes of spread but these should be published to help people modify behavior. Shutting everything down when you reach some magical infection rate per 100,000 may not even solve the problem. There needs to be a much more data driven approach, alongside local knowledge to determine the best way forward for a community.
Do people know?
There was that comical illustration of people standing and sitting with for the former the virus hitting them square in the face and for the latter it sailing over their heads.
And people on this very site were citing it as proof if proof be needed that pubs where people are sitting at tables provided more protection against it.
There is, in short, a lot of bollocks out there.
For example, I simply don't see how someone by virtue of their age can be any different in receiving and passing on the virus (ie children). But then, unlike others on PB, IANAVE.
Anyhow, Wednesday night was reasonably busy in daughter’s pub. Last night it was dead. Second night this week that it’s been like this. Feels to her like the days leading up to the first lockdown. She fully expects a second one. But if there isn’t and trade does not pick up, she won’t make it to the end of October, never mind Xmas.
Depressing.
Still, more time to panic buy for a No Deal Brexit. So there is that ......
I think everyone I've known who's had a pub either loses every penny they've got or gets divorced or, more usually, both. It seems like an awfully precarious business where you end up being a feudal serf of the brewery or pubco and making yourself 2p every time you pull a pint for a drunken arsehole.
One of the reasons that pubs are in decline is because of large pub companies. Every margin is cut to the bone, every penny that can be squeezed out of a landlord is being wrung from them. A few years back, I wrote more than one IT system that was designed to do the squeezing
It really is a knife-edge business and on teh drinks side it can even be a loss-leader why is why so many pubs switched to gastro. Food was where the profit margins lay.
Also a weatherspoons kills Many of the other pubs off In an area when they open but then there’s no accounting for taste.
We are going to have to have an adult conversation about how long we can continue responding to Covid in the way that we are pretty soon. I was looking at the draft budget for our management company yesterday and thinking it was wildly optimistic (in fairness the figures were prepared before the second lockdown). The trade off between the economy and lives is going to have to change, it really is.
To be honest £35bn of borrowing, while bad, is not as bad as it could have been.
Worth remembering that the Bank has done £310bn of Quantitative Easing this year so far (and will probably do more yet) and the UK borrowing total so far during the pandemic is £174bn - so unless I'm being naive there is still some headroom left is there not?
And how much spare headroom do we need for January next year ?
Plus the hours are shocking you have to be there, smiling, at all hours of the day and watch, presumably usually sober, as people disintegrate around you believing themselves to be the funniest/most acute/sharpest in all the land.
This could be a very accurate description of being on pb.com. It should be on the banner on the top.
The sobriety bit being optional ?
Sounds like a description of our moderators, neither of whom drinks unless I am mistaken.
Lockdowns should target the activities that spread the virus, they should not be blanket restrictions that actually cause resentment amongst those they are supposed to help. I’ve never seen any figures that tell us the main causes of spread but these should be published to help people modify behavior. Shutting everything down when you reach some magical infection rate per 100,000 may not even solve the problem. There needs to be a much more data driven approach, alongside local knowledge to determine the best way forward for a community.
Do people know?
There was that comical illustration of people standing and sitting with for the former the virus hitting them square in the face and for the latter it sailing over their heads.
And people on this very site were citing it as proof if proof be needed that pubs where people are sitting at tables provided more protection against it.
There is, in short, a lot of bollocks out there.
For example, I simply don't see how someone by virtue of their age can be any different in receiving and passing on the virus (ie children). But then, unlike others on PB, IANAVE.
Err. This is a joke!
That is a "gross simplification" of the density and travel of a virus through the air. Aerodynamics is a lot more complicated than depicted here.
Saying that the seats chosen were either Tory seats or Tory targets is absolutely meaningless when almost without exception virtually every town in England is either a Tory seat or a Tory target.
Especially when the definition of 'target' was a majority under 10,000 - I challenge you to name a handful of non-Tory town seats in England with a majority over 10,000.
Almost without exception the non-Tory seats with majorities over 10,000 are in cities not towns. So this is a totally meaningless story. May as well say every town chosen had a Tory candidate on the ballot paper.
So how did the NAO end up with a different list (which was set aside) ?
Anyhow, Wednesday night was reasonably busy in daughter’s pub. Last night it was dead. Second night this week that it’s been like this. Feels to her like the days leading up to the first lockdown. She fully expects a second one. But if there isn’t and trade does not pick up, she won’t make it to the end of October, never mind Xmas.
Depressing.
Still, more time to panic buy for a No Deal Brexit. So there is that ......
I think everyone I've known who's had a pub either loses every penny they've got or gets divorced or, more usually, both. It seems like an awfully precarious business where you end up being a feudal serf of the brewery or pubco and making yourself 2p every time you pull a pint for a drunken arsehole.
One of the reasons that pubs are in decline is because of large pub companies. Every margin is cut to the bone, every penny that can be squeezed out of a landlord is being wrung from them. A few years back, I wrote more than one IT system that was designed to do the squeezing
It really is a knife-edge business and on teh drinks side it can even be a loss-leader why is why so many pubs switched to gastro. Food was where the profit margins lay.
Food was the only reason we stayed afloat so long. I grew up in a pub (from age 7 to age 22). When we moved in, the village had four pubs. When we moved out, we were the last one standing.
Brewery-owned pubs (back then, anyway) used to be run as rackets for the brewery. They would inexorably raise your rent every year (ours went up more than tenfold over those years) and ensure your tied lager had a minimal profit margin (for you) until you went broke. Then you were out and the next lot came in.
There was never any shortage of people wanting to run a pub. It's one of those things that many people seemed to want to do. They'd turn up full of enthusiasm and optimism, and pour in their life savings over however-long they were there. And they would. Until they ran out of savings, couldn't go any further, and left, jaded and broke.
And the cycle would repeat. The brewery soaking family after family of their life savings, with people queueing up to oblige. We managed to stave it off for so many years by getting into providing food ahead of the crowd and building up a wide reputation for good food. And by Mum (who did the food) getting up at 6 every morning and going to bed at midnight (when the local doctor found out she'd omitted actually taking even one day off over a period of over a decade, he insisted she take a break, which she thinks saved her health).
It was only the independents that really stood a chance of surviving long-term and being profitable. I don't know if that's changed since I was there.
Saying that the seats chosen were either Tory seats or Tory targets is absolutely meaningless when almost without exception virtually every town in England is either a Tory seat or a Tory target.
Especially when the definition of 'target' was a majority under 10,000 - I challenge you to name a handful of non-Tory town seats in England with a majority over 10,000.
Almost without exception the non-Tory seats with majorities over 10,000 are in cities not towns. So this is a totally meaningless story. May as well say every town chosen had a Tory candidate on the ballot paper.
Labour's strongest towns are in the Northwest I think ?
Currently watching a slowly moving line of about 20 red flags being waved on the grouse moor on the other side of the Dale, maybe half a mile away. No idea whether this is to make it easier to shoot the grouse or harder for the guns to shoot each other or the beaters. Still, blue sky makes a nice change from the flash flooding yesterday.
Anyhow, Wednesday night was reasonably busy in daughter’s pub. Last night it was dead. Second night this week that it’s been like this. Feels to her like the days leading up to the first lockdown. She fully expects a second one. But if there isn’t and trade does not pick up, she won’t make it to the end of October, never mind Xmas.
Depressing.
That's not depressing. It shows that people are taking the warnings seriously and limiting the amount they mix socially with others, especially in settings where alchohol is likely to reduce inhibitions on behaviour. If we are to stand a chance of putting a lid on the scale and duration of the second wave, behaviour needs to change. So it's good that people are choosing to avoid pubs.
What is depressing is how limited Sunak's post October package of support was for even for businesses such as your daughter's, let alone those effectively unable to trade at all. There are plenty of businesses that are viable in the long term but which won't ever see it because they will go to the wall in the short term. There are also those in retail that would be viable if only they had the assurance now that there are to be long term changes towards easing business rates and introducing at least equivalent taxes on online retail. The sort of thing that could have been announced in the phantom Autumn Budget.
Agree strongly with the second para.
My daughter’s customers are not the type to go mad.
If people are meant to avoid pubs then say so, close them and provide proper support. Not this dishonest - you can drink but only until 10 - which just means that they slowly suffocate.
I think this has been the failure of messaging all along. If the govt wants to stop something then stop it.
Is your daughter in touch with the local shoots? Perhaps a packed tea or something post-shooting or packed lunches which might help shoots out under current circs?
I'm not saying that England is degenerating into a feudal state, but it's 2020 and a Tory government has engineered it so the only way people can make a living is by servicing the local shoot.
Anyhow, Wednesday night was reasonably busy in daughter’s pub. Last night it was dead. Second night this week that it’s been like this. Feels to her like the days leading up to the first lockdown. She fully expects a second one. But if there isn’t and trade does not pick up, she won’t make it to the end of October, never mind Xmas.
Depressing.
That's not depressing. It shows that people are taking the warnings seriously and limiting the amount they mix socially with others, especially in settings where alchohol is likely to reduce inhibitions on behaviour. If we are to stand a chance of putting a lid on the scale and duration of the second wave, behaviour needs to change. So it's good that people are choosing to avoid pubs.
What is depressing is how limited Sunak's post October package of support was for even for businesses such as your daughter's, let alone those effectively unable to trade at all. There are plenty of businesses that are viable in the long term but which won't ever see it because they will go to the wall in the short term. There are also those in retail that would be viable if only they had the assurance now that there are to be long term changes towards easing business rates and introducing at least equivalent taxes on online retail. The sort of thing that could have been announced in the phantom Autumn Budget.
Agree strongly with the second para.
My daughter’s customers are not the type to go mad.
If people are meant to avoid pubs then say so, close them and provide proper support. Not this dishonest - you can drink but only until 10 - which just means that they slowly suffocate.
I think this has been the failure of messaging all along. If the govt wants to stop something then stop it.
Is your daughter in touch with the local shoots? Perhaps a packed tea or something post-shooting or packed lunches which might help shoots out under current circs?
Good idea, thanks. Will mention to her.
(Very Downton Abbey, mind. Perhaps I could be the Maggie Smith character making acerbic comments in the background.......)
Many shoots didn't put birds down this year so there may be a reduced constituency. And those who have will be cautious in terms of onsite catering. So elevenses or lunches or tea from an external source might be very welcome.
And I think you are far too young to be a Maggie Smith character...
Hey, that USC DORNSIFE ELECTION "DAYBREAK" POLL tracker that I have been ignoring has a super interesting set of questions!
Out of all your social contacts who live in your state and are likely to vote in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, what percentage do you think will vote for: Joe Biden (Democrat), Donald Trump (Republican), Someone else?
- Of all people who live in your state and are likely to vote, what percentage do you think will vote for: Joe Biden (Democrat), Donald Trump (Republican), Someone else?
And the graphs they make are very different!
Basic Voting Question
Who are your contacts voting for
Who in your state voting for
that's with a 14day sample window. On a 7 day window the State graph achieves crossover in the last couple of days.
Saying that the seats chosen were either Tory seats or Tory targets is absolutely meaningless when almost without exception virtually every town in England is either a Tory seat or a Tory target.
Especially when the definition of 'target' was a majority under 10,000 - I challenge you to name a handful of non-Tory town seats in England with a majority over 10,000.
Almost without exception the non-Tory seats with majorities over 10,000 are in cities not towns. So this is a totally meaningless story. May as well say every town chosen had a Tory candidate on the ballot paper.
Labour's strongest towns are in the Northwest I think ?
Saying that the seats chosen were either Tory seats or Tory targets is absolutely meaningless when almost without exception virtually every town in England is either a Tory seat or a Tory target.
Especially when the definition of 'target' was a majority under 10,000 - I challenge you to name a handful of non-Tory town seats in England with a majority over 10,000.
Almost without exception the non-Tory seats with majorities over 10,000 are in cities not towns. So this is a totally meaningless story. May as well say every town chosen had a Tory candidate on the ballot paper.
So how did the NAO end up with a different list (which was set aside) ?
Hospitality and Entertainment Sectors need tailored and specific support. These are the ones who are going to have the worst impact (when socialisation is strongly discouraged, the sectors that service socialisation are going to be hugely hit - it doesn't take a superforecaster to work that out). Why not something like: "Pubs, restaurants, bars, clubs, theatres, cinemas (plus any obvious ones I've missed) get a monthly grant equal to their running costs as of the last two years accounts filed with HMRC." Yes, it'll cost, but the impact to the Treasury of letting otherwise viable businesses go to the wall in wholesale fashion would be far greater.
It is not just the venues, musicians, actors and artists are also hit hard from lockdown.
Rishi's Eat Out, Help Out has been a significant factor in failing to control the virus
I see the figure of only 5% of cases are acquired via the hospitality industry*. I don't know the source of it though, and I too am sceptical. We know that spreading events occur where there is a combination of crowding, poor ventilation and close proximity. Add in alcohol and you pretty much have the definition of pubs.
* I would be interested to see some proper figures published by T and T on where spreading events occur.
There was a thread the other day about how T&T don't actually establish where the virus was picked up in a lot of cases, if you get it at a restaurant a week ago then get symptomatic and pass it on to your family that's commni
University update. I'm a "mature" postgraduate student so my experience is not typical, however I'm finding WFH as a learning experience really quite good, at least for the theory side. It remains to be seen how the vocational aspect will function.
There's a stark difference however between teachers who have recorded lectures and sessions specifically for this new reality, and those who have just released the recordings of last year's in-person sessions.
I also find that those who break lectures up into 15-20 minute "podcasts" work much better than those doing the traditional 1 hour lectures. Makes it much easier to review and keep concentration at home. Especially if you have other commitments.
I am very bitter that I do not get the opportunity to at least have 1 pub visit with everyone on the course to start to build relationships. That was such an important part of last year's course, and helped with support doing the work, revision, and for help with job applications, etc. Not being able to do this is a massive, massive downside.
Hi Gallowgate,
I'm doing a PhD not too far from you geographically, and I'm teaching undergraduates in a few weeks (not sure if f2f or online yet!?!) so if you have any more feedback to help me prepare I'd appreciate that!
Regarding comments loading in Vanilla... first noticed it on an oldish iPad Air 4 about six weeks ago and commented here that @Malmesbury’s otherwise very helpful case tables meant I couldn’t load some pages at all... has steadily got worse until some days PB can’t be read at all... pages part loading then unloading and starting again... much better on my wife’s iPad Pro so I assume it’s a memory or processor thing... the time to load comments seems to correlate to the number of Twitter links on a page...
If you stop embedded tweets automatically loading the site works well.
I have posted two solutions up thread but PM me if you cannot work it out.
Anyhow, Wednesday night was reasonably busy in daughter’s pub. Last night it was dead. Second night this week that it’s been like this. Feels to her like the days leading up to the first lockdown. She fully expects a second one. But if there isn’t and trade does not pick up, she won’t make it to the end of October, never mind Xmas.
Depressing.
That's not depressing. It shows that people are taking the warnings seriously and limiting the amount they mix socially with others, especially in settings where alchohol is likely to reduce inhibitions on behaviour. If we are to stand a chance of putting a lid on the scale and duration of the second wave, behaviour needs to change. So it's good that people are choosing to avoid pubs.
What is depressing is how limited Sunak's post October package of support was for even for businesses such as your daughter's, let alone those effectively unable to trade at all. There are plenty of businesses that are viable in the long term but which won't ever see it because they will go to the wall in the short term. There are also those in retail that would be viable if only they had the assurance now that there are to be long term changes towards easing business rates and introducing at least equivalent taxes on online retail. The sort of thing that could have been announced in the phantom Autumn Budget.
Agree strongly with the second para.
My daughter’s customers are not the type to go mad.
If people are meant to avoid pubs then say so, close them and provide proper support. Not this dishonest - you can drink but only until 10 - which just means that they slowly suffocate.
I think this has been the failure of messaging all along. If the govt wants to stop something then stop it.
Is your daughter in touch with the local shoots? Perhaps a packed tea or something post-shooting or packed lunches which might help shoots out under current circs?
I'm not saying that England is degenerating into a feudal state, but it's 2020 and a Tory government has engineered it so the only way people can make a living is by servicing the local shoot.
The local shoot here is run by the village window cleaner.
Hey, that USC DORNSIFE ELECTION "DAYBREAK" POLL tracker that I have been ignoring has a super interesting set of questions!
Out of all your social contacts who live in your state and are likely to vote in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, what percentage do you think will vote for: Joe Biden (Democrat), Donald Trump (Republican), Someone else?
- Of all people who live in your state and are likely to vote, what percentage do you think will vote for: Joe Biden (Democrat), Donald Trump (Republican), Someone else?
And the graphs they make are very different!
Basic Voting Question
Who are your contacts voting for
Who in your state voting for
that's with a 14day sample window. On a 7 day window the State graph achieves crossover in the last couple of days.
'In the latest Emerson College/NewsNation national poll of likely voters, Vice President Joe Biden holds a four-point lead over President Trump, 48% to 44%. Four percent (4%) of voters plan to vote for someone else, and 4% are undecided. Of those who are still undecided, when forced to choose, 54% pick Trump, while 46% opt for Biden.'
Lockdowns should target the activities that spread the virus, they should not be blanket restrictions that actually cause resentment amongst those they are supposed to help. I’ve never seen any figures that tell us the main causes of spread but these should be published to help people modify behavior. Shutting everything down when you reach some magical infection rate per 100,000 may not even solve the problem. There needs to be a much more data driven approach, alongside local knowledge to determine the best way forward for a community.
Do people know?
There was that comical illustration of people standing and sitting with for the former the virus hitting them square in the face and for the latter it sailing over their heads.
And people on this very site were citing it as proof if proof be needed that pubs where people are sitting at tables provided more protection against it.
There is, in short, a lot of bollocks out there.
For example, I simply don't see how someone by virtue of their age can be any different in receiving and passing on the virus (ie children). But then, unlike others on PB, IANAVE.
Trump changed his registration to Mar Al Lago and so Florida is now his "home state". Biden's home state is Delaware, although he was born in Pennsylvania
Who'd have thunk it. People want to hear about solutions rather than how crap everything is all the time.
Because people say they want it, does not mean it is the best strategy to winning GE 2014. Many of the people who responded that they want Labour to release details will be tories, waiting for something to attack.
This is an example of how not to react when things start to look good locally but there is widespread infections elsewhere in the country
The Costa Blanca asks the Government to identify safe tourist destinations. According to the president of the Alicante Provincial Council and the Costa Blanca Tourist Board, Carlos Mazón, this system would be something like a policy of "traffic lights", which put red in unsafe destinations and green for others, such as the Costa Blanca, who is ready to receive visitors.
University update. I'm a "mature" postgraduate student so my experience is not typical, however I'm finding WFH as a learning experience really quite good, at least for the theory side. It remains to be seen how the vocational aspect will function.
There's a stark difference however between teachers who have recorded lectures and sessions specifically for this new reality, and those who have just released the recordings of last year's in-person sessions.
I also find that those who break lectures up into 15-20 minute "podcasts" work much better than those doing the traditional 1 hour lectures. Makes it much easier to review and keep concentration at home. Especially if you have other commitments.
I am very bitter that I do not get the opportunity to at least have 1 pub visit with everyone on the course to start to build relationships. That was such an important part of last year's course, and helped with support doing the work, revision, and for help with job applications, etc. Not being able to do this is a massive, massive downside.
That's good to know. I'm recording lectures as 20-30 minute episodes rather than the traditional hour. And compositing slides with demonstration material as I go.
The bad news is that it's unbelievably time-consuming. If I spend all day on it, with no other distractions, I can just about manage one episode per day - and be exhausted at the end of that day. I hope students appreciate the end-product...!
--AS
The trick is to record the videos in one take. No editing. If you make a mistake, or um and ahh tough. That's you being a real person, and it is what happens in actual lectures. It's tough to do at first, but to get everything done in a sensible time it has to be done that way.
20-30 minute videos is the way to go.
It's the not um and ah that causes problems. It's the glitch on the recording that drops out for several seconds (happens annoyingly often, despite updating drivers etc etc), the detuned motorcycle that roars past my house and drowns out everything, or the idiot who walks slowly past my house swearing at the top of his voice, the out-of-focus visualizer that (only on review) made the calculation illegible, that sort of thing. And also that it's just harder to perform to a camera than a live audience: I'm less fluent without that performance adrenaline, accidentally omit important points, and so on.
If I were a trained actor I could reasonably hope to work through those things and get everything in one or two takes. I'm a good lecturer, but it's not the same skillset. I'm just hoping that it's worth it in the end. I might decide to put the entire series on youtube after the course has finished, as a service to the world, so I'm trying to see the time as an investment.
Currently watching a slowly moving line of about 20 red flags being waved on the grouse moor on the other side of the Dale, maybe half a mile away. No idea whether this is to make it easier to shoot the grouse or harder for the guns to shoot each other or the beaters. Still, blue sky makes a nice change from the flash flooding yesterday.
I can currently hear shooting from my house. I'm unsure if it's the MoD shooting range or the clay pigeon shooting site. 🤷♂️ Obviously it could also be us irate northerners shooting each other.
Hey, that USC DORNSIFE ELECTION "DAYBREAK" POLL tracker that I have been ignoring has a super interesting set of questions!
Out of all your social contacts who live in your state and are likely to vote in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, what percentage do you think will vote for: Joe Biden (Democrat), Donald Trump (Republican), Someone else?
- Of all people who live in your state and are likely to vote, what percentage do you think will vote for: Joe Biden (Democrat), Donald Trump (Republican), Someone else?
And the graphs they make are very different!
Basic Voting Question
Who are your contacts voting for
Who in your state voting for
that's with a 14day sample window. On a 7 day window the State graph achieves crossover in the last couple of days.
The fact that Labour are on the side of fiscal sanity and the Tories aren't should be a huge wake up call to every single Tory in the land. All of the chortling about votes at a time when the nation is set to borrow £300bn in a single year is bullshit and shows how far the party has descended into partisan politics rather than looking out for the good of the nation.
At this point in time the Tory party led by Boris is a danger to the nation's future and Labour led by Starmer isn't. Let that sink in for every would patriot who votes Tory.
Saying that the seats chosen were either Tory seats or Tory targets is absolutely meaningless when almost without exception virtually every town in England is either a Tory seat or a Tory target.
Especially when the definition of 'target' was a majority under 10,000 - I challenge you to name a handful of non-Tory town seats in England with a majority over 10,000.
Almost without exception the non-Tory seats with majorities over 10,000 are in cities not towns. So this is a totally meaningless story. May as well say every town chosen had a Tory candidate on the ballot paper.
Labour's strongest towns are in the Northwest I think ?
Blackburn, Preston, Halton (Runcorn/Widnes) ?
Preston is a city.
Only in the sense that Sunderland is a city, i.e. not really.
Anyhow, Wednesday night was reasonably busy in daughter’s pub. Last night it was dead. Second night this week that it’s been like this. Feels to her like the days leading up to the first lockdown. She fully expects a second one. But if there isn’t and trade does not pick up, she won’t make it to the end of October, never mind Xmas.
Depressing.
Still, more time to panic buy for a No Deal Brexit. So there is that ......
I think everyone I've known who's had a pub either loses every penny they've got or gets divorced or, more usually, both. It seems like an awfully precarious business where you end up being a feudal serf of the brewery or pubco and making yourself 2p every time you pull a pint for a drunken arsehole.
One of the reasons that pubs are in decline is because of large pub companies. Every margin is cut to the bone, every penny that can be squeezed out of a landlord is being wrung from them. A few years back, I wrote more than one IT system that was designed to do the squeezing
It really is a knife-edge business and on teh drinks side it can even be a loss-leader why is why so many pubs switched to gastro. Food was where the profit margins lay.
Food was the only reason we stayed afloat so long. I grew up in a pub (from age 7 to age 22). When we moved in, the village had four pubs. When we moved out, we were the last one standing.
Brewery-owned pubs (back then, anyway) used to be run as rackets for the brewery. They would inexorably raise your rent every year (ours went up more than tenfold over those years) and ensure your tied lager had a minimal profit margin (for you) until you went broke. Then you were out and the next lot came in.
There was never any shortage of people wanting to run a pub. It's one of those things that many people seemed to want to do. They'd turn up full of enthusiasm and optimism, and pour in their life savings over however-long they were there. And they would. Until they ran out of savings, couldn't go any further, and left, jaded and broke.
And the cycle would repeat. The brewery soaking family after family of their life savings, with people queueing up to oblige. We managed to stave it off for so many years by getting into providing food ahead of the crowd and building up a wide reputation for good food. And by Mum (who did the food) getting up at 6 every morning and going to bed at midnight (when the local doctor found out she'd omitted actually taking even one day off over a period of over a decade, he insisted she take a break, which she thinks saved her health).
It was only the independents that really stood a chance of surviving long-term and being profitable. I don't know if that's changed since I was there.
The Managed Pubs had a better survivability rate because the landlord was effectively an employee. The franchised pubs were the money earners for the pub company because they had no costs and a tied supply deal.
Also, the pub companies are not immune. I did some work for a smaller one that was run by Ebeneezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley They eventually squeezed so hard that some of the franchisees went bust and that then caused problems for Scrooge & Marley who then went bust themselves. We kept them on a short leash, but they still owed us about £1K when they went down.
Absolutely the right policy to back scrapping, well done Keir.
Well done on losing the most reliable voting bloc in the country!
People said Sir Keir was too expensive a Tory sleeper agent, but I always knew it would pay off in the end...
What is the point of voting for your precious Tory party if you totally fuck the country?
What criteria, apart from "I always have done" do you employ before deciding on a Party to support?
For many it’s a way of life into which they are born, they meet their future partner at the YCs and then build their social life around branch activities and fellow members, if lucky they get gifted a council seat and are not expected to do any more than vote how they are told to, they have children and the cycle goes on.
The fact that Labour are on the side of fiscal sanity and the Tories aren't should be a huge wake up call to every single Tory in the land. All of the chortling about votes at a time when the nation is set to borrow £300bn in a single year is bullshit and shows how far the party has descended into partisan politics rather than looking out for the good of the nation.
At this point in time the Tory party led by Boris is a danger to the nation's future and Labour led by Starmer isn't. Let that sink in for every would patriot who votes Tory.
At the moment the most fiscally conservative party leader is Ed Davey and Starmer is more of a fiscal conservative than Corbyn or even Ed Miliband was while Boris is much more of a big spender than Cameron was, that also reflects the fact the Conservative vote under Boris is more working class than it was under Cameron and the Labour vote is more middle class under Starmer than it was under Brown and Ed Miliband
The fact that Labour are on the side of fiscal sanity and the Tories aren't should be a huge wake up call to every single Tory in the land. All of the chortling about votes at a time when the nation is set to borrow £300bn in a single year is bullshit and shows how far the party has descended into partisan politics rather than looking out for the good of the nation.
At this point in time the Tory party led by Boris is a danger to the nation's future and Labour led by Starmer isn't. Let that sink in for every would patriot who votes Tory.
At the moment the most fiscally conservative party leader is Ed Davey and Starmer is more of a fiscal conservative than Corbyn or even Ed Miliband was while Boris is much more of a big spender than Cameron was, that also reflects the fact the Conservative vote under Boris is more working class than it was under Cameron and the Labour vote is more middle class under Starmer than it was under Brown and Ed Miliband
Thank you for pointing out the obvious and completely missing the point, as always.
Comments
And the shorter lectures are great because you can complete one without your concentration starting to waiver, tick it off your to-do list, get the dopamine rush of achievement, go and walk the dog for example, and then come back ready and raring to go for the next one!
Thank you so much, on behalf of your students, for your efforts!
Worth remembering that the Bank has done £310bn of Quantitative Easing this year so far (and will probably do more yet) and the UK borrowing total so far during the pandemic is £174bn - so unless I'm being naive there is still some headroom left is there not?
It's tough to do at first, but to get everything done in a sensible time it has to be done that way.
20-30 minute videos is the way to go.
Saying that the seats chosen were either Tory seats or Tory targets is absolutely meaningless when almost without exception virtually every town in England is either a Tory seat or a Tory target.
Especially when the definition of 'target' was a majority under 10,000 - I challenge you to name a handful of non-Tory town seats in England with a majority over 10,000.
Almost without exception the non-Tory seats with majorities over 10,000 are in cities not towns. So this is a totally meaningless story. May as well say every town chosen had a Tory candidate on the ballot paper.
Borrowing less bad than feared for the period to August (but obviously the second wave still to hit).
Not sure it is appropriate for Cummings to be chairing cabinet committees either.
Hospitality and Entertainment Sectors need tailored and specific support. These are the ones who are going to have the worst impact (when socialisation is strongly discouraged, the sectors that service socialisation are going to be hugely hit - it doesn't take a superforecaster to work that out). Why not something like: "Pubs, restaurants, bars, clubs, theatres, cinemas (plus any obvious ones I've missed) get a monthly grant equal to their running costs as of the last two years accounts filed with HMRC." Yes, it'll cost, but the impact to the Treasury of letting otherwise viable businesses go to the wall in wholesale fashion would be far greater.
Students being required to sit in their rooms in Halls of Residence over Christmas is not viable. If ordered, the instruction would be ignored en masse. "Never give an order you know will be disobeyed." Start setting up the process for directed testing of all students at each university in the final week before Christmas (together with a ban on socialisation FOR THAT WEEK, noting that anyone caught breaking it may be liable to go through with the stay-in-Halls-until-two-weeks-is-up rule). You'll get some false negatives, but it should be enough to prevent any surge from it.
I don't think these should be that difficult to enact?
My daughter’s customers are not the type to go mad.
If people are meant to avoid pubs then say so, close them and provide proper support. Not this dishonest - you can drink but only until 10 - which just means that they slowly suffocate.
https://www.ft.com/content/48495b7f-b749-407b-9cfe-c1a34f6a9cf5
https://twitter.com/YouGov/status/1309397273005248514?s=20
Edited: and she made a profit in her first year and increased turnover by 60%. People want to use it. This is not an unviable business. These jobs are not unviable. It’s this wretched government which is unviable. Grrrr........
Having said that, lecturers in Spring were having to adapt so quickly I do not blame them from utilising past teaching material as a one off.
Is your daughter in touch with the local shoots? Perhaps a packed tea or something post-shooting or packed lunches which might help shoots out under current circs?
It really is a knife-edge business and on teh drinks side it can even be a loss-leader why is why so many pubs switched to gastro. Food was where the profit margins lay.
(Very Downton Abbey, mind. Perhaps I could be the Maggie Smith character making acerbic comments in the background.......)
This line stood out for me - “ Evans combined technical proficiency with moral passion to an unusual degree.“
If only we had more people in power of which this could be said.
https://twitter.com/chrishanretty/status/1309214174166343690
toilet roll distribution centreLidl. Everyone wearing one and staff now seem to have visors.I grew up in a pub (from age 7 to age 22). When we moved in, the village had four pubs. When we moved out, we were the last one standing.
Brewery-owned pubs (back then, anyway) used to be run as rackets for the brewery. They would inexorably raise your rent every year (ours went up more than tenfold over those years) and ensure your tied lager had a minimal profit margin (for you) until you went broke. Then you were out and the next lot came in.
There was never any shortage of people wanting to run a pub. It's one of those things that many people seemed to want to do. They'd turn up full of enthusiasm and optimism, and pour in their life savings over however-long they were there. And they would. Until they ran out of savings, couldn't go any further, and left, jaded and broke.
And the cycle would repeat. The brewery soaking family after family of their life savings, with people queueing up to oblige. We managed to stave it off for so many years by getting into providing food ahead of the crowd and building up a wide reputation for good food. And by Mum (who did the food) getting up at 6 every morning and going to bed at midnight (when the local doctor found out she'd omitted actually taking even one day off over a period of over a decade, he insisted she take a break, which she thinks saved her health).
It was only the independents that really stood a chance of surviving long-term and being profitable. I don't know if that's changed since I was there.
Blackburn, Preston, Halton (Runcorn/Widnes) ?
Mental health crisis incoming. Some young people really struggle with leaving home for first time. It is a major life change and at a vulnerable age.
Bonkers.
And I think you are far too young to be a Maggie Smith character...
Out of all your social contacts who live in your state and are likely to vote in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, what percentage do you
think will vote for: Joe Biden (Democrat), Donald Trump (Republican), Someone else?
- Of all people who live in your state and are likely to vote, what percentage do you think will vote for: Joe Biden (Democrat), Donald Trump
(Republican), Someone else?
And the graphs they make are very different!
Basic Voting Question
Who are your contacts voting for
Who in your state voting for
that's with a 14day sample window. On a 7 day window the State graph achieves crossover in the last couple of days.
On the ladies side I don't think few would complain about Michelle Obama, Angelina Jolie, the Queen and Oprah Winfrey as the top 4
I'm doing a PhD not too far from you geographically, and I'm teaching undergraduates in a few weeks (not sure if f2f or online yet!?!) so if you have any more feedback to help me prepare I'd appreciate that!
I have posted two solutions up thread but PM me if you cannot work it out.
https://emersonpolling.reportablenews.com/pr/september-2020-biden-holds-his-lead-voters-split-on-supreme-court-nominee-timetable
Many of the people who responded that they want Labour to release details will be tories, waiting for something to attack.
The Costa Blanca asks the Government to identify safe tourist destinations. According to the president of the Alicante Provincial Council and the Costa Blanca Tourist Board, Carlos Mazón, this system would be something like a policy of "traffic lights", which put red in unsafe destinations and green for others, such as the Costa Blanca, who is ready to receive visitors.
America is fucked.
If I were a trained actor I could reasonably hope to work through those things and get everything in one or two takes. I'm a good lecturer, but it's not the same skillset. I'm just hoping that it's worth it in the end. I might decide to put the entire series on youtube after the course has finished, as a service to the world, so I'm trying to see the time as an investment.
--AS
https://twitter.com/GuidoFawkes/status/1309420377496580096?s=20
Well done on losing the most reliable voting bloc in the country!
People said Sir Keir was too expensive a Tory sleeper agent, but I always knew it would pay off in the end...
At this point in time the Tory party led by Boris is a danger to the nation's future and Labour led by Starmer isn't. Let that sink in for every would patriot who votes Tory.
What criteria, apart from "I always have done" do you employ before deciding on a Party to support?
Also, the pub companies are not immune. I did some work for a smaller one that was run by Ebeneezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley