Sunshine in the News From Britain
Still, in lockdown I’m still in Scotland. Which, last time I looked is still part of the United Kingdom.
Thus far I have watched this pandemic and its consequences unfold from a very British perspective. And the latest news seems to suggest that things appear to be changing, and mostly for the better.
In the House of Commons this week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told us all that “our long national hibernation is coming to an end.” He then spoke at length about how the UK moves from this “state of hibernation” to one of something approaching the normality we all left behind sometime in the middle of March.
So from 4 July parts of the hospitality industry will reopen. Individuals will be able to socialize with greater freedom then is presently allowed. The two-meter social distancing rule is to be relaxed, looks like it will only be one meter but with the proviso that masks will have to be worn. Still this meter is significant for some businesses and for how those businesses who must operate closely with their clients.
Other establishments allowed to resume activities from July will include bars and pubs, hotels and campsites, workplace canteens and restaurants, outdoor playgrounds and indoor cinemas, museums and galleries, places of worship, libraries. What can’t open just yet are: gyms, nightclubs and beauty salons. However, there are rumblings of discontent in certain sections of the government about this that may mean some form of reopening for these sectors as the summer progresses.
Whatever happens, the businesses that do open will look very different from how you remember them last. Each sector has been given specific onerous guidelines, such things as “one-way systems” are being mandated depending on the business setup, and all with the aim of reducing any form of human contact wherever possible. As a result, things may not seem “human” again for quite awhile.
Furthermore, while announcing the changes, Boris Johnson emphasized that should there be a return of the virus, the much-dreaded “second wave”, then he would put the brakes on as he says “caution will remain [the British government’s] watchword”.
Presently, however, the news relating to the pandemic and its effects remain random and hard to decipher. For my money any news just now is best sampled in a random way. Nobody really knows what is going on or what will happen in the future – near or far. So take these assorted facts and see what you make of them.
UK online grocery shopping rose by 115% in the four weeks to 13 June 2020 over the same period last year. I spoke of this in an earlier post. We have all got used to shopping more on line and can’t see this trend reversing. It’s good news for the on-line businesses. However, along with greater working from home, it may be the final nail in the coffin for the British High Street, which has been on life support for some years.
Talking of that High Street, and seemingly confirming what I have suspected for some time, one of the UK’s biggest coffee chains, Pret a Manger, announced that its weekly takings have fallen to £3 million. This is only 15% of the sandwich chain’s usual income levels. As a result, the company will make an announcement about jobs on 8 July. One wonders if this is the end of the British love affair with coffee shops? Something that has been a consistent feature of the British High Street for the last quarter of a century, and one of that High Street’s remaining success stories looks as if it has just run out of beans.
Some better news from Netflix though. Having done very well out of the recent pandemic, the streaming platform announced it is resuming UK film production on 17 August 2020. Netflix plans to spend over £400 million this year alone making more than 50 films and TV shows here in the UK. That is a much-needed boost to the British creative industries not just in financial terms but also in the signal it sends to the film sector in particular as it attempts to rebuild once more.
I have hopes for the film industry. Perhaps that’s why I’m CEO of a film company. I have no such hopes for the theatre, however. Cameron Mackintosh has already confirmed that his West End productions, including major shows such as Hamilton and Les Misérables, will not reopen before 2021. Research released this week found that the UK’s creative industries stand to lose about £1.4 billion per week during 2020, with more than 400,000 jobs at stake as a result. Most of those jobs are in theatre, fixed locations, and so are as portable as movies. The current business model for the stage looks doomed.
In other news that attracted my attention, I don’t know whether Boris reads this column, but I was heartened to hear that the government was about to take my advice in regard to Britain’s ailing travel and tourism sector. According to The Times the government is considering scrapping the proposed two-week quarantine rules for those entering the UK, and also allowing Brits to travel abroad on holiday to up to ten approved countries. This is good news for all the reasons I set out last week: for the economy, for jobs, and for the health of the nation.
As to that last point, there was an interesting finding this week that confirmed what I had long thought. Newspaper reports talked of a study that found that 30 minutes of London sunshine could reduce the infectivity of Covid-19 by 90%. This is according to a study on the effects of strong sunlight on transmission rates. More northerly areas such as Edinburgh would require 34 minutes for the same effect. This is good news. But given the unreliability of sun in these northern climes it is another more reason for all of us to plan a winter break in the sun.
