Current Affairs Coronavirus Thread - Serious stuff !!!

[Harryflashman]

Where did ya end up going? From what i seen on a few mates town looked fairly busy round con sq?

Concert Square and the new pedestrian zones of Castle and bold street Have been pretty consistently busy . Baltic market area as well

 

[YoboCopter]

Concert Square and the new pedestrian zones of Castle and bold street Have been pretty consistently busy . Baltic market area as well

Cant keep davek away can ya

 

[tsubaki]

How does the meal deal work? Like, do folk get a voucher, (I havnt got one), or are your prices just halved with the Government coughing up the difference? (can see the fault lines in that from here)

its the second one, at least where I’ve had dinner

 

[spectateur]

I must have missed the bit in Road to Serfdom where Hayek says the government should focus the economy on services rather than manufacturing

I think that as Margaret was a huge follower of Freidrich when he was at LSE, she must have read it somewhere.

 

[Barnfred 55]

I went for a meal in quite a nice food pub in London last night, taking advantage of the Tory Groupon, and it was really quite busy for a Wednesday. I booked on the Monday and a table was only free from Wednesday 9pm.

Most tables inside and outside were taken when we arrived also.

We went out for pizza on Monday night too, for the same reason. We are going to eat out a fair few more times this month while the deal is on.

Provided you feel comfortable eating out you'd be a fool not too.

Problem we have down here is finding somewhere that's not booked up due to the number of holiday makers here. What we've been doing is going out having brunch or lunch. The missus works on a Wednesday so we still have Monday and Tuesday.

The scheme has been pretty well received down here by punters, although a lot of the business's are saying they would have preferred it to have been done in September, but that's because they are always busy during August anyway. A bit selfish really. Given the rest of the country is probably quiet this time of year due to people being away on holiday, I think the Govt has made the right call to have it this month.

 

[Jebus_lives]

Not in any way an expert but I'd have thought if you were a paid employee, anything you do in the service of the employer belonged to the employer

Or is that over simplifying things

I may be wrong, hence the question, but I had thought academics were exempt from that as ownership tends to follow a 'direction and control' type scenario.

 

[Jebus_lives]

I went for a meal in quite a nice food pub in London last night, taking advantage of the Tory Groupon, and it was really quite busy for a Wednesday. I booked on the Monday and a table was only free from Wednesday 9pm.

Most tables inside and outside were taken when we arrived also.

We went out for pizza on Monday night too, for the same reason. We are going to eat out a fair few more times this month while the deal is on.

It's been a success really. I've been out twice this week and it's been busy both times.

 

[Catfish Blues]

S

Sorry but it's nothing to do with the badge, it's economics.
Few people under the age of 50 know anything other than neo lib free market capitalism, introduced to UK by the Thatcher governments.
Real wealth (not virtual) is made by adding value to materials by working on them.
By giving way to manufacturing offshore gave away the means of creating true wealth.
The service economy merely circulates virtual money, it does not create real wealth for the nation.
The UK economy is too dependent on folk selling houses to each other, serving food and drink, cutting hair and polishing nails, money laundering and the casino of the city.
Need to be making much more of that stuff that currently carries the label "made in china".
Get back to that once all critical "balance of payments " statement.
The economic philosophies of Hayek and Freidman have had their day but have served their purpose in making the already rich even richer and the poor greater in number.
Don't ask me what should we change to, I'm not and economist,but a change is necessary.

Well yea, but trying to produce goods to compete against cheap Chinese goods, which is what you're saying, isn't the way forward. It's a bit of an oversimplification, but it's broadly true, to say that they can mass produce cheap goods because they have very cheap labour.

No-one really wants a UK industrial base to be price competive against mass produced Chinese goods, because the only reliable way to do that is to pay even shitter wages than people in hospitality do and/or to have piss poor working conditions. See some of the sweat shops in Leicester as examples of where that sort of thinking ends up. In that case, it was to compete with India and Bangladesh, but the principal's the same.

If only to balance the risks involved with being top heavy on the service economy, front, we need a move to a more industrialised economy, but, unless you're happy with moving to protectionism, producing similar mass produced goods to those manufactured in China isn't the answer.

There are plenty of highish tech manufacturing companies in this country who are able to compete globally. One of the problems they have is in finding decent people with relevant skills to recruit. That's partly down to governments over the years not encouraging education in STEM subjects, but, if we're being brutally honest, it's because those subjects are seen as being hard, so people go for easier options and end up working in service sector jobs rather than Science and Engineering.

 

[Toffe3m4n]

Took advantage of the Eat Out to Help Out 50% last night at Albert's Schenke. Great offer there - any main, side, and either a starter or dessert plus a pint or large glass of wine all for £15 each. Quality that, boss food as well - the place was busy for a Wednesday so it seems to be working which is nice to see.

 

[Catfish Blues]

Was out on the ale with my mate last night - even for a wednesday evening was very quiet out.

eerily quiet.

Apparently a facebook message saying you were out in town went viral, and all the women changed their plans for the evening.



Obviously this was because they didn't trust their hormones and were avoiding risking their relationships for a quick fumble.

 

[Barnfred 55]

I may be wrong, hence the question, but I had thought academics were exempt from that as ownership tends to follow a 'direction and control' type scenario.

Haven't a clue tbh mate. I was just applying the common sense rule, which as you know doesn't work in every scenario.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

It's been a success really. I've been out twice this week and it's been busy both times.

Similarly, on a walk around the river last night, there wasn't a restaurant in sight with any spare tables. It's certainly got people out.

 

[Catfish Blues]

It's interesting in Czech at the moment, as their case numbers are broadly comparable with the numbers they had at the height of the outbreak in March, and they've been sticking at around the same level now for a few weeks. What is pleasing, and perhaps illustrative for here, however is that despite relatively high case numbers, the number of hospitalised patients requiring ICU is pretty low. They have around 5,200 active cases at the moment, but of that number, just 121 are in hospital and just 19 in a serious condition.

That kind of situation would make it doable to keep the economy relatively open I'd have thought.

I'm guessing here, but I suspect that it'll be for reasons similar to what's being seen in Spain. Over there, they're not restricting tests to just people with symptoms, so 70% of positive cases are asymptomatic. If the situation in the Czech Republic is similar, then the 5,200 active cases would be equivalent to about 1500 people with symptoms.

So, in terms of people with symptoms, that'd equate to a hospitalisation rate of not far off 10%.

 

[Barnfred 55]

I didn't mate.The girl in the office went in to my file and brought up the correct IBAN number straight away.So God knows what has been done.Just hope I can get it back.

You need to speak to your accountants mate and find out what happened. I don't know what the process is for applying for unemployment benefit over there but you, personally, obviously do so through your accountant.

I can see one of only two occurrences that led to the mistake. Either your accountants have to submit a form every time they apply for benefit, and put the incorrect IBAN details on the latest (I'm assuming now that you have already had benefits paid to the correct account previously). Or the Greek authorities had the correct IBAN details but made an error in processing the July payment.

Either way, it's not your fault or your responsibility to claim that money back from the incorrect recipient. If your accountant cocked up, just tell them you need the money urgently and demand they pay up. If it was the government, ask your accountants to chase it up with them, or do so yourself if the accountant are going to charge.

 

[marnie]

You need to speak to your accountants mate and find out what happened. I don't know what the process is for applying for unemployment benefit over there but you, personally, obviously do so through your accountant.

I can see one of only two occurrences that led to the mistake. Either your accountants have to submit a form every time they apply for benefit, and put the incorrect IBAN details on the latest (I'm assuming now that you have already had benefits paid to the correct account previously). Or the Greek authorities had the correct IBAN details but made an error in processing the July payment.

Either way, it's not your fault or your responsibility to claim that money back from the incorrect recipient. If your accountant cocked up, just tell them you need the money urgently and demand they pay up. If it was the government, ask your accountants to chase it up with them, or do so yourself if the accountant are going to charge.

I have a meeting tomorrow to register for August so will hopefully sort it out then.