Eat Out To Spread The Virus About

[verdantverdure]

AIBU to think that it was basic common sense to know in advance that Rishi Sunak's Eat Out To Help Out short term boost for the economy would begin the covid second wave and kill tens of thousands of people in the U.K.?

YABU Who knew that packing out restaurants during an airborne pandemic would lead to infections and deaths?

YANBU Eat Out To Help Out was obviously going to cost British lives.

A lot of people wanted the borders shut for Covid but a diptheria outbreak in a hotel was met with barely a shoulder shrug

YANBU. I said at the time it was the stupidest policy I’d ever seen, and it was the moment I realised that Sunak is actually quite dim.

They could have achieved the same benefits with far fewer deaths if they’d just sponsored takeaways instead of insisting everyone eat in the restaurants, and on the same days if the week! 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Sponsors take aways?!!

they did just fine during lockdown. Obviously! 😂

and any more take aways consumed by this country going by mumsnet threads at the time… the obesity crisis would be even bigger than it is now!

Hair and beauty suffered just as much as hospitality did and they openly laughed about it in the HOC so it would be interesting to see the WhatsApp messages on this. But womens things so they didnt care.....oh wait unless you were famous then you could get your hair cut and coloured for a film role. It was just the duty of us working class women to look like scruffbags.

Barbers were allowed to open and photos were circulated of men getting their nose hairs plucked while beauty salons wernt even allowed to open and do treatments that were nowhere near the nose. Caroline Hirons was great on pointing out the hypocrisy and misogyny of this.

yes but eating out part of the wider hope that it would help peoples deteriorating mental health. And it did.

hairdressers… not so much

the chain of businesses that benefited from eat out - the farmers, food producers, restaurant suppliers.

hairdressers - not so much

@Vegrocks It didnt help a lot of womens mental health to feel like a scruffbag then turn on the TV to find that celebs with non wonky fringes carrying on as normal. you really think it didnt affect peoples mental health to BLATANTLY SEE that we wernt all in it together?? Really???!!! In my case i didnt see the point in being slim when feeling and looking like a scruffbag so i ate Not Eat out to help out though.

It definitely went up where I am. We are in a seaside town which had really low figures until the EOTHO scheme and then went really high but we were also full to the brim with holiday makers so it might have gone up without the scheme.

It was a total waste of tax payers money here, our cafes/bars/restaurants are always busy in August and they'd have been busier that August as it was such a busy month for holiday makers and day trippers. Here it would have made more sense to do it in October/November if it was to help hospitality businesses but I suppose they couldn't do different dates round the country.

How can you possibly know what affects the mental health of people that you dont know. You dismissed that industry in the same way they did.

I didn’t feel like a scruff bag 🤷‍♀️

ok I desperately needed my hair highlighted and trimmed but aside from that… paint my nails, do my own make up, shower and moisturise.

Head out and have a lovely much reduced meal out with loved one (all with dodgy hair!)

It wasn't all summer, it was 4 weeks in August, the numbers wouldn't rocket in the first 2 weeks due to incubation period and then they'd start to rise.

I’m glad it helped businesses

Do many got hammered and no one really cared about that. Great if they had an uplift in income.

Because if your mental health is seriously impacted by not having your hair done… then there’s bigger issues at play (and I’m a hair obsessive)

whereas not getting out, being amongst people, chatting, laughing, socialising, being in the physical presence of loved one over food….

Why were celebs allowed to then if its not that important.

I throughly enjoyed it tbh and as many much needed catch ups with friends over lunch

We liked Eat Out to Help Out and used it several times even though I am clinically vulnerable. It was a scheme that was much needed by the hospitality industry at the time and it was nice to see people out enjoying themselves.

To the best of my knowledge nobody held a gun to anyone's head and forced them to go to a restaurant.

I've mixed feelings about lockdowns. I could see the necessity at the start of the first one, but by subsequent ones it was becoming ridiculous, especially as the vaccine rollout gathered pace. Yes, I DO know that the vaccines don't completely stop Covid, just like they don't 100% stop other diseases. We'd also learned a lot about how best to treat Covid by then too.

My negative view of lockdown is almost certainly coloured by my Dad's death and funeral in the second one. He died alone in hospital (and it wasn't Covid related) and we had a lockdown funeral for him. I broke bent a few lockdown rules as he became ill because it was clear that if I hadn't I would never have seen him alive again.

I've no qualms at all about Eat Out to Help Out.

what Celebs were “allowed to”

I am genuinely baffled! I don’t remember seeing a different rule for them

Added to which, can’t say seeing a celeb looking good on lockdown is something that would have me spiralling

The fact there was one rule for us and one for the famous is something you cannot erase. Look at the G7 summit and award ceremonies where hospitality workers were masked up and those attending wernt. Masks only for the help.

It was wonderful wasn’t it. I remember feeling quite euphoric and emotional

I'd rather get my hair done than sit outside eating in public, so going to a hairdresser was more beneficial to me than EOTHO. Different strokes and all that.

What awards ceremonies took place during lockdown? 😐

Absolutely but you can see that the majority may prefer socialising and eating out with loved ones and friends?

@Vegrocks It doesnt affect me normally but in this case it did because it showed there was one rule for them and one for us and that we wernt all in it together.

metro.co.uk/2021/01/07/priyanka-chopra-flouts-lockdown-rules-at-josh-wood-hair-salon-13866536/

@Vegrocks Masks only for the help was post lockdown but still when restrictions were in.

Barbers were allowed to open and photos were circulated of men getting their nose hairs plucked while beauty salons wernt even allowed to open and do treatments that were nowhere near the nose. Caroline Hirons was great on pointing out the hypocrisy and misogyny of this.

Yes, that had very unfortunate man things important woman things silly and easily dismissed connotations.