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Coronavirus: Pubs 'may need to shut' to allow schools to reopen

Marc O'Brien said:
The Tories policy on Covid-19 has been piecemeal all the way, but this utterly ridiculous announcement tops it all, along with their three months too late policy of wearing masks in shops, a complete u turn, this lady IS for turning, Boris really is the bumbling lion cub that Steve Bell portrayed him as. Come October when the govt. stops paying 10M peoples wages we'll see who wants to stay at home and who wants to go to work.
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I don’t understand this sort of ignorance.
If you are furloughed you can’t go back to work even if you want to.
 
Bob McC said:
I don’t understand this sort of ignorance.
If you are furloughed you can’t go back to work even if you want to.
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'Come October, when the govt. stops paying peoples wages', so people will either go back to work, if they have a job, or face the sack.
 
Big Tabs said:
It will happen, one way or the other.

Shotgun under the counter?
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When I was nobbut a lad, my cousin took me on a pub crawl around Liverpool. At the end of the evening, we crossed back over to 'our' side of the Mersey, and went to a pub that was 'relaxed' about closing time. It was a rough pub in a rough area, and before we went in, my cousin said 'Just drink your drink, don't spill anyone else's drink, and don't look at anyone else. If things get too lively, we'll nip out the back.' I asked him what he meant by 'lively', and he said 'When the landlord gets his shotgun out, we leg it.' As it happened, there was no trouble, but I had to help my cousin back to our house. He could barely stand, but insisted he was going to drive back to his, so my mother stole his car keys from his coat pocket, and he fell asleep on the sofa.
 
Big Tabs said:
It will happen, one way or the other.

Shotgun under the counter?

Is that a Baseball Bat, or are you just pleased to see me?
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Dear Mr T,

When I was a youngster on the farm in the 1970s there was always plenty of casual staff during harvest, potato picking and bale hauling.

A regular saying was, "Is that an adjustable spanner in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?"

I did not get the joke till at farm college in the early eighties. The same greeting was jokingly normal there as well, and I asked a friend why anyone would be carrying round an adjustable, and what it had to do with ...

He explained it, and the joke was on me for the previous good ten years. Oh the innocence of childhood!

Had another tough shift toward the end today. Two non-maskers at the same time. Oh dear ... one to told me to F-off. I said that I was unaccustomed to being spoken to like that, to which he said, "How long have you lived round here?" I replied that I was born here fifty-nine years ago, "Is that long enough?"

Some people cannot even take the hint of a suggestion, but in the end the blame will fall on others ...

Best wishes from George
 
^ can you put up a sign along the lines of 'masks required or no service' ? When questioned just shrug your shoulders and say " It's the company policy."
 
George J said:
Thanks for posts in reply to this. I enjoy reading the various shades of view on a topic like this, and probably hold a quite mild view on it myself.

I think there is case for saying that education is much more important than drinking in a pub, especially as off-licences and shops sell the beverage of choice ... should it come to a choice to be made.

But the argument - as is usually the case - is not clear cut. Really a judgement call that cannot be decided on scientific evidence alone when as far as I know the expert view is by no means crystallised. So it becomes one off those hard to call decisions for the administration. What is decided may be right or wrong, and will be judged correctly only in hindsight.

____________

I had crossed words with a customer yesterday at the fuel station. Obviously the wearing of face masks or coverings is now legally required in shops, and if someone comes in without a mask or face covering the situation is a question of diplomacy, so far as that can be managed in the circumstances.

I knew the customer in question had poured no fuel, so was only there for snacks, or milk, or perhaps car accessories or spares. I asked if he would mind buying a face mask - we sell them singly at no mark-up over the packs of ten - and he point blank refused. I tendered the idea that he might remember the law on his next visit. Then he became very angry and asked me if I was refusing to serve him. I said that would be a question for the manager if he wanted to know. At that point he uttered some choice cursing words and left.

What are we supposed to do with such people? I reported the whole thing shortly afterwards to the manager, who said he heard the man in question raising his voice. "You did the right thing, for what I could tell," was his reaction, but it is not easy to enjoy serving people like this.

Incidentally, though not mandated by law, I do wear a proper face mask while on duty in the shop, and this helps with the gentle art of persuasion.

Best wishes from George
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Good for you. I would have done the same, regardless of thuggish attitudes. These types are usually the first to complain about the treatment they receive once infected.
 
wacko said:
can you put up a sign along the lines of 'masks required or no service' ? When questioned just shrug your shoulders and say " It's the company policy."
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I have suggested this, and it is a non-starter. The issue [except where customers are not buying fuel but only snacks and milk] is that the fuel is "post-paid." The customer lifts the fuel control valve from the pump and then the operator authorises the pump to zero and start from the till. There is no requirement to wear a mask outside while self-serving fuel, and so if the customer does not wear a mask in the shop at the till, you cannot refuse to take payment.

I asked in counter to this that we should request that customers wear a mask before commencing fuelling, but this is impractical at the busy times. There are seven pumps and the sight-lines can be obscured by bigger vehicles in front of others, though there is CCTV, but telling exactly what is going on is nigh impossible when a back-log starts to build up. You have to be very quick to the situation, and with drive offs as well. One does build up a fair level of suspicion after a while ...

It is an awkward scenario with the less bright customers [always quick in terms of their own ways of course] certainly exploiting the post-pay situation. We are asked [as staff] to ask nicely that those not wearing a mask do so on the next visit. The trouble with this is that it does not work. Five staff covering the opening times over the seven days of the week.

To be honest I would be glad to see the Police turn up randomly, especially later on towards. closing, but they simply glide by along the main road and are no help at all. They were often calling in at the beginning when the social distancing rules came in back in March, but since then they have become scarce again.

Anyway, I have more shifts than I would like over the next week. Over nine days, seven shifts ... It does wear you down a bit when the customers become piggy.

Best wishes from George
 
^ I trust there is a large perspex screen between you and the customers paying ? If not discuss it with the other 4 staff and ask for one.
 
We have the screen! In fact the garage was right in front on this, and other measures like hand sanitiser and generally being kind to the staff. It is a good company, but we are changing owners in the next six weeks. Let us hope for as nice a working relationship, and even some further improvements over time with our new bosses! We have a lovely team, and have been taken on as is, so we shall see.

Best wishes from George
 
I’m amazed the U.K. still allows post pay petrol. Everywhere is pre-pay in the US and it’s really not inconvenient.
 
George.

I hope there is conspicuous video surveillance at the counter area?

Good for you challenging the non-compliant customers. (re: face coverings)
 
Vinny said:
Some seriously crap logic involved, although at one level it is absolutely right. The same logic would also suggest that all people over 60 are killed. Both ideas are nonsense.

If the young really are such minor vectors, as claimed, whether they at school or not, matters not. If there is a trade to be had school v. pubs etc., that implies that both are significant vectors.

That said, people are seemingly ignoring common-sense distancing more and more, not least in pubs and the like.
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Some more this morning on this from Neil Ferguson

We have a lot of evidence that primary schools, young children pose relatively little risk of transmission. The concern is with secondary schools, teenagers and further education colleges and universities, where the evidence is still not certain but it looks like older teenagers can transmit just as well as adults. The risk then is that big schools, comprehensives and universities and FE colleges link lots of households together, reconnect the social network, which social distancing have deliberately disconnected. That poses a real risk of amplification of transmission, of case numbers going up quite sharply.
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https://www.theguardian.com/politic...hildrens-commissioner-covid-19-latest-updates
 
ks.234 said:
This “advice’ is totally impractical in most school settings. Try teaching art from the front of the class
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My guess is that they have reached the conclusion that the advice is practical, hence their decision about masks. I don’t have any other way of making sense of this from Nick Gibb, in support of the idea that high school pupils need not wear masks in school

Within a school, of course, you’re not with people that you don’t meet normally, you see these same children every day, so there are different circumstances — when you’re on public transport for example, when you’re encountering people you’ve not come across or met before.

And that is why you have different rules and things like face coverings for public transport and being in shops from where you are with the same people in the same bubble day in and day out. And that is why the rules are different.
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https://www.theguardian.com/politic...hildrens-commissioner-covid-19-latest-updates
 
mandryka said:
Some more this morning on this from Neil Ferguson
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Not checked the article, but there was a discussion on R4 yesterday, with a suitably qualified person in Oz, who said that they had looked at statistics for X thousand students in one of the states and the statistics said that there was very little risk involved in returning to school/college.
 
Three of my grandchildren all 10 years and below will be going to school soon. Has anyone heard anything of the risks to me and my wife who see them at least twice a week on average at close quarters. I am wondering if we should stop seeing them. (we are in our late 60’s). Most of the advice I have seen concerns only the children, school workers and parents.
 
Bart said:
Three of my grandchildren all 10 years and below will be going to school soon. Has anyone heard anything of the risks to me and my wife who see them at least twice a week on average at close quarters. I am wondering if we should stop seeing them. (we are in our late 60’s). Most of the advice I have seen concerns only the children, school workers and parents.
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I think only you can make that decision, I wouldn't wait for any guidance which will be in part political much like the schools opening in the first place. What I would say is that for every report that kids don't transmit it well there is another that says they do. Leaving that aside logic would seem to say that a lot of kids at a school with no social distancing and some coming into contact with people on public transport to get there (as do some of the teachers) must present some sort of increased risk and hence you will be increasing your risk of exposure to the virus to some extent by seeing them. If it were me I would be keeping my distance from them and their parents, but that's easy for me to say. I think you need to do a sort of risk assessment yourself and decide what the rest of your life entails risk wise and by how much carrying on seeing your grandchildren would increase that risk. Only then can you make that decision. I know that's not terribly helpful, but I really would take with a pinch of salt any advice form government that says it will be no problem. Basically, make your own informed decision.
 
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