4th October 2020 – A toast to the hospitality industry
We are on holiday in Cornwall, and naturally visiting local pubs, an opportunity to assess how staff cope with the Covid regulations, much more interesting than assessing staff in the retail trade… We have been impressed, with staff keeping an eye on the door for those waiting to enter, ensuring that all who enter are masked. Each premises (all non residential premises) has an NHS QR code, which customers scan using smart phones with an NHS app to notify that we have been there. We scan a QR code when we enter our office at work. We wouldn’t put up with such an invasion of privacy under normal circumstances.
Most small businesses deal with other professionals, but pubs must serve folk who are in some cases still a bit bewildered by the precautions to be taken, and in other cases are just awkward. In one pub a customer was asked if she had the NHS app, and she confirmed that this was the case. “Could you scan the QR code please?” “No, I can’t my phone is flat” as she marched straight past the code to a table of her choice, which fortunately had just been sanitised. She was at least wearing a mask, and did agree to provide details for the staff to note down by hand.
In one small café/restaurant we were seated at a table in view of the checkout screen, which had images of eight numbered tables, for staff to tap when entering an order for a particular table. The tables themselves were not numbered, but this didn’t matter, since the layout on the floor matched the screen images, and any table could be identified by merely looking up from the screen. When social distancing arrived tables 1,2 and 3 were removed, with tables 4 to 8 spread out across the floor, the floor layout no longer coinciding with the checkout screen. The owner told us that staff has just adapted and got on with the job.
Thursday 8th October 2020 – Social etiquette
When visiting pubs and cafes in the tourist towns and villages of Cornwall, we have to accept that we will need to queue at busy times, until a socially-distanced table becomes free. If we can see seated diners while we are standing in a queue and waiting for a table to empty, we impatiently compare notes. “What? Surely they are not ordering pudding?” “God Grief! How long does it take to drink a coffee?” “OK – they’ve finished – why are they hanging about? Don’t they have some shopping to get on with?” “Oh Good – she’s back from the toilet and getting ready to go. Oh no! Now he needs the toilet!” Once we are seated, we can relax, taking our time to choose what to eat, enjoy a leisurely luncheon, and then maybe we should choose a pudding? No, I don’t think so. Oh, all right, since we are on holiday. Now I’m full, I need to sit still for a few minutes! I’ll watch the dogs while you go to the toilet, and then we’ll swap. Why are those folk in the queue looking at us like that?
Yesterday, before being allowed into a pub, we each had out temperature taken for the first time, something which establishments have started to do to detect Covid symptoms. Apparently, I was warm, whereas Chantal was cool. We knew that this would be the case, since Chantal is constantly turning the radiator thermostats up at home, while I follow her around turning them down. We both “passed”, were allowed in, and I was served a mediocre Doom Bar ale, and Chantal a mediocre cappuccino, the worst of both options.
We put on our masks and popped into a small deli/café for a coffee and (at least for Chantal) a cake, removing the masks once seated. A chap of our age strolled in and went to the counter, without wearing a mask at any point. It was surprising how uncomfortable this made us feel. A few minutes later a slightly older couple walked in, both wearing masks. The husband (presumably) felt that he had to consult his wife about a purchase, and so unhooked the mask from one ear, sort of talked sideways to his wife, before re-securing the mask and ordering cheese from the counter. Two days ago we met unexpectedly with old friends who we haven’t seen for many years, and went to a pub for lunch and a catch up. Naturally we were so pleased to see each other that we gathered close for a “selfie”, just for the record. Without masks.
It’s not just other people that are getting a bit relaxed about Covid precautions.
Sunday 24th October 2020 – We are left in tiers
So, we now have a simple three tier (or five, in Scotland) classification system to define the risk of catching covid-19. At highest risk, with highest numbers of infection, with most restrictions, is Tier 3. Tier 1 has least restrictions. At present my District, Blaby, is Tier 1. It is a nice and simple system with thresholds that have been predetermined to assess the risk of infection. Cross the threshold and your area is promoted to the next tier. Simple. But it clearly is not simple, since it seems that local Authorities, in particular Manchester, can negotiate the tier that they are in. If we are “following the science”, the Government mantra, either the risk of infection is sufficient for Tier 3, or it isn’t. Financial support packages maybe negotiated as a region approaches the threshold, but not the risk or tier
Like all of the Covid emergency legislation, this is law-making on the hoof, making decisions without thinking through the implications. The emergency legislation misses out the normal legislative process of consultation. Clearly there is no time for the full process, but sometimes it seems that legislation is written in haste by Civil Servants as demanded by their political masters. The result can be imprecise wording. My favourite was that groups of six in pubs must not “mingle”. Mingle? What sort of imprecise phrase is “Mingling”? For how long can a person from one group greet a friend from another before it counts as a Mingle? This phrase has now been amended with something more enforceable.
Saturday 30th October 2020 – A red threat from the North
The pace of change is accelerating. When I started this post our lifestyle was determined by Tiers. Part way through changes were imminent, to be announced next week. By the final sentence we have only an hour before our fortune over the next few weeks will be read out by Boris, maybe another lockdown.
There has been a red wave creeping down from the Norther Territories. Tier 3 is approaching our homes in the central Midlands, rolling down from South Yorkshire, and into Nottinghamshire. All Districts in Nottinghamshire are now in high-risk Tier 3, which is at the County Boundary with Leicestershire, threatening its most northern District of Charnwood. And so we look worriedly to the North. Blaby, my home district, currently yellow Tier 1, has 288 Covid cases per 100,00 of population, not a huge leap lower than the 369 in Rushcliffe, the closest red Nottinghamshire District, and “our” trend is rising, whereas Rushcliffe is falling slightly. Presumably we will have a period of orange Tier 2 before being engulphed by the red wave, giving us some brief warning of tighter restrictions.
Our “Tier 1” seems reasonably simple – keep your distance, meet in groups of six, and cover your face in indoor public areas unless seated in a pub or restaurant. My friend Sarah called me for a chat last week, from her home in Oadby and Wigston, a tiny Authority at the edge of Leicester which has become infected by its larger neighbour and so, like Leicester, is in Tier 2. She was meeting friends in a local café the following day, and wasn’t sure if it was legal. It isn’t – in Tier 2 there is no indoor mixing of households, but they can meet outdoors.
The “Golden Thread” running through all Tiers is the Rule of Six, easily assessed, and easily enforced on the street by the Police and in bars by security staff, although while out about at night while working I have noted that the Rule of Six is blatantly disregarded in Leicester drinking establishments, and is not enforced.
In one hour, as I write, we will know whether we are about to be plunged, once again, into lockdown
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A second lockdown is imposed, but maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel.
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Life in the UK changed for everyone in March 2020.