I don't think Keir Starmer is an Iain Duncan Smith. The latter is, in my view, a complete berk. I would say a Tim Nice-But-Dim except that I don't think he's very nice.
KS is a good man in lots of ways: very worthy. He's more of a John Smith than an IDS. I think John Smith would have beaten Major but not by the same landslide that the charismatic Tony Blair achieved. Of course, John Smith was Scottish (with a lovely brogue) and would have carried the north in a way that I'm afraid Starmer never will.
I fear for Sir Keir. Unless from here Boris makes a total balls-up, which is always possible with him, the next election is probably by now lost to Labour in my view.
Boris's equals in electoral ability, luck and genius are Thatcher and Blair. When their wheels came off they were unable to recover. The party (under Major and Blair respectively) won an election after the wheels had come off (1992 and 2005) but against weak opposition.
IMHO Boris is likely to try engineering an election as soon as he decently can, knowing that when his wheels come off he will not be an electoral asset.
The moment people start laughing at him rather than with him, and by some mysterious process his moral weaknesses become impediments rather than stories about blondes rather enjoyed by Mail and Sun readers, he can't recover.
A 2022/23 election could see him to 2027/8 and 8/9 years as PM + a shot at longer. Longer already then than Asquith, Wilson and Churchill.
So, why don't we stop implementing policies that jack house prices up?
No? Okay then, just watch London go further and further to Labour
The only way to stop house prices going up is to build more houses. It isn't rocket science.
Despite your perverse obsession with the insane notion that taxing buyers more makes buying easier.
I very rarely respond to you because you post utter crap but this is embarrassing, even for you. I recall when you suggested the solution to London living was to live outside and to commute in, you recommended I cycle in three and a half hours to Central. You know nothing, yet you rattle on like you live in London - you don't, it's obvious.
You were schooled last time about why the stamp duty cut is a disaster for housing and why it makes houses more expensive and therefore harder to obtain - but here you are again spouting nonsense.
The reason I don't respond to your posts is because you don't listen.
Now I will go back to ignoring you. Bye.
You're posting complete and utter codswallop!
I never, ever, suggested cycling for three and a half hours, that is a lie. I did say cycling on an ebike was a viable option for much shorter commutes leaving trains etc with longer distance commutes. Which is not a remotely innovative suggestion of course even the Prime Minister and former Mayor of London, or Our own Genial Host are fond of cycling too.
As for stamp duty it is bollocks I was "schooled" that hasn't happened. Again stamp duty is a tax on buyers that is required to be paid up front in full. The idea that buyers are better served by paying more taxes is preposterous nonsense. You can't solve every problem by taxing people more
House price problems seem to be - since 2010 - very much a London specific issue.
It’s weird, therefore, that London is comparatively low rise —- and that there are large stretches of effectively vacant, post industrial land towards the East.
You mean that outside London people don't find house prices too high? I was passing an estate agent yesterday and glanced in the window - prices for semis round here start at £400K and detached homes are typically over a million. And Godalming is reasonably prosperous but it's not Mayfair. Essentially, if you grow up here you need to stay with your parents, get 50 grand from your parents for a deposit, or move somewhere far away. It's seen as a real problem by everyone, including Tories. Much of the southeast seems in a similar dilemma.
Rents similarly. I pay £1K/month for my one-bedroom flat, and paid exactly half that for an almost identical flat in Nottingham. If I could definitely work from home full-time, I'd go back there tomorrow. Possibly HS2 will change the calculations.
Don't hold your breath on HS2 to Toton-Notts, Nick. Years and years away, if they even ever actually agree to build the 2nd bit of the Y branching to the Sheffield/Leeds etc.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Temperature is of little significance - its just an extra layer of clothes or not - as long as its sunny and dry.
And once you go above 20C it starts to have negative effects if you're exercising or working outside.
Indeed. Tuesday evening's run was a little hot and sweaty, in an unfamiliar 19 degrees
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
Yeah this is starting to look like a really serious proposition. British Fox News it ain’t.
Both BBC and Sky are London centric and indeed Sky introduce themselves as the only broadcaster coming from the heart of Westminster, without realising just how Metropolitan that sounds
I am surprised at the number of good quality journalists signing for GBnews and it will be interesting to see just how well they are received, and whether the other two realise the UK is not just London
Amusing to think people believe there is a heart in Westminster.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
We are due an absolute rotter of a British summer. Haven't had one in a while.
I remember one summer in the 80s or early 90s when there was one - ONE - decent hot weekend of sustained sun. I remember it making me so sad I nearly cried. I was a sensitive youth.
So, did Johnson just blurt out any old excuse or has he moved the goalposts again when he said we can't meet up indoors because vaccine is not 100%.
Are we now awaiting a 100% vaccine?
The plan, from the original vaccination structure, is to vaccinate the over 50s first to get rid of most of the deaths, the over 40s to get rid of most of the hospitalisations and then the rest of the population to achieve as close to herd immunity as we can get.
No vaccine is 100% - which is why you need a high take-up, to create as much herd immunity as possible to protect those the vaccine does nothing for, or those who can't take the vaccine.
I recall when some were saying that given the levels of testing going on it wasn't going to be possible to be under 5000 daily positives for many months.
At this rate we could be below 1000 daily positives and effectively zero daily deaths by 21 June.
There will be no excuse not to remove all restrictions domestically. International travel is another matter though.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Temperature is of little significance - its just an extra layer of clothes or not - as long as its sunny and dry.
And once you go above 20C it starts to have negative effects if you're exercising or working outside.
Must be a personal thing. But walking out into a 25C day is very different, for me, to walking out into a 10C day with a stiff wind, even if they are both sunny.
The first - for me - is an absolute pleasure in itself, shirtsleeve order, you can lie down on the grass in the park, you can have a lovely picnic with cold white wine, the human body evolved in these temperatures - on the savannah - that's why we love them, they are our comfort zone.
A chilly, windy, sunny 10C is preferable to rain or fog or sleet or whatever, but I do not smile and think Aaaaaah.
10C with a stiff wind might not be much fun but then 25C with a stiff wind isn't either.
And you can have a great winter walk at 0C provided its sunny and dry and without wind.
Picnics ?
They're for people who don't have their own garden.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Temperature is of little significance - its just an extra layer of clothes or not - as long as its sunny and dry.
And once you go above 20C it starts to have negative effects if you're exercising or working outside.
Must be a personal thing. But walking out into a 25C day is very different, for me, to walking out into a 10C day with a stiff wind, even if they are both sunny.
The first - for me - is an absolute pleasure in itself, shirtsleeve order, you can lie down on the grass in the park, you can have a lovely picnic with cold white wine, the human body evolved in these temperatures - on the savannah - that's why we love them, they are our comfort zone.
A chilly, windy, sunny 10C is preferable to rain or fog or sleet or whatever, but I do not smile and think Aaaaaah.
10C with a stiff wind might not be much fun but then 25C with a stiff wind isn't either.
And you can have a great winter walk at 0C provided its sunny and dry and without wind.
Picnics ?
They're for people who don't have their own garden.
Or louts who don't want to clean up afterwards.
I never understood the last part.
My mother always would put a bin bag or 2 in the bottom of the bag/basket for a picnic - something I've continued doing.
Afterwards, you bag up the remains. If the bins are full, stack the bag next to the bin.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Temperature is of little significance - its just an extra layer of clothes or not - as long as its sunny and dry.
And once you go above 20C it starts to have negative effects if you're exercising or working outside.
Must be a personal thing. But walking out into a 25C day is very different, for me, to walking out into a 10C day with a stiff wind, even if they are both sunny.
The first - for me - is an absolute pleasure in itself, shirtsleeve order, you can lie down on the grass in the park, you can have a lovely picnic with cold white wine, the human body evolved in these temperatures - on the savannah - that's why we love them, they are our comfort zone.
A chilly, windy, sunny 10C is preferable to rain or fog or sleet or whatever, but I do not smile and think Aaaaaah.
10C with a stiff wind might not be much fun but then 25C with a stiff wind isn't either.
And you can have a great winter walk at 0C provided its sunny and dry and without wind.
Picnics ?
They're for people who don't have their own garden.
Or louts who don't want to clean up afterwards.
You sound like a peculiar, meteorological version of Scrooge. Summer? Bah, humbug. Poor people having picnics?? Why? Get them to the workhouse
But I suspect you are trolling so I shall politely chuckle and move on
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
Radio 4 - £100m Radio 5 Live - £45m Times Radio - £3m (reportedly)
OK, Radio 4 does drama and wide variety of programming. Radio 5 Live does sport, But Times Radio shows you can do things far, far, far cheaper if you want to - particularly if you don't do newsgathering.
BBC TV News spends hundreds of millions but not really comparable given huge number of different services and all the nations / local stuff.
Sky News costs £100m for one 24 hour national station.
Now surely GB News can hugely underspend Sky if they essentially do a TV version of Times Radio - basically do away with 90% of the newsgathering - just have a very small group of reporters. And that's what they are doing - just 140 journalists + 20 support staff.
And even the high profile names don't cost much in overall scheme of things - maybe 7 or 8 high profile people - even on £500k each that's only £4m. And they won't be on that - BBC News Channel presenters are generally on about £150k. OK, Andrew Neil will want more as will Piers Morgan obviously if they get him - but £200k will be enough for people like Stewart, McCoy, Brazier. And others like Michelle Dewberry will be on a lot less.
The arts and media will mostly go back to the office, because they are extrovert businesses that demand social interaction: face to face meetings, lunches, brainstorm sessions. You can't do it on Zoom
There will also, I reckon, be career pressure on people to go back to the office, but it will be slow and near-invisible (at first). If you work from home most of the time you will miss out on all the chance stuff - lucky encounters, water cooler moments, ideas in the pub after work - which can often advance careers (and build team spirit)
The WFHers will become outsiders. Possibly resented by those who slog into the office
I know a woman in an arts related job who worked from home long before Covid, when the rule was office for everyone. She got away with it because she was notably successful, efficient and likeable, but even SHE generated resentment, and she knew it. One slip up and she'd have been sacked
Agree on the arts and media. Our media people are definitely the keenest to actually meet up - as you say, media is a naturally extrovert thing.
Not sure about the rest - it sounds a bit Londony. Pre-lockdown round here we'd go to the pub more or less often, but nobody ever talked about work, ideas, etc. It was just getting together to be friendly before we headed off for our different commutes - younger staff especially can't afford to live nearby, and cross-country public transport is a joke. So even pre-lockdown it felt like people with completely separate lives coming in to do some largely distinct work which happened to be in the same place. By contrast, if the Industry series is what it's like, even exaggerated, a City firm has rows of people interacting like mad, and then socialising like mad. I get why they feel they're missing out, but maybe you can see why non-city places in expensive areas feel different.
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
Surely eventually like all socialists, the Scottish Government must eventually run out of other people's money to spend.
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Temperature is of little significance - its just an extra layer of clothes or not - as long as its sunny and dry.
And once you go above 20C it starts to have negative effects if you're exercising or working outside.
Must be a personal thing. But walking out into a 25C day is very different, for me, to walking out into a 10C day with a stiff wind, even if they are both sunny.
The first - for me - is an absolute pleasure in itself, shirtsleeve order, you can lie down on the grass in the park, you can have a lovely picnic with cold white wine, the human body evolved in these temperatures - on the savannah - that's why we love them, they are our comfort zone.
A chilly, windy, sunny 10C is preferable to rain or fog or sleet or whatever, but I do not smile and think Aaaaaah.
Agreed. There's nothing to me quite like strolling on a beach somewhere lovely in shorts, t-shirt, bare feet or flip flops. Especially when it's already warm at 9am. Bliss.
Old King Cole, whereabouts in Thailand are your family? The rules the Thai authorities have brought in are fairly easy to follow: both vaccinations + a test + you need to stay in the same region where you arrived for the first 7 days i.e. not travel around Thailand for the first week. And you need to install their App. None of which is particularly arduous.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
We are due an absolute rotter of a British summer. Haven't had one in a while.
I remember one summer in the 80s or early 90s when there was one - ONE - decent hot weekend of sustained sun. I remember it making me so sad I nearly cried. I was a sensitive youth.
It also drove my urge to travel. Never again!
Long, long ago, when I was still at primary school, my father took a 3 year lease on a seafront shop in SE Essex. Open Easter to October, used for storage the rest of the time. He sold suntan lotion, cheap cosmetics, non-pharmacy medicines there. The first year it was amazing; hot sun, the crowd flocked down from London. The second year was poor. The third reasonable, so he took it on again. All three of the years had poor- average to poor summer. That was that.
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
How does that work, then? "pay more tax"
Who do you think will end up footing the bill for this shite?
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Temperature is of little significance - its just an extra layer of clothes or not - as long as its sunny and dry.
And once you go above 20C it starts to have negative effects if you're exercising or working outside.
Must be a personal thing. But walking out into a 25C day is very different, for me, to walking out into a 10C day with a stiff wind, even if they are both sunny.
The first - for me - is an absolute pleasure in itself, shirtsleeve order, you can lie down on the grass in the park, you can have a lovely picnic with cold white wine, the human body evolved in these temperatures - on the savannah - that's why we love them, they are our comfort zone.
A chilly, windy, sunny 10C is preferable to rain or fog or sleet or whatever, but I do not smile and think Aaaaaah.
10C with a stiff wind might not be much fun but then 25C with a stiff wind isn't either.
And you can have a great winter walk at 0C provided its sunny and dry and without wind.
Picnics ?
They're for people who don't have their own garden.
Or louts who don't want to clean up afterwards.
But I suspect you are trolling so I shall politely chuckle and move on
If you're in your 20s and 30s, I genuinely think there is nothing like London in the UK. Beyond that, yeah I will leave
Truthfully, I’ve never liked the place, although I’m still in my 30s. And I liked it much less in my twenties because I had to spend a lot more time there.
I think London is, when you have no money, the most tedious and unpleasant place in the world.
Yes. To enjoy london you have to be young, or rich.
Yeah, I'd say being under 30 or with an income of over £45k is necessary to enjoy life in London. If you have both then it's even better!
Be under 30, have a massive deposit for a house and be earning over £45K and you'll be laughing
I have to say a £45k salary up north, and outside of a metropolitan area is a king's ransom of a sum. Fortunately I'm a little older now and my wife and I now both earn about that, which allows us to live in a period terrace home that would be closer to a million than half a million in the less nice areas of London.
I can see why some are attracted to the energy of London, but i just like my nice comfortable life living a prosperity my working class parent's generation could not have dreamed of.
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
Surely eventually like all socialists, the Scottish Government must eventually run out of other people's money to spend.
It will never happen, they'll just blame Westminster and Westminster is too scared of Scottish independence to ever say no.
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
How does that work, then? "pay more tax"
Who do you think will end up footing the bill for this shite?
Perhaps I should have been more specific. Namely, how do decisions made on the Scottish Health Service budget affect the allocation of funds from central government in such a way that "English" taxpayers have to pay more? It may be the effect of a lunchtime beer on a Friday, but I can't see how that works.
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
How does that work, then? "pay more tax"
Who do you think will end up footing the bill for this shite?
Perhaps I should have been more specific. Namely, how do decisions made on the Scottish Health Service budget affect the allocation of funds from central government in such a way that "English" taxpayers have to pay more? It may be the effect of a lunchtime beer on a Friday, but I can't see how that works.
It shouldn't, and yet state spending per capita is 30% higher in Scotland than on England. So the reality is that Westminster will meekly agree to foot the bill as it always does.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
How does that work, then? "pay more tax"
Who do you think will end up footing the bill for this shite?
Perhaps I should have been more specific. Namely, how do decisions made on the Scottish Health Service budget affect the allocation of funds from central government in such a way that "English" taxpayers have to pay more? It may be the effect of a lunchtime beer on a Friday, but I can't see how that works.
It shouldn't, and yet state spending per capita is 30% higher in Scotland than on England. So the reality is that Westminster will meekly agree to foot the bill as it always does.
You said "pay more tax because the SNP are paying nurses more". That is, an increase over the Barnett formula as it is now. How does that work?
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Temperature is of little significance - its just an extra layer of clothes or not - as long as its sunny and dry.
And once you go above 20C it starts to have negative effects if you're exercising or working outside.
Must be a personal thing. But walking out into a 25C day is very different, for me, to walking out into a 10C day with a stiff wind, even if they are both sunny.
The first - for me - is an absolute pleasure in itself, shirtsleeve order, you can lie down on the grass in the park, you can have a lovely picnic with cold white wine, the human body evolved in these temperatures - on the savannah - that's why we love them, they are our comfort zone.
A chilly, windy, sunny 10C is preferable to rain or fog or sleet or whatever, but I do not smile and think Aaaaaah.
10C with a stiff wind might not be much fun but then 25C with a stiff wind isn't either.
And you can have a great winter walk at 0C provided its sunny and dry and without wind.
Picnics ?
They're for people who don't have their own garden.
Or louts who don't want to clean up afterwards.
You sound like a peculiar, meteorological version of Scrooge. Summer? Bah, humbug. Poor people having picnics?? Why? Get them to the workhouse
But I suspect you are trolling so I shall politely chuckle and move on
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
How does that work, then? "pay more tax"
Who do you think will end up footing the bill for this shite?
Perhaps I should have been more specific. Namely, how do decisions made on the Scottish Health Service budget affect the allocation of funds from central government in such a way that "English" taxpayers have to pay more? It may be the effect of a lunchtime beer on a Friday, but I can't see how that works.
It shouldn't, and yet state spending per capita is 30% higher in Scotland than on England. So the reality is that Westminster will meekly agree to foot the bill as it always does.
I understand your frustration but in practice I don't think you are right.
Both the UK and Scotland budgets have been set for 2021/22. If SNP wants to spend more on X then it'll have to spend less on Y.
And apparently Scotland has been using one-off Covid funding from Westminster to fund other areas. When that funding stops, they'll have to make cuts to those other areas.
The arts and media will mostly go back to the office, because they are extrovert businesses that demand social interaction: face to face meetings, lunches, brainstorm sessions. You can't do it on Zoom
There will also, I reckon, be career pressure on people to go back to the office, but it will be slow and near-invisible (at first). If you work from home most of the time you will miss out on all the chance stuff - lucky encounters, water cooler moments, ideas in the pub after work - which can often advance careers (and build team spirit)
The WFHers will become outsiders. Possibly resented by those who slog into the office
I know a woman in an arts related job who worked from home long before Covid, when the rule was office for everyone. She got away with it because she was notably successful, efficient and likeable, but even SHE generated resentment, and she knew it. One slip up and she'd have been sacked
Agree on the arts and media. Our media people are definitely the keenest to actually meet up - as you say, media is a naturally extrovert thing.
Not sure about the rest - it sounds a bit Londony. Pre-lockdown round here we'd go to the pub more or less often, but nobody ever talked about work, ideas, etc. It was just getting together to be friendly before we headed off for our different commutes - younger staff especially can't afford to live nearby, and cross-country public transport is a joke. So even pre-lockdown it felt like people with completely separate lives coming in to do some largely distinct work which happened to be in the same place. By contrast, if the Industry series is what it's like, even exaggerated, a City firm has rows of people interacting like mad, and then socialising like mad. I get why they feel they're missing out, but maybe you can see why non-city places in expensive areas feel different.
Yes, I am probably being a bit London-centric (tho what I say must surely apply, to a lesser extent, in Manc, Leeds, Edinburgh, Bristol etc)
But the positive effects of clever creative clusters are real. Silicon Valley boomed because of fortunate proximities, which made for unexpected alchemies.
The campus-like atmos of the new King's Cross - with the Guardian meeting Google meeting St Martin's School of Art meeting Universal Music meeting the Wellcome Centre - is deliberately done, because we know this works. It will all be lost if everyone stays home, so they will go to work.
I accept it must be very different if you are commuting into a random business park in Surrey or Wiltshire or whatever. That must often feel pointless.
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
How does that work, then? "pay more tax"
Who do you think will end up footing the bill for this shite?
Perhaps I should have been more specific. Namely, how do decisions made on the Scottish Health Service budget affect the allocation of funds from central government in such a way that "English" taxpayers have to pay more? It may be the effect of a lunchtime beer on a Friday, but I can't see how that works.
It shouldn't, and yet state spending per capita is 30% higher in Scotland than on England. So the reality is that Westminster will meekly agree to foot the bill as it always does.
You said "pay more tax because the SNP are paying nurses more". That is, an increase over the Barnett formula as it is now. How does that work?
You're quite right, it doesn't lead automatically to an increase in taxation for English taxpayers. It could potentially lead to successful public sector campaigns in England to match their Scottish counterparts, whereupon Scotland would get more in Barnett consequentials, whereupon the cycle would repeat, but that's not guaranteed and not a direct impact.
Cases genuinely look to have shifted off their plateau. Just looking at England+Scotland+NI (to take Wales out of the equation, even though it has the lowest case rate of any of the home nations), the seven-day average of cases by specimen date has dropped by over 20% in a week (looking at up to 31st March only to reduce data lag issues, and adding 10% to the 31st of March to adjust for lag and 2% to the two days before, and 1% to the two days prior to that, as that looks about the average lagged data from there). That's after being plateaued for weeks previously.
I reckon we could be down to single figures of daily deaths by the end of the month, and close to double figures in admissions, and between 1000-1500 total in hospital (c. 200 in mechanical ventilation beds). Cases could plateau again or drop through the floor, but who cares as long as hospitalisations continue to march downwards?
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
How does that work, then? "pay more tax"
Who do you think will end up footing the bill for this shite?
Perhaps I should have been more specific. Namely, how do decisions made on the Scottish Health Service budget affect the allocation of funds from central government in such a way that "English" taxpayers have to pay more? It may be the effect of a lunchtime beer on a Friday, but I can't see how that works.
It shouldn't, and yet state spending per capita is 30% higher in Scotland than on England. So the reality is that Westminster will meekly agree to foot the bill as it always does.
You said "pay more tax because the SNP are paying nurses more". That is, an increase over the Barnett formula as it is now. How does that work?
You're quite right, it doesn't lead automatically to an increase in taxation for English taxpayers. It could potentially lead to successful public sector campaigns in England to match their Scottish counterparts, whereupon Scotland would get more in Barnett consequentials, whereupon the cycle would repeat, but that's not guaranteed and not a direct impact.
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
How does that work, then? "pay more tax"
Who do you think will end up footing the bill for this shite?
Perhaps I should have been more specific. Namely, how do decisions made on the Scottish Health Service budget affect the allocation of funds from central government in such a way that "English" taxpayers have to pay more? It may be the effect of a lunchtime beer on a Friday, but I can't see how that works.
It shouldn't, and yet state spending per capita is 30% higher in Scotland than on England. So the reality is that Westminster will meekly agree to foot the bill as it always does.
You said "pay more tax because the SNP are paying nurses more". That is, an increase over the Barnett formula as it is now. How does that work?
You're quite right, it doesn't lead automatically to an increase in taxation for English taxpayers. It could potentially lead to successful public sector campaigns in England to match their Scottish counterparts, whereupon Scotland would get more in Barnett consequentials, whereupon the cycle would repeat, but that's not guaranteed and not a direct impact.
Thanks - that was my understanding too, but it didn't sound as if MaxPB had that in mind.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Strange, quite sad post.
No, I want people to get the maximum pleasure from life.
And I think that should be a 52 week lifestyle not a concentration on a week or two.
Holidays can be good, travel can be good.
But if they become the sole focus then that seems sad to me.
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
Surely eventually like all socialists, the Scottish Government must eventually run out of other people's money to spend.
It will never happen, they'll just blame Westminster and Westminster is too scared of Scottish independence to ever say no.
The problem with that logic is that it allows the SNP to dangle ever more baubles in front of the Scottish electorate, baubles the English don't get which makes it look like the SNP are better at managing the economy and taxes etc
Westminster needs to say no. Let the SNP cut their own cloth. If that means some baubles get lost then so be it.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Strange, quite sad post.
And also incorrect. The islands the Ionian, Aegean and Adriatic seas have got by far the best beaches in Europe. Ours don't even come close for sand fineness, water temperature and cleanliness. Water temperature is really important for a great experience on the beach, ours tend to top out at around a pretty cold 18-20 degrees while the sea around those islands usually get to 28-30 degrees. The difference is huge and worth the expense of going there.
Plus the food in Italy or Greece is not only better, it's about half the cost of what we get here in our coastal towns. Same as hotels and villas, we're going to the Pembroke coast and our cottage works out to about £450 per night for four of us, in southern Italy or a Greek island we'd get an absolute palace for €500 per night.
Holidaying in the UK is fine, and I don't take issue with anyone that does it. However, to say it offers the same as what you get southern Europe or SE Asia is ridiculous. UK holidays are about surfing, nature walks and pub lunches, Southern European holidays about beaches, wine on a terrace and a taste of the Mediterranean diet. They aren't comparable, though each are good in their own way.
Despite what @MaxPB and Rishi Sunak may want, back in the real world, working from home or "working from anywhere", as it is also being titled, is very much here to stay.
Large numbers of organisations have recognised the new normal and despite the reactionaries working in and around Liverpool Street, the way ahead is clear. Maximum of 2 days per week in the office and the days of battery-hen style banks of desks are gone - to be replaced by collaborative and networking spaces designed for creative working.
It is and will be a revolution and will have huge impacts despite those frantically (or desperately) trying to put the genie back in the bottle.
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
How does that work, then? "pay more tax"
Who do you think will end up footing the bill for this shite?
Perhaps I should have been more specific. Namely, how do decisions made on the Scottish Health Service budget affect the allocation of funds from central government in such a way that "English" taxpayers have to pay more? It may be the effect of a lunchtime beer on a Friday, but I can't see how that works.
It shouldn't, and yet state spending per capita is 30% higher in Scotland than on England. So the reality is that Westminster will meekly agree to foot the bill as it always does.
You said "pay more tax because the SNP are paying nurses more". That is, an increase over the Barnett formula as it is now. How does that work?
You're quite right, it doesn't lead automatically to an increase in taxation for English taxpayers. It could potentially lead to successful public sector campaigns in England to match their Scottish counterparts, whereupon Scotland would get more in Barnett consequentials, whereupon the cycle would repeat, but that's not guaranteed and not a direct impact.
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
How does that work, then? "pay more tax"
Who do you think will end up footing the bill for this shite?
Perhaps I should have been more specific. Namely, how do decisions made on the Scottish Health Service budget affect the allocation of funds from central government in such a way that "English" taxpayers have to pay more? It may be the effect of a lunchtime beer on a Friday, but I can't see how that works.
It shouldn't, and yet state spending per capita is 30% higher in Scotland than on England. So the reality is that Westminster will meekly agree to foot the bill as it always does.
You said "pay more tax because the SNP are paying nurses more". That is, an increase over the Barnett formula as it is now. How does that work?
You're quite right, it doesn't lead automatically to an increase in taxation for English taxpayers. It could potentially lead to successful public sector campaigns in England to match their Scottish counterparts, whereupon Scotland would get more in Barnett consequentials, whereupon the cycle would repeat, but that's not guaranteed and not a direct impact.
Thanks - that was my understanding too, but it didn't sound as if MaxPB had that in mind.
Personally I think the sensible thing for England and Scotland is to give a juicy bonus to NHS staff (more for the front line, but also something for those who've just been exceptionally busy). In addition, the families of those who lost their lives to Covid should be awarded this bonus. However, pay increases should be limited to what was envisaged already.
Cases genuinely look to have shifted off their plateau. Just looking at England+Scotland+NI (to take Wales out of the equation, even though it has the lowest case rate of any of the home nations), the seven-day average of cases by specimen date has dropped by over 20% in a week (looking at up to 31st March only to reduce data lag issues, and adding 10% to the 31st of March to adjust for lag and 2% to the two days before, and 1% to the two days prior to that, as that looks about the average lagged data from there). That's after being plateaued for weeks previously.
I reckon we could be down to single figures of daily deaths by the end of the month, and close to double figures in admissions, and between 1000-1500 total in hospital (c. 200 in mechanical ventilation beds). Cases could plateau again or drop through the floor, but who cares as long as hospitalisations continue to march downwards?
Graph of reported cases, cases by specimen date, and 7-day average of cases by specimen date (with adjustments increasing numbers for latest dates to allow for data lag). England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland only.
There's a regular weekly cycle to specimen dates; obviously people are less likely to get tests on some days of the week. I've shifted the seven-day average to the middle of the seven days for which it is taking an average so it's easier to compare. The last week has seen a decrease in that 7-day average every day.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yes, massively. We've got our first work post-lockdown drinks in April, sign up has been very, very strong. Enough that we've had to speak to the pub about possibly having their whole outdoor area but they said it contravenes regulations as we'd be a party of 80 rather than 14 parties of 5/6.
Conversely, we've seen no appetite whatsoever to go back to our Central London office any time soon.
I guess it depends on the office culture. We worked very hard for a couple of years to bring in a lot of best practices and make the office somewhere people wanted to be for 40h per week. The extra money we spent on it was nothing compared to the gains we made in employee churn which was a really big problem for my team when I took it over.
I think the length of your commute also matters. It takes me 90 mins door to door. I want to be back in the office to meet people and to have works drinks, but I want to retain 2-3 days a week WFH focused on writing stuff or planning. I also want to continue to save commuting cash.
I think I’m quite typical of commuters.
Yes, I think it helps that the majority of our people live within tfl zones 1-4, I think 1-3 actually. I think banking and tech are two industries that will push for office returns.
Well I work in tech and I don't see a lot of companies pushing for people to come back quickly, to be honest.
The arts and media will mostly go back to the office, because they are extrovert businesses that demand social interaction: face to face meetings, lunches, brainstorm sessions. You can't do it on Zoom
There will also, I reckon, be career pressure on people to go back to the office, but it will be slow and near-invisible (at first). If you work from home most of the time you will miss out on all the chance stuff - lucky encounters, water cooler moments, ideas in the pub after work - which can often advance careers (and build team spirit)
The WFHers will become outsiders. Possibly resented by those who slog into the office
I know a woman in an arts related job who worked from home long before Covid, when the rule was office for everyone. She got away with it because she was notably successful, efficient and likeable, but even SHE generated resentment, and she knew it. One slip up and she'd have been sacked
This. I can imagine where I work, after the Teams call has ended, those in the office having a real life discussion about what will actually happen. People will realise the decisions will get made by people that turn up.
Cases genuinely look to have shifted off their plateau. Just looking at England+Scotland+NI (to take Wales out of the equation, even though it has the lowest case rate of any of the home nations), the seven-day average of cases by specimen date has dropped by over 20% in a week (looking at up to 31st March only to reduce data lag issues, and adding 10% to the 31st of March to adjust for lag and 2% to the two days before, and 1% to the two days prior to that, as that looks about the average lagged data from there). That's after being plateaued for weeks previously.
I reckon we could be down to single figures of daily deaths by the end of the month, and close to double figures in admissions, and between 1000-1500 total in hospital (c. 200 in mechanical ventilation beds). Cases could plateau again or drop through the floor, but who cares as long as hospitalisations continue to march downwards?
The plateau IMHO was a mirage caused by the surge increase in testing finding more cases, cancelling out the decline in cases.
Now we've got surged testing baked into the system, it isn't increasing anymore so we are getting more valid like-for-like comparisons, so we're seeing cases decline again.
I doubt we'll see meaningful plateaus with high numbers again, unless we do something like open up the border with countries with much higher caseloads without quarantine. As seen in Israel, continuing vaccine rollout should continue to squish R and even with domestic restrictions lifted cases should continue to decline.
If you're in your 20s and 30s, I genuinely think there is nothing like London in the UK. Beyond that, yeah I will leave
Truthfully, I’ve never liked the place, although I’m still in my 30s. And I liked it much less in my twenties because I had to spend a lot more time there.
I think London is, when you have no money, the most tedious and unpleasant place in the world.
Yes. To enjoy london you have to be young, or rich.
Whereas in the 80s and 90s you just had to be young. You could live a squat and have a good time, like Robert Elms and Sade.
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
Surely eventually like all socialists, the Scottish Government must eventually run out of other people's money to spend.
It will never happen, they'll just blame Westminster and Westminster is too scared of Scottish independence to ever say no.
The problem with that logic is that it allows the SNP to dangle ever more baubles in front of the Scottish electorate, baubles the English don't get which makes it look like the SNP are better at managing the economy and taxes etc
Westminster needs to say no. Let the SNP cut their own cloth. If that means some baubles get lost then so be it.
I don't disagree, as I've been saying for ages, I'm happy for the UK to become a federalised country but the only way that happens is if all four nations agree to full fiscal autonomy with a level of transfers to poorer regions from the federal government in Westminster.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
We thought about a staycation one year. Renting palm trees in tubs to put around the pool, setting up a tiki bar, hiring some staff to make and serve cocktails and meals. Would have cost a lot less than most international vacations. Alas, the daughter wouldn't go for it.
The arts and media will mostly go back to the office, because they are extrovert businesses that demand social interaction: face to face meetings, lunches, brainstorm sessions. You can't do it on Zoom
There will also, I reckon, be career pressure on people to go back to the office, but it will be slow and near-invisible (at first). If you work from home most of the time you will miss out on all the chance stuff - lucky encounters, water cooler moments, ideas in the pub after work - which can often advance careers (and build team spirit)
The WFHers will become outsiders. Possibly resented by those who slog into the office
I know a woman in an arts related job who worked from home long before Covid, when the rule was office for everyone. She got away with it because she was notably successful, efficient and likeable, but even SHE generated resentment, and she knew it. One slip up and she'd have been sacked
Agree on the arts and media. Our media people are definitely the keenest to actually meet up - as you say, media is a naturally extrovert thing.
Not sure about the rest - it sounds a bit Londony. Pre-lockdown round here we'd go to the pub more or less often, but nobody ever talked about work, ideas, etc. It was just getting together to be friendly before we headed off for our different commutes - younger staff especially can't afford to live nearby, and cross-country public transport is a joke. So even pre-lockdown it felt like people with completely separate lives coming in to do some largely distinct work which happened to be in the same place. By contrast, if the Industry series is what it's like, even exaggerated, a City firm has rows of people interacting like mad, and then socialising like mad. I get why they feel they're missing out, but maybe you can see why non-city places in expensive areas feel different.
Yes, I am probably being a bit London-centric (tho what I say must surely apply, to a lesser extent, in Manc, Leeds, Edinburgh, Bristol etc)
But the positive effects of clever creative clusters are real. Silicon Valley boomed because of fortunate proximities, which made for unexpected alchemies.
"Google meeting St Martin's School of Art meeting Universal Music "
St Martin's? Isnt that just full of Greek girls studying sculpture who have loaded dads?
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Strange, quite sad post.
And also incorrect. The islands the Ionian, Aegean and Adriatic seas have got by far the best beaches in Europe. Ours don't even come close for sand fineness, water temperature and cleanliness. Water temperature is really important for a great experience on the beach, ours tend to top out at around a pretty cold 18-20 degrees while the sea around those islands usually get to 28-30 degrees. The difference is huge and worth the expense of going there.
Plus the food in Italy or Greece is not only better, it's about half the cost of what we get here in our coastal towns. Same as hotels and villas, we're going to the Pembroke coast and our cottage works out to about £450 per night for four of us, in southern Italy or a Greek island we'd get an absolute palace for €500 per night.
Holidaying in the UK is fine, and I don't take issue with anyone that does it. However, to say it offers the same as what you get southern Europe or SE Asia is ridiculous. UK holidays are about surfing, nature walks and pub lunches, Southern European holidays about beaches, wine on a terrace and a taste of the Mediterranean diet. They aren't comparable, though each are good in their own way.
Some good points, but overall a bit of a 90's view I think. UK holidays (in Scotland) can be about hot tubs, jacuzzis, jaw-dropping scenery, island-hopping, visiting distilleries and discovering you love Scotch whisky.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yes, massively. We've got our first work post-lockdown drinks in April, sign up has been very, very strong. Enough that we've had to speak to the pub about possibly having their whole outdoor area but they said it contravenes regulations as we'd be a party of 80 rather than 14 parties of 5/6.
Conversely, we've seen no appetite whatsoever to go back to our Central London office any time soon.
I guess it depends on the office culture. We worked very hard for a couple of years to bring in a lot of best practices and make the office somewhere people wanted to be for 40h per week. The extra money we spent on it was nothing compared to the gains we made in employee churn which was a really big problem for my team when I took it over.
I think the length of your commute also matters. It takes me 90 mins door to door. I want to be back in the office to meet people and to have works drinks, but I want to retain 2-3 days a week WFH focused on writing stuff or planning. I also want to continue to save commuting cash.
I think I’m quite typical of commuters.
Yes, I think it helps that the majority of our people live within tfl zones 1-4, I think 1-3 actually. I think banking and tech are two industries that will push for office returns.
Well I work in tech and I don't see a lot of companies pushing for people to come back quickly, to be honest.
The arts and media will mostly go back to the office, because they are extrovert businesses that demand social interaction: face to face meetings, lunches, brainstorm sessions. You can't do it on Zoom
There will also, I reckon, be career pressure on people to go back to the office, but it will be slow and near-invisible (at first). If you work from home most of the time you will miss out on all the chance stuff - lucky encounters, water cooler moments, ideas in the pub after work - which can often advance careers (and build team spirit)
The WFHers will become outsiders. Possibly resented by those who slog into the office
I know a woman in an arts related job who worked from home long before Covid, when the rule was office for everyone. She got away with it because she was notably successful, efficient and likeable, but even SHE generated resentment, and she knew it. One slip up and she'd have been sacked
This. I can imagine where I work, after the Teams call has ended, those in the office having a real life discussion about what will actually happen. People will realise the decisions will get made by people that turn up.
In my industry the very option of any in person attendance immediately creates different incentives.
Example 1:
At the moment, no one is able to be in the room for an auction. So I'm happy to be bidding remotely. For example, if phone lines or internet bidding has a problem, they stop the sale.
Example 2:
As soon as some people are in the room, a different dynamic begins to exist. What happens if the phone doesn't connect? They wait a few seconds and then go on with the auction. So I want to be there.
Come April I will be back in the room. There are other benefits too. The ability to read who else is bidding. The psychology of auctions. The auctioneer might be more inclined to speed up the sale, too, if there are people in the room.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Strange, quite sad post.
No, I want people to get the maximum pleasure from life.
And I think that should be a 52 week lifestyle not a concentration on a week or two.
Holidays can be good, travel can be good.
But if they become the sole focus then that seems sad to me.
Why not let people figure out for themselves what gives them happy, satisfied lives?
Cases genuinely look to have shifted off their plateau. Just looking at England+Scotland+NI (to take Wales out of the equation, even though it has the lowest case rate of any of the home nations), the seven-day average of cases by specimen date has dropped by over 20% in a week (looking at up to 31st March only to reduce data lag issues, and adding 10% to the 31st of March to adjust for lag and 2% to the two days before, and 1% to the two days prior to that, as that looks about the average lagged data from there). That's after being plateaued for weeks previously.
I reckon we could be down to single figures of daily deaths by the end of the month, and close to double figures in admissions, and between 1000-1500 total in hospital (c. 200 in mechanical ventilation beds). Cases could plateau again or drop through the floor, but who cares as long as hospitalisations continue to march downwards?
The plateau IMHO was a mirage caused by the surge increase in testing finding more cases, cancelling out the decline in cases.
Now we've got surged testing baked into the system, it isn't increasing anymore so we are getting more valid like-for-like comparisons, so we're seeing cases decline again.
I doubt we'll see meaningful plateaus with high numbers again, unless we do something like open up the border with countries with much higher caseloads without quarantine. As seen in Israel, continuing vaccine rollout should continue to squish R and even with domestic restrictions lifted cases should continue to decline.
Not so sure - the ONS picked up a plateau at the same time with a very different testing method, as did ZOE. Both of those were also pointing to a start of a drop at around the same time as cases.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Strange, quite sad post.
And also incorrect. The islands the Ionian, Aegean and Adriatic seas have got by far the best beaches in Europe. Ours don't even come close for sand fineness, water temperature and cleanliness. Water temperature is really important for a great experience on the beach, ours tend to top out at around a pretty cold 18-20 degrees while the sea around those islands usually get to 28-30 degrees. The difference is huge and worth the expense of going there.
Plus the food in Italy or Greece is not only better, it's about half the cost of what we get here in our coastal towns. Same as hotels and villas, we're going to the Pembroke coast and our cottage works out to about £450 per night for four of us, in southern Italy or a Greek island we'd get an absolute palace for €500 per night.
Holidaying in the UK is fine, and I don't take issue with anyone that does it. However, to say it offers the same as what you get southern Europe or SE Asia is ridiculous. UK holidays are about surfing, nature walks and pub lunches, Southern European holidays about beaches, wine on a terrace and a taste of the Mediterranean diet. They aren't comparable, though each are good in their own way.
But its not the enjoyment on a holiday I'm referring to but the lack of enjoyment for the other 50 weeks of the year.
Having an enjoyable foreign holiday is good, having an enjoyable UK holiday is good, having an enjoyable staycation (proper meaning of the word) is good, having an enjoyable work/life balance during the 'normal' days is good.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Strange, quite sad post.
And also incorrect. The islands the Ionian, Aegean and Adriatic seas have got by far the best beaches in Europe. Ours don't even come close for sand fineness, water temperature and cleanliness. Water temperature is really important for a great experience on the beach, ours tend to top out at around a pretty cold 18-20 degrees while the sea around those islands usually get to 28-30 degrees. The difference is huge and worth the expense of going there.
Plus the food in Italy or Greece is not only better, it's about half the cost of what we get here in our coastal towns. Same as hotels and villas, we're going to the Pembroke coast and our cottage works out to about £450 per night for four of us, in southern Italy or a Greek island we'd get an absolute palace for €500 per night.
Holidaying in the UK is fine, and I don't take issue with anyone that does it. However, to say it offers the same as what you get southern Europe or SE Asia is ridiculous. UK holidays are about surfing, nature walks and pub lunches, Southern European holidays about beaches, wine on a terrace and a taste of the Mediterranean diet. They aren't comparable, though each are good in their own way.
But its not the enjoyment on a holiday I'm referring to but the lack of enjoyment for the other 50 weeks of the year.
Having an enjoyable foreign holiday is good, having an enjoyable UK holiday is good, having an enjoyable staycation (proper meaning of the word) is good, having an enjoyable work/life balance during the 'normal' days is good.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Strange, quite sad post.
And also incorrect. The islands the Ionian, Aegean and Adriatic seas have got by far the best beaches in Europe. Ours don't even come close for sand fineness, water temperature and cleanliness. Water temperature is really important for a great experience on the beach, ours tend to top out at around a pretty cold 18-20 degrees while the sea around those islands usually get to 28-30 degrees. The difference is huge and worth the expense of going there.
Plus the food in Italy or Greece is not only better, it's about half the cost of what we get here in our coastal towns. Same as hotels and villas, we're going to the Pembroke coast and our cottage works out to about £450 per night for four of us, in southern Italy or a Greek island we'd get an absolute palace for €500 per night.
Holidaying in the UK is fine, and I don't take issue with anyone that does it. However, to say it offers the same as what you get southern Europe or SE Asia is ridiculous. UK holidays are about surfing, nature walks and pub lunches, Southern European holidays about beaches, wine on a terrace and a taste of the Mediterranean diet. They aren't comparable, though each are good in their own way.
But its not the enjoyment on a holiday I'm referring to but the lack of enjoyment for the other 50 weeks of the year.
Having an enjoyable foreign holiday is good, having an enjoyable UK holiday is good, having an enjoyable staycation (proper meaning of the word) is good, having an enjoyable work/life balance during the 'normal' days is good.
But how do you know they aren't?
Well when pubs, clubs, zoos, theatres, restaurants, "non-essential" shops are all shut and you can't even visit your own relatives indoors in their own home . .. it sucks.
It is a dystopian, authoritarian nightmare that needs to end - no ifs or buts.
Are they going to continue to highlight the number of rare blood clots in the under 60s now they aren't getting AZ?
It's all a bit weird.
The UK data apparently suggested that the 30ish cases of blood clots were as one would expect from the vaccinated cohort anyway, but they said additionally that no cases (one presumes =0) had been reported with those receiving the Pfizer jab. So you'd have to conclude that the Pfizer jab not only helps with covid, but also helps to protect against this rare clotting.
All of this is possible, but it seems more likely that the picture is incomplete.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Strange, quite sad post.
And also incorrect. The islands the Ionian, Aegean and Adriatic seas have got by far the best beaches in Europe. Ours don't even come close for sand fineness, water temperature and cleanliness. Water temperature is really important for a great experience on the beach, ours tend to top out at around a pretty cold 18-20 degrees while the sea around those islands usually get to 28-30 degrees. The difference is huge and worth the expense of going there.
Plus the food in Italy or Greece is not only better, it's about half the cost of what we get here in our coastal towns. Same as hotels and villas, we're going to the Pembroke coast and our cottage works out to about £450 per night for four of us, in southern Italy or a Greek island we'd get an absolute palace for €500 per night.
Holidaying in the UK is fine, and I don't take issue with anyone that does it. However, to say it offers the same as what you get southern Europe or SE Asia is ridiculous. UK holidays are about surfing, nature walks and pub lunches, Southern European holidays about beaches, wine on a terrace and a taste of the Mediterranean diet. They aren't comparable, though each are good in their own way.
But its not the enjoyment on a holiday I'm referring to but the lack of enjoyment for the other 50 weeks of the year.
Having an enjoyable foreign holiday is good, having an enjoyable UK holiday is good, having an enjoyable staycation (proper meaning of the word) is good, having an enjoyable work/life balance during the 'normal' days is good.
But how do you know they aren't?
Well when pubs, clubs, zoos, theatres, restaurants, "non-essential" shops are all shut and you can't even visit your own relatives indoors in their own home . .. it sucks.
It is a dystopian, authoritarian nightmare that needs to end - no ifs or buts.
Well of course, but only a few oddball lockdown ultras think this is a good sort of life that should be preserved.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Strange, quite sad post.
And also incorrect. The islands the Ionian, Aegean and Adriatic seas have got by far the best beaches in Europe. Ours don't even come close for sand fineness, water temperature and cleanliness. Water temperature is really important for a great experience on the beach, ours tend to top out at around a pretty cold 18-20 degrees while the sea around those islands usually get to 28-30 degrees. The difference is huge and worth the expense of going there.
Plus the food in Italy or Greece is not only better, it's about half the cost of what we get here in our coastal towns. Same as hotels and villas, we're going to the Pembroke coast and our cottage works out to about £450 per night for four of us, in southern Italy or a Greek island we'd get an absolute palace for €500 per night.
Holidaying in the UK is fine, and I don't take issue with anyone that does it. However, to say it offers the same as what you get southern Europe or SE Asia is ridiculous. UK holidays are about surfing, nature walks and pub lunches, Southern European holidays about beaches, wine on a terrace and a taste of the Mediterranean diet. They aren't comparable, though each are good in their own way.
But its not the enjoyment on a holiday I'm referring to but the lack of enjoyment for the other 50 weeks of the year.
Having an enjoyable foreign holiday is good, having an enjoyable UK holiday is good, having an enjoyable staycation (proper meaning of the word) is good, having an enjoyable work/life balance during the 'normal' days is good.
But how do you know they aren't?
Well when pubs, clubs, zoos, theatres, restaurants, "non-essential" shops are all shut and you can't even visit your own relatives indoors in their own home . .. it sucks.
It is a dystopian, authoritarian nightmare that needs to end - no ifs or buts.
Well of course, but only a few oddball lockdown ultras think this is a good sort of life that should be preserved.
Yes but some people are worried that if we unlock the borders without quarantine while the rest of the world still has very high cases during a pandemic, then we may end up going back into lockdown.
So it isn't a choice between being keen on holidays or not, its a case of whether having holidays without quarantine results in losing even more liberties.
Are they going to continue to highlight the number of rare blood clots in the under 60s now they aren't getting AZ?
Europe has been afflicted by a peculiar madness with regard to vaccines. It began no doubt with an underlying scepticism has been fuelled by ordering shambles at the EU level, extraordinary irresponsible commentary from politicians at the highest levels, the extraordinary actions of national health agencies who have repeatedly ignored the EMA and finally a bizarre and irrational lashing out especially at the UK for reasons best known only to themselves. In Spain the personal result for me is that, at 66, I am too old to be offered AZT and around 15 years too young to be offered anything else. Luckily, unlike much of the rest of Europe, infection rates here are still quite low. Either way those aged 66-80 are mostly still a good month away from a first dose while anything approaching , say 70% of the population vaccinated with one dose, is unlikely before September. Ironically most citizens are remarkably stoical about it all. Very strange.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Strange, quite sad post.
No, I want people to get the maximum pleasure from life.
And I think that should be a 52 week lifestyle not a concentration on a week or two.
Holidays can be good, travel can be good.
But if they become the sole focus then that seems sad to me.
Why not let people figure out for themselves what gives them happy, satisfied lives?
They will and they do.
But how did the whole conversation start ?
People bewailing the UK weather and the misuse of the word staycation.
And if you want to do a little bit more amateur psychology you can consider why I get bored by people talking about their week in Majorca but enjoy reading SeanT style travelogues (although the food he used to describe on them usually seemed overpriced and pretentious).
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Strange, quite sad post.
And also incorrect. The islands the Ionian, Aegean and Adriatic seas have got by far the best beaches in Europe. Ours don't even come close for sand fineness, water temperature and cleanliness. Water temperature is really important for a great experience on the beach, ours tend to top out at around a pretty cold 18-20 degrees while the sea around those islands usually get to 28-30 degrees. The difference is huge and worth the expense of going there.
Plus the food in Italy or Greece is not only better, it's about half the cost of what we get here in our coastal towns. Same as hotels and villas, we're going to the Pembroke coast and our cottage works out to about £450 per night for four of us, in southern Italy or a Greek island we'd get an absolute palace for €500 per night.
Holidaying in the UK is fine, and I don't take issue with anyone that does it. However, to say it offers the same as what you get southern Europe or SE Asia is ridiculous. UK holidays are about surfing, nature walks and pub lunches, Southern European holidays about beaches, wine on a terrace and a taste of the Mediterranean diet. They aren't comparable, though each are good in their own way.
But its not the enjoyment on a holiday I'm referring to but the lack of enjoyment for the other 50 weeks of the year.
Having an enjoyable foreign holiday is good, having an enjoyable UK holiday is good, having an enjoyable staycation (proper meaning of the word) is good, having an enjoyable work/life balance during the 'normal' days is good.
But how do you know they aren't?
Well when pubs, clubs, zoos, theatres, restaurants, "non-essential" shops are all shut and you can't even visit your own relatives indoors in their own home . .. it sucks.
It is a dystopian, authoritarian nightmare that needs to end - no ifs or buts.
Well of course, but only a few oddball lockdown ultras think this is a good sort of life that should be preserved.
Yes but some people are worried that if we unlock the borders without quarantine while the rest of the world still has very high cases during a pandemic, then we may end up going back into lockdown.
So it isn't a choice between being keen on holidays or not, its a case of whether having holidays without quarantine results in losing even more liberties.
No arguments. I'm just pointing out that a holiday on the UK isn't the same as a holiday overseas. Not that one is good or better, just that they are different. Anyway, as you say I'm all for UK holidays until we're sure we've got the better of these variants. Our vaccine programme should have it covered by the end of the summer, hopefully earlier if Novavax gets their reformulation trialled quickly.
Interesting phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV vs SARS-CoV2 vs MERS-CoV vs BAT-CoV:
"In summary, the phylogenetic tree analysis showed SARS-CoV-2 is closely related to BAT-CoV, and its second-closest relative is SARS-CoV. All MERS-CoV strains showed distal relation to SARS-CoV-2. In the analysis of genetic variants, more mutations were found in MERS-CoV compared to SARS-CoV and BAT-CoV. The phylogenetic analysis, study of genetic variation, multisequence, and microsatellite analysis, showed that the bat is the native host of SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, it also concluded that BAT-CoV is closely related to SARS-CoV-2. There is a possibility of the presence of an intermediate host to initiate the transmission of COVID-19 from BAT to humans. However, more research is required to validate this assumption."
Are they going to continue to highlight the number of rare blood clots in the under 60s now they aren't getting AZ?
Europe has been afflicted by a peculiar madness with regard to vaccines. It began no doubt with an underlying scepticism has been fuelled by ordering shambles at the EU level, extraordinary irresponsible commentary from politicians at the highest levels, the extraordinary actions of national health agencies who have repeatedly ignored the EMA and finally a bizarre and irrational lashing out especially at the UK for reasons best known only to themselves. In Spain the personal result for me is that, at 66, I am too old to be offered AZT and around 15 years too young to be offered anything else. Luckily, unlike much of the rest of Europe, infection rates here are still quite low. Either way those aged 66-80 are mostly still a good month away from a first dose while anything approaching , say 70% of the population vaccinated with one dose, is unlikely before September. Ironically most citizens are remarkably stoical about it all. Very strange.
Whatever the EU's madness the press are worse. I can't think of a single journalist who I now respect.
Interesting to see a number of cruise ship operators are developing a programme of British cruises for June to August.
The pattern, stated by P&O and now being followed by Princess, MSC and Royal Caribbean is to use 1-2 ships operating out of Southampton. The voyages are wither 3-4 day trips without a stop or up to 8 nights with a stop or two in the British Isles at places like Greenock, Kirkwall, Liverpool and Falmouth.
The cruises will be for UK citizens only and any one wishing to travel will have to show evidence of either being fully vaccinated or having a second vaccination appointment at time of booking. Unvaccinated passengers will have to show evidence of a negative test 72 hours before boarding and will be tested before boarding.
I suspect these will be very popular and will cover the period through the school summer holidays - I think the cruise operators are still hoping to be able to sail to Europe from September.
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Strange, quite sad post.
And also incorrect. The islands the Ionian, Aegean and Adriatic seas have got by far the best beaches in Europe. Ours don't even come close for sand fineness, water temperature and cleanliness. Water temperature is really important for a great experience on the beach, ours tend to top out at around a pretty cold 18-20 degrees while the sea around those islands usually get to 28-30 degrees. The difference is huge and worth the expense of going there.
Plus the food in Italy or Greece is not only better, it's about half the cost of what we get here in our coastal towns. Same as hotels and villas, we're going to the Pembroke coast and our cottage works out to about £450 per night for four of us, in southern Italy or a Greek island we'd get an absolute palace for €500 per night.
Holidaying in the UK is fine, and I don't take issue with anyone that does it. However, to say it offers the same as what you get southern Europe or SE Asia is ridiculous. UK holidays are about surfing, nature walks and pub lunches, Southern European holidays about beaches, wine on a terrace and a taste of the Mediterranean diet. They aren't comparable, though each are good in their own way.
But its not the enjoyment on a holiday I'm referring to but the lack of enjoyment for the other 50 weeks of the year.
Having an enjoyable foreign holiday is good, having an enjoyable UK holiday is good, having an enjoyable staycation (proper meaning of the word) is good, having an enjoyable work/life balance during the 'normal' days is good.
But how do you know they aren't?
Well we can talk with knowledge about few people so perhaps everyone else has got their lifestyle just right for their own desires. Which would be great.
But a suggestion to my parents that we/they go to a restaurant or even that me and my dad have a beer in his garden is almost certain to receive a baffled response.
Which in turn baffles me - they love doing such things on holiday but don't want to do them at home.
And I'm left floundering about hypothesising about old fashioned work ethics and only being allowed to enjoy yourself on holiday.
She appears to be arguing that the UK could still have done the same thing in the EU, but what if Scotland were not part of the UK?
She was going to be asked about this sooner or later.
It's credible for someone like George Osborne to claim (not sure if he commented on this or not) that we (i.e. the UK) would have done our own thing.
But it's not credible for Sturgeon to claim that for Scotland on two counts. One, she's enthusiastic about EU membership in a way Tory remainers aren't. Two, size. It would have been illogical for Scotland to do their own thing. To be fair, doing it at EU level was fine. It was the implementation that's been the problem.
Yeah, but if it’s a problem for Nicola, let them go for it. 😆
The unions know they've got her over a barrel, refuse and she's not "backing the NHS". The losers will be English taxpayers, including NHS workers, who will now have to pay more tax to pay for this bullshit.
Surely eventually like all socialists, the Scottish Government must eventually run out of other people's money to spend.
Yes, but before or after Johnson's government does? 🤔
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yes, massively. We've got our first work post-lockdown drinks in April, sign up has been very, very strong. Enough that we've had to speak to the pub about possibly having their whole outdoor area but they said it contravenes regulations as we'd be a party of 80 rather than 14 parties of 5/6.
Conversely, we've seen no appetite whatsoever to go back to our Central London office any time soon.
I guess it depends on the office culture. We worked very hard for a couple of years to bring in a lot of best practices and make the office somewhere people wanted to be for 40h per week. The extra money we spent on it was nothing compared to the gains we made in employee churn which was a really big problem for my team when I took it over.
I think the length of your commute also matters. It takes me 90 mins door to door. I want to be back in the office to meet people and to have works drinks, but I want to retain 2-3 days a week WFH focused on writing stuff or planning. I also want to continue to save commuting cash.
I think I’m quite typical of commuters.
Yes, I think it helps that the majority of our people live within tfl zones 1-4, I think 1-3 actually. I think banking and tech are two industries that will push for office returns.
Well I work in tech and I don't see a lot of companies pushing for people to come back quickly, to be honest.
The arts and media will mostly go back to the office, because they are extrovert businesses that demand social interaction: face to face meetings, lunches, brainstorm sessions. You can't do it on Zoom
There will also, I reckon, be career pressure on people to go back to the office, but it will be slow and near-invisible (at first). If you work from home most of the time you will miss out on all the chance stuff - lucky encounters, water cooler moments, ideas in the pub after work - which can often advance careers (and build team spirit)
The WFHers will become outsiders. Possibly resented by those who slog into the office
I know a woman in an arts related job who worked from home long before Covid, when the rule was office for everyone. She got away with it because she was notably successful, efficient and likeable, but even SHE generated resentment, and she knew it. One slip up and she'd have been sacked
Can't see that being the case in my business, some people are unsociable even when in the office.
Frankly I think it makes sod all difference, if you want to work from home you can, otherwise you can come in.
I intend to be in the office a lot more than others - but that's because I like the change of scene.
The same Sturgeon who would have taken Scotland out of the EU with a YES vote in 2014. Shameless lies and hypocrisy.
She has to say these things because a truly independent Scotland doesn't really work. They need to substitute UK funding with EU funding.
The EU is not in a million years going to be as nice to the Scots as the UK has been.
I have no idea why the Nationalists aren't owning up to the truth of 'now is not the time' - I think they damage themselves enormously by not doing so.
Sturgeon's talking about the UK. She actually tried to make out that the UK procurement was a four nations thing, when in reality it was a Westminster thing. the UK without Scotland would have done it's own thing and been a success. An independent Scotland would now be in the position of the RoI.
The EU are certainly doing not doing Nicola Sturgeon any favours as she attempts to frame a narrative where Independence would deliver a quick return to EU membership..
Google to recall all staff to in office work with only a maximum of 14 defined WFH days allowed per year or as agreed by management.
So dies the dream of lockdown fanatics that companies will shift to a new working pattern. The rest of the tech industry will follow Google's lead and where tech goes, banking will also follow and one by one all of the other industries will fall in line.
Rishi was right all the way back in May of last year when he said remote workers and majority WFH types would find their careers curtailed.
In other news we've got the full result of our office survey back. As part of the London office culture committee (a fancy way of saying I help organise ensuring there is enough money to restock the beer fridges on Friday) I'm tasked with ensuring people are happy to come back. It's been easy. The main issues people have are that they won't come back if there is mask wearing required in office or social distancing required. We've pushed our reopening schedule back to August so we can be sure that neither of these are required.
Not a single person took issue with sharing vaccine status to ensure we can operate a full capacity office and we're expecting around 90% of people to return to in office working for 4 or 5 days per week. That number is much higher than we expected. We've also essentially said no to permanent remote working, only two people have had it approved and both have got long term family situations and they've been granted it on compassionate grounds. We're also not allowing any overseas remote working due to data concerns.
This is a predominantly under 50s office in Liverpool Street and we're a Japanese company so there is definitely some level of pushback against homeworking from senior management in Tokyo.
I get the sense a lot of people are now craving city life. Lockdown has gone on so long the charms of country walks and lavish gardens are starting to pall. It’s just a walk. It’s just a garden. It’s not a life.
Yep. In 12 months they will be returning in droves: all those Good Life people who thought they could hack it through an English winter under the pall of death-grey skies, incessant rain and mud, non-existent social life, far distant amenities: all combined with extremely pissy locals.
You'll be able to stand on a bridge over the A303 and watch them all limping back to the cities.
Then we'll have to endure a couple of years of the same Metropolitan twats writing about their experiences in the Saturday and Sunday newspapers.
Meanwhile, er, Leon, Thailand has just announced it's re-opening to the vaccinated international traveller on 01st October for six destinations providing direct entry (except Pattaya in which case you can go via BKK): Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Koh Samui, Chonburi (Pattaya), and Chiang Mai.
Yes, the first lockdown and then the summer were unreal. Perfect weather, for much of it. Everything was novel. It was so much better to be in the glorious countryside compared to eerie, locked down London. And even when we had some unlockdowning, london remained largely shut. No theatres. No cinemas. No clubs. Pubs demanding bookings. Yawn.
Then came lockdowns 2 and 3 and a long cold English winter. Gardens almost useless. Lonely freezing walks in fields. Hmm.
Friends of mine who moved out permanently last year are already sounding very nostalgic about bars and restaurants and urban life....
There's a huge variety of possibilities between ultra urban and ultra rural.
Outer suburbia is perhaps the best place in the spring - the bulbs and blossom of sizeable gardens plus the countryside within a short walk.
Depends on the spring. It’s quite sunny here in London today. But cold. 10C. Very different to last April. And it’s meant to get even colder next week. 7C maxima. That’s bloody winter again.
I’m so bored of cold walks in parks (or fields or beaches or anywhere)
I want my city back. And I want holidays in hot sun. Enough
Yep which is another thing. One crap British summer will soon put staycations on the back burner. We may be lucky but it doesn't take much to produce an absolute stinker on these isles.
A holiday in your own country is not a staycation.
It would be interesting to examine the mentality behind the misuse of the word staycation.
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
"Holiday obsessives" - by which you mean people who like to have two weeks in the sun? Maybe somewhere a bit different to the UK? How very dare they.
No, people who talk endlessly about their previous and future holidays with the added feature during the last year of being more concerned about the risk covid was to their holidays than the risk covid was to either their health or employment.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
Strange, quite sad post.
And also incorrect. The islands the Ionian, Aegean and Adriatic seas have got by far the best beaches in Europe. Ours don't even come close for sand fineness, water temperature and cleanliness. Water temperature is really important for a great experience on the beach, ours tend to top out at around a pretty cold 18-20 degrees while the sea around those islands usually get to 28-30 degrees. The difference is huge and worth the expense of going there.
Plus the food in Italy or Greece is not only better, it's about half the cost of what we get here in our coastal towns. Same as hotels and villas, we're going to the Pembroke coast and our cottage works out to about £450 per night for four of us, in southern Italy or a Greek island we'd get an absolute palace for €500 per night.
Holidaying in the UK is fine, and I don't take issue with anyone that does it. However, to say it offers the same as what you get southern Europe or SE Asia is ridiculous. UK holidays are about surfing, nature walks and pub lunches, Southern European holidays about beaches, wine on a terrace and a taste of the Mediterranean diet. They aren't comparable, though each are good in their own way.
People who rave about staycations and British holidays also tend to be quite wealthy. They can afford to go to the nicest bits of the country (which, as you say, are a lot pricier than many places in the Med) or they already have second homes. Moreover, this staycation will be just one holiday out of several (the others will happen abroad)
So if the staycation gets ruined by crap British weather, hey ho, we're off to the Algarve, the Cyclades, or Tuscany, in a few weeks, anyway. No drama
If you are not wealthy and you have just one precious family holiday a year, you want guaranteed sunshine, not rain. You can't take the risk. So you fly south. Of course you do. And good luck to you.
A friend of mine who has spent most of Covid alone in his flat told me the other day that the Plague has really brought home to him the human need for holidays: in the sense of Being Somewhere Else. It's a human craving. To escape the same four walls, the same streets and houses (however nice) and just Go Somewhere Else. He's surely right. It is innate. Homo sapiens is a nomadic species, a wandering hunter gatherer, and the urge to travel or move on, is probably in our DNA as Bruce Chatwin avers, so eloquently, in Songlines
The same Sturgeon who would have taken Scotland out of the EU with a YES vote in 2014. Shameless lies and hypocrisy.
Shameless lies and hypocrisy are now priced into Sturgeon. If Salmond has done nothing else, he has shown her to be a bog standard, lying politician like all the rest.... Very ordinary, it tuns out.
Interesting to see a number of cruise ship operators are developing a programme of British cruises for June to August.
The pattern, stated by P&O and now being followed by Princess, MSC and Royal Caribbean is to use 1-2 ships operating out of Southampton. The voyages are wither 3-4 day trips without a stop or up to 8 nights with a stop or two in the British Isles at places like Greenock, Kirkwall, Liverpool and Falmouth.
The cruises will be for UK citizens only and any one wishing to travel will have to show evidence of either being fully vaccinated or having a second vaccination appointment at time of booking. Unvaccinated passengers will have to show evidence of a negative test 72 hours before boarding and will be tested before boarding.
I suspect these will be very popular and will cover the period through the school summer holidays - I think the cruise operators are still hoping to be able to sail to Europe from September.
They'll be popular for exactly the amount of time it takes for one person onboard to be diagnosed with Covid, after which the whole ship and everyone on it will be quarantined in port (with passengers imprisoned in their tiny cabins) for at least three weeks. Oldies will think this is playtime for them, but sounds like a tremendous gamble to me.
The same Sturgeon who would have taken Scotland out of the EU with a YES vote in 2014. Shameless lies and hypocrisy.
She has to say these things because a truly independent Scotland doesn't really work. They need to substitute UK funding with EU funding.
The EU is not in a million years going to be as nice to the Scots as the UK has been.
I have no idea why the Nationalists aren't owning up to the truth of 'now is not the time' - I think they damage themselves enormously by not doing so.
Because, rightly or wrongly, independence is the be all and end all of the long term hard core SNP.
And to say "now is not the time" brings doubt into what is their fundamental belief.
The same Sturgeon who would have taken Scotland out of the EU with a YES vote in 2014. Shameless lies and hypocrisy.
She has to say these things because a truly independent Scotland doesn't really work. They need to substitute UK funding with EU funding.
The EU is not in a million years going to be as nice to the Scots as the UK has been.
I have no idea why the Nationalists aren't owning up to the truth of 'now is not the time' - I think they damage themselves enormously by not doing so.
Only one song on the ScotNat jukebox. On repeat play.
Comments
IMHO Boris is likely to try engineering an election as soon as he decently can, knowing that when his wheels come off he will not be an electoral asset.
The moment people start laughing at him rather than with him, and by some mysterious process his moral weaknesses become impediments rather than stories about blondes rather enjoyed by Mail and Sun readers, he can't recover.
A 2022/23 election could see him to 2027/8 and 8/9 years as PM + a shot at longer. Longer already then than Asquith, Wilson and Churchill.
I never, ever, suggested cycling for three and a half hours, that is a lie. I did say cycling on an ebike was a viable option for much shorter commutes leaving trains etc with longer distance commutes. Which is not a remotely innovative suggestion of course even the Prime Minister and former Mayor of London, or Our own Genial Host are fond of cycling too.
As for stamp duty it is bollocks I was "schooled" that hasn't happened. Again stamp duty is a tax on buyers that is required to be paid up front in full. The idea that buyers are better served by paying more taxes is preposterous nonsense. You can't solve every problem by taxing people more
It implies that to be a 'proper' holiday you need international travel and being somewhere in your own country doesn't count.
Doubtless a mentality encouraged by the travel industry and eagerly taken up by the holiday obsessives,
I remember one summer in the 80s or early 90s when there was one - ONE - decent hot weekend of sustained sun. I remember it making me so sad I nearly cried. I was a sensitive youth.
It also drove my urge to travel. Never again!
No vaccine is 100% - which is why you need a high take-up, to create as much herd immunity as possible to protect those the vaccine does nothing for, or those who can't take the vaccine.
Hence MMR/Wakefield....
At this rate we could be below 1000 daily positives and effectively zero daily deaths by 21 June.
There will be no excuse not to remove all restrictions domestically. International travel is another matter though.
And you can have a great winter walk at 0C provided its sunny and dry and without wind.
Picnics ?
They're for people who don't have their own garden.
Or louts who don't want to clean up afterwards.
My mother always would put a bin bag or 2 in the bottom of the bag/basket for a picnic - something I've continued doing.
Afterwards, you bag up the remains. If the bins are full, stack the bag next to the bin.
But I suspect you are trolling so I shall politely chuckle and move on
Radio 4 - £100m
Radio 5 Live - £45m
Times Radio - £3m (reportedly)
OK, Radio 4 does drama and wide variety of programming. Radio 5 Live does sport, But Times Radio shows you can do things far, far, far cheaper if you want to - particularly if you don't do newsgathering.
BBC TV News spends hundreds of millions but not really comparable given huge number of different services and all the nations / local stuff.
Sky News costs £100m for one 24 hour national station.
Now surely GB News can hugely underspend Sky if they essentially do a TV version of Times Radio - basically do away with 90% of the newsgathering - just have a very small group of reporters. And that's what they are doing - just 140 journalists + 20 support staff.
And even the high profile names don't cost much in overall scheme of things - maybe 7 or 8 high profile people - even on £500k each that's only £4m. And they won't be on that - BBC News Channel presenters are generally on about £150k. OK, Andrew Neil will want more as will Piers Morgan obviously if they get him - but £200k will be enough for people like Stewart, McCoy, Brazier. And others like Michelle Dewberry will be on a lot less.
Not sure about the rest - it sounds a bit Londony. Pre-lockdown round here we'd go to the pub more or less often, but nobody ever talked about work, ideas, etc. It was just getting together to be friendly before we headed off for our different commutes - younger staff especially can't afford to live nearby, and cross-country public transport is a joke. So even pre-lockdown it felt like people with completely separate lives coming in to do some largely distinct work which happened to be in the same place. By contrast, if the Industry series is what it's like, even exaggerated, a City firm has rows of people interacting like mad, and then socialising like mad. I get why they feel they're missing out, but maybe you can see why non-city places in expensive areas feel different.
Old King Cole, whereabouts in Thailand are your family? The rules the Thai authorities have brought in are fairly easy to follow: both vaccinations + a test + you need to stay in the same region where you arrived for the first 7 days i.e. not travel around Thailand for the first week. And you need to install their App. None of which is particularly arduous.
Or people who say "I had a lovely week in Dorset but that was only a staycation".
Or people who rhapsodise about what they did on their week in Majorca even though there's nothing they couldn't do at home.
My parents fit into the last category - "You can go to a different restaurant every night or sit outside and have a beer" - there's all sorts of Protestant work ethic only-allowed-to-enjoy-yourself-on-holiday traditionalism involved there I suspect.
That was that.
And now I'm off for my second vaccination. Bye!
I too shall move on.
I can see why some are attracted to the energy of London, but i just like my nice comfortable life living a prosperity my working class parent's generation could not have dreamed of.
Both the UK and Scotland budgets have been set for 2021/22. If SNP wants to spend more on X then it'll have to spend less on Y.
And apparently Scotland has been using one-off Covid funding from Westminster to fund other areas. When that funding stops, they'll have to make cuts to those other areas.
But the positive effects of clever creative clusters are real. Silicon Valley boomed because of fortunate proximities, which made for unexpected alchemies.
The campus-like atmos of the new King's Cross - with the Guardian meeting Google meeting St Martin's School of Art meeting Universal Music meeting the Wellcome Centre - is deliberately done, because we know this works. It will all be lost if everyone stays home, so they will go to work.
I accept it must be very different if you are commuting into a random business park in Surrey or Wiltshire or whatever. That must often feel pointless.
I reckon we could be down to single figures of daily deaths by the end of the month, and close to double figures in admissions, and between 1000-1500 total in hospital (c. 200 in mechanical ventilation beds). Cases could plateau again or drop through the floor, but who cares as long as hospitalisations continue to march downwards?
And I think that should be a 52 week lifestyle not a concentration on a week or two.
Holidays can be good, travel can be good.
But if they become the sole focus then that seems sad to me.
Westminster needs to say no. Let the SNP cut their own cloth. If that means some baubles get lost then so be it.
Plus the food in Italy or Greece is not only better, it's about half the cost of what we get here in our coastal towns. Same as hotels and villas, we're going to the Pembroke coast and our cottage works out to about £450 per night for four of us, in southern Italy or a Greek island we'd get an absolute palace for €500 per night.
Holidaying in the UK is fine, and I don't take issue with anyone that does it. However, to say it offers the same as what you get southern Europe or SE Asia is ridiculous. UK holidays are about surfing, nature walks and pub lunches, Southern European holidays about beaches, wine on a terrace and a taste of the Mediterranean diet. They aren't comparable, though each are good in their own way.
Despite what @MaxPB and Rishi Sunak may want, back in the real world, working from home or "working from anywhere", as it is also being titled, is very much here to stay.
Large numbers of organisations have recognised the new normal and despite the reactionaries working in and around Liverpool Street, the way ahead is clear. Maximum of 2 days per week in the office and the days of battery-hen style banks of desks are gone - to be replaced by collaborative and networking spaces designed for creative working.
It is and will be a revolution and will have huge impacts despite those frantically (or desperately) trying to put the genie back in the bottle.
There's a regular weekly cycle to specimen dates; obviously people are less likely to get tests on some days of the week. I've shifted the seven-day average to the middle of the seven days for which it is taking an average so it's easier to compare.
The last week has seen a decrease in that 7-day average every day.
Now we've got surged testing baked into the system, it isn't increasing anymore so we are getting more valid like-for-like comparisons, so we're seeing cases decline again.
I doubt we'll see meaningful plateaus with high numbers again, unless we do something like open up the border with countries with much higher caseloads without quarantine. As seen in Israel, continuing vaccine rollout should continue to squish R and even with domestic restrictions lifted cases should continue to decline.
Example 1:
At the moment, no one is able to be in the room for an auction. So I'm happy to be bidding remotely. For example, if phone lines or internet bidding has a problem, they stop the sale.
Example 2:
As soon as some people are in the room, a different dynamic begins to exist. What happens if the phone doesn't connect? They wait a few seconds and then go on with the auction. So I want to be there.
Come April I will be back in the room. There are other benefits too. The ability to read who else is bidding. The psychology of auctions. The auctioneer might be more inclined to speed up the sale, too, if there are people in the room.
Any chance they can get their money back from the Chinese?
https://www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/london-crime-more-quarter-knife-20311503
Having an enjoyable foreign holiday is good, having an enjoyable UK holiday is good, having an enjoyable staycation (proper meaning of the word) is good, having an enjoyable work/life balance during the 'normal' days is good.
It is a dystopian, authoritarian nightmare that needs to end - no ifs or buts.
As someone pointed out on here the other day: nobody seems to care when it is young women getting rare clots from birth control...
The UK data apparently suggested that the 30ish cases of blood clots were as one would expect from the vaccinated cohort anyway, but they said additionally that no cases (one presumes =0) had been reported with those receiving the Pfizer jab. So you'd have to conclude that the Pfizer jab not only helps with covid, but also helps to protect against this rare clotting.
All of this is possible, but it seems more likely that the picture is incomplete.
So it isn't a choice between being keen on holidays or not, its a case of whether having holidays without quarantine results in losing even more liberties.
But how did the whole conversation start ?
People bewailing the UK weather and the misuse of the word staycation.
And if you want to do a little bit more amateur psychology you can consider why I get bored by people talking about their week in Majorca but enjoy reading SeanT style travelogues (although the food he used to describe on them usually seemed overpriced and pretentious).
https://twitter.com/gorbalsgoebbels/status/1378019966243459076?s=20
"In summary, the phylogenetic tree analysis showed SARS-CoV-2 is closely related to BAT-CoV, and its second-closest relative is SARS-CoV. All MERS-CoV strains showed distal relation to SARS-CoV-2. In the analysis of genetic variants, more mutations were found in MERS-CoV compared to SARS-CoV and BAT-CoV. The phylogenetic analysis, study of genetic variation, multisequence, and microsatellite analysis, showed that the bat is the native host of SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, it also concluded that BAT-CoV is closely related to SARS-CoV-2. There is a possibility of the presence of an intermediate host to initiate the transmission of COVID-19 from BAT to humans. However, more research is required to validate this assumption."
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210402/Comparative-study-of-SARS-MERS-BATe28090SARS-and-SARS-CoV-2.aspx
https://twitter.com/will_malone/status/1377659609452777474?s=20
The pattern, stated by P&O and now being followed by Princess, MSC and Royal Caribbean is to use 1-2 ships operating out of Southampton. The voyages are wither 3-4 day trips without a stop or up to 8 nights with a stop or two in the British Isles at places like Greenock, Kirkwall, Liverpool and Falmouth.
The cruises will be for UK citizens only and any one wishing to travel will have to show evidence of either being fully vaccinated or having a second vaccination appointment at time of booking. Unvaccinated passengers will have to show evidence of a negative test 72 hours before boarding and will be tested before boarding.
I suspect these will be very popular and will cover the period through the school summer holidays - I think the cruise operators are still hoping to be able to sail to Europe from September.
But a suggestion to my parents that we/they go to a restaurant or even that me and my dad have a beer in his garden is almost certain to receive a baffled response.
Which in turn baffles me - they love doing such things on holiday but don't want to do them at home.
And I'm left floundering about hypothesising about old fashioned work ethics and only being allowed to enjoy yourself on holiday.
It's credible for someone like George Osborne to claim (not sure if he commented on this or not) that we (i.e. the UK) would have done our own thing.
But it's not credible for Sturgeon to claim that for Scotland on two counts. One, she's enthusiastic about EU membership in a way Tory remainers aren't. Two, size. It would have been illogical for Scotland to do their own thing. To be fair, doing it at EU level was fine. It was the implementation that's been the problem.
Frankly I think it makes sod all difference, if you want to work from home you can, otherwise you can come in.
I intend to be in the office a lot more than others - but that's because I like the change of scene.
The EU is not in a million years going to be as nice to the Scots as the UK has been.
I have no idea why the Nationalists aren't owning up to the truth of 'now is not the time' - I think they damage themselves enormously by not doing so.
So if the staycation gets ruined by crap British weather, hey ho, we're off to the Algarve, the Cyclades, or Tuscany, in a few weeks, anyway. No drama
If you are not wealthy and you have just one precious family holiday a year, you want guaranteed sunshine, not rain. You can't take the risk. So you fly south. Of course you do. And good luck to you.
A friend of mine who has spent most of Covid alone in his flat told me the other day that the Plague has really brought home to him the human need for holidays: in the sense of Being Somewhere Else. It's a human craving. To escape the same four walls, the same streets and houses (however nice) and just Go Somewhere Else. He's surely right. It is innate. Homo sapiens is a nomadic species, a wandering hunter gatherer, and the urge to travel or move on, is probably in our DNA as Bruce Chatwin avers, so eloquently, in Songlines
And to say "now is not the time" brings doubt into what is their fundamental belief.
"It's now or never...."