After the virus.....

[didds]

HOPES
* normalisation of working from home as a general concept - not just the occassional day
* improvement of air quality and road surface toll as traffic is hugely reduced as a result of WFH
* a solution will have been found to make online/streaming of gigs and performances pay - the web is now full of artists providing online gigs - hopefully theer's a "better" way to help support such ventures going forward other than a paypal donate burtton (excellent though that is )

FEARS
* collapse of independent businesses including pubs, breweries, cafes, 5estatirats, catering and hospitality genetrally, tradesmen etc

[dealtn]

HOPES
* normalisation of working from home as a general concept - not just the occassional day
* improvement of air quality and road surface toll as traffic is hugely reduced as a result of WFH
* a solution will have been found to make online/streaming of gigs and performances pay - the web is now full of artists providing online gigs - hopefully theer's a "better" way to help support such ventures going forward other than a paypal donate burtton (excellent though that is )

FEARS
* collapse of independent businesses including pubs, breweries, cafes, 5estatirats, catering and hospitality genetrally, tradesmen etc

Mankind are social animals. I suspect 3 months of being alone will rekindle the joys of being social. I think we will see a lot of custom in pubs, restaurants, cinemas, cafes...

[bungeejumper]

Mankind are social animals. I suspect 3 months of being alone will rekindle the joys of being social. I think we will see a lot of custom in pubs, restaurants, cinemas, cafes...

I'd go further than that, although I suppose I'm living dangerously? I've been known to describe beer as the male sex's big secret - and as one of the reasons why men seem to be able to dust themselves down after a confrontation and not bear eternal murderous grudges against each other, as (some) females are inclined to do. (Don't ask, don't even ask....)

Sharing a beer is a social leveller, something that even our cave-dwelling antecedents appear to have understood. An absolute boon to mankind. As for womankind, sadly, a small pinot grigio just doesn't seem to have the same effect.

BJ (ducking swiftly for cover)

[didds]

Mankind are social animals. I suspect 3 months of being alone will rekindle the joys of being social. I think we will see a lot of custom in pubs, restaurants, cinemas, cafes...

I agree with regard to the post CV-19 partying - but whilst the BIG breweries and pubcos I expect to survive, whether mictro pubs, free houses and small breweries will not go bust generally I dont know. So yes - The Enterprise Inns establishments selling Doombar, Carling, Greene King etc may well be open. But if the "Wobbly Hand" micropub that sold ales from 1 barrel plant microbreweries has gone bust along with those 1 barrel plant micro breweries, then that may be all that is left to drink and frequent. Its those smaller places I fear for, and that has made the British beer scene so much more vibrant in the past few years

not all pubs and beers are born equal.

didds (CAMRA member )

[UncleEbenezer]

I hope it'll bring about a long-overdue rise in working from home and from small local offices, and the demise of the Dilbertian office of the 19th and 20th centuries. Not least (but not very likely - they're too self-important) Parliament should represent the whole UK equally, with each constituency having a representative who actually lives and works within their constituency and thus shares its issues and concerns.

Another great outcome would be for it to become socially unacceptable (knowingly) to spread germs. The person who comes to the office or any nonessential indoor place with an obvious cold should be as unwelcome as a smoker.

As for basic income, that makes a lot of sense, but only if it properly rids us of means-testing - the burden of bureaucracy, and the kind of poverty trap associated with low earnings creeping over some cruel threshold[1]. Your £48/week isn't going to do that: it would just leave us a worst-of-all-worlds. Here's a much better (though not quite up-to-date) calculation.

[1] As happened to me in 2002/2003, when income of about £3k disqualified me from benefits of about £8k compared to sitting at home and signing on - the latter figure being mostly housing benefit.

[dealtn]

Mankind are social animals. I suspect 3 months of being alone will rekindle the joys of being social. I think we will see a lot of custom in pubs, restaurants, cinemas, cafes...

I agree with regard to the post CV-19 partying - but whilst the BIG breweries and pubcos I expect to survive, whether mictro pubs, free houses and small breweries will not go bust generally I dont know. So yes - The Enterprise Inns establishments selling Doombar, Carling, Greene King etc may well be open. But if the "Wobbly Hand" micropub that sold ales from 1 barrel plant microbreweries has gone bust along with those 1 barrel plant micro breweries, then that may be all that is left to drink and frequent. Its those smaller places I fear for, and that has made the British beer scene so much more vibrant in the past few years

not all pubs and beers are born equal.

didds (CAMRA member )

I suspect a lot of those that find themselves without work, will seek out hobbies that they can turn into small businesses. Monetising a hobby into a "hobby business" would be an injection of entrepreneurial spirit into a slowly recovering economy. I wouldn't be so pessimistic about the micro-breweries myself.

[UncleEbenezer]

I suspect a lot of those that find themselves without work, will seek out hobbies that they can turn into small businesses. Monetising a hobby into a "hobby business" would be an injection of entrepreneurial spirit into a slowly recovering economy. I wouldn't be so pessimistic about the micro-breweries myself.

The thing about microbreweries, independent pubs, etc is that they're always coming and going. Some may go under due to the lurgy; others may go under anyway, some will survive, new ones will be created.

A Darwinian shakeout in any business leaves a niche for something new. Not necessarily the same, but similar at least to the extent of serving the same basic need.

[ReformedCharacter]

After the virus - with any luck - I'll be visiting my local hairdresser again. They'll need the custom. In the meantime it's either a buzz-cut with the designer-stubble shaver that never got much use or I shall look like a scruffy hippy again. I expect my wife will decide

RC

[AleisterCrowley]

I think (hope) that people will step back and think about the whole sorry mess

A single food hygiene/public health failure in a Chinese city that most had never heard of has caused countless deaths and has destroyed economies and lives around the globe,with the after effects probably lasting years.

Root cause - Globalisation.

[ReformedCharacter]

I think (hope) that people will step back and think about the whole sorry mess

A single food hygiene/public health failure in a Chinese city that most had never heard of has caused countless deaths and has destroyed economies and lives around the globe,with the after effects probably lasting years.

Root cause - Globalisation.

Yes, and the seemingly insatiable need for people to travel abroad on holidays. My in laws, for example, seem to want to visit every corner of the earth while they can and that seems very typical of their generation. They're both keen environmentalists but cannot see (or refuse to accept) the damage that tourism does. The filth and mess that people create just to say they've 'climbed Everest' is but one example. It seems likely that Coronavirus entered the UK via a ski-resort in Austria. It's no surprise.

RC

[AleisterCrowley]

All that travel so people can post a photo of themselves atop a rock in New Zealand, or somewhere, with outstretched arms..

I'm quite enjoying the quiet skies, and the reduction in traffic noise (being a bit too near the A4)

[brightncheerful]

I wouldn't like to see working from home become a norm.

Currently, the authorities leave us alone. But if more people start doing it permanently then likely we'll get clobbered for business rates on the room(s) occupied, and all manner of higher costs at business prices will come our way: eg, electricity, gas, telephone, water rates, insurance, etc.

As a property owning client remarked of the buy-to-let market, it only needs a lot of amateurs umping on the bandwagon to spoil things for the rest of us.

[Gaggsy]

lot of amateurs umping on the bandwagon

I think you'll find that's been stopped due to the coronavirus:
https://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/1 ... ing-viral/
source: https://twitter.com/MickJon95058639/sta ... 2112158720

[brightncheerful]

Mankind are social animals.

I don't agree.

I think we are wild animals, preferring our own company. The sociability comes from centuries of subjugation that has tames and made us domesticated. Generally, from fear of might, people give in for a quiet life, become law abiding and go about their business accordingly,

An innate desire to be free of the social norms that restrain is suppressed. But the inner frustration, often misdescribed as 'anger', lingers and festers. Every so often something happens to trigger the wildness, sparks fly and all h*ll breaks loose.

Consider social media, for example. On-line bullying, etc is not symptomatic of the person concerned but an expression of the freedom in being ourselves to say whatever we like. The same principle applies to mental health issues. It is not that people do not know how to deal with the problem, simply that they are afraid to be talked out of it, told it's them that is wrong when, deep down, they know it is the way society has been constructed that is at fault.

Ideally, we should relax whenever the mood takes us and sleep from dusk and wake and get up at dawn and as sunset and sunrise varies day by day throughout the seasons so we should synchronise our lives accordingly. But we don't. Instead we force ourselves to keep going when we are tired and take stimulants so we can carry on regardless. No wonder most people are stressed: Life has become so compartmentalised - a time to work, a time to rest, a time to play - so pressurised that the only time most people can relax is to go on holiday, take a break.

And it is because of what has happened and what we have allowed to happen that is is much easier to agree that mankind are social animals.

Have a good weekend!

[AleisterCrowley]

I think we are inherently social. We see ourselves as separate from 'nature' but we are just higher apes who have gone through a bit of a rapid development phase. Most apes are social with families and hierarchies.

I agree regarding the compartmentalization and artificiality of modern life - we would be happier if the sun and the seasons dictated our days, living with nature rather than fighting it.

[vagrantbrain]

My 2p:

A)
Tourist areas, restaurants, pubs, cinemas all packed full for at least a few months
Tax rises - large increases in personal and company tax rates. Morally obliged to take it on the chin because the government saved your skin so you need to pay up and shut up
Canonization of every NHS employee till it's all forgotten about when the world cup and olympics start
Increase in divorce applications
Not much else - after a few months we'll go back to our normal routines and obsess over social media, celebrities and reality TV again

B)
Companies realise that WFH is viable for a lot of employees at least part of the week. Massive opportunities to cost save on city centre offices, hotel bills, travel costs etc
Increased focus on health surveillance at ports and airports

[swill453]

Tourist areas, restaurants, pubs, cinemas all packed full for at least a few months

A few people seem to expect this, but I don't. Any slackening off of the restrictions will be gradual, and when it's done we'll still be sh*t scared of vulnerable people catching it.

Mass inoculation with a vaccine is 2 years+ away, if we haven't eased the lockdown by then we'll all have killed each other.

Scott.

[Sorcery]

A baby boom, well what else are you going to do?

[AleisterCrowley]

There's always contraception....
Although irrelevant to me as I'm isolated alone

[mike]

There's always contraception....
Although irrelevant to me as I'm isolated alone

I wouldn't bank on it

In other news, it emerges a global shortage in condoms is looming because of the coronavirus pandemic, the world’s biggest producer has said.

Karex Berhad, which makes one in every five condoms globally, has not produced a single condom in its three Malaysian factories for more than a week because of a lockdown imposed by the government to halt the spread of the virus, Reuters reports.