Eat Out To Help Out: Brilliance or Lunacy?

[verdantverdure]

On the day the Covid Inquiry convenes I thought I'd ask your opinion on Eat Out To Help Out.

Covid case numbers and deaths were low, as we'd done a phased return out of the first lockdown.

Then we had Eat Out To Help Out and it all kicked off again within weeks.

What did you think? At the time? Now?

YABU Eat Out To Help Out was brilliant, I loved it.

YANBU Eat out To Help Out was a bloody stupid idea that was obviously going to help the virus spread, leading to another wave, more economic devastation, and tens of thousands of us dead. And it didn't even help the hospitality industry because it screwed up Christmas which is usually their most profitable quarter.

Haven’t rtft but there’s a good overview of impact on it on More or Less

It didn’t change much, only at most bringing forward restrictions by a few days.

And that’s before you get into other variants changing speed of increase.

If it helped businesses not go bust, then good.

They should get the More or Less team to the inquiry. Might help with some clear analysis

More or Less waffle?

Oh dear. No wonder the public reaction to Covid went as it did.

Though I'd have been eating out just the same regardless of the discount.

I think I would have been eating out the same amount. Although the discount enabled my friends and I to try more expensive places than we’d usually go for! Most restaurants practiced social distancing but some had outdoor bar areas that were pretty packed which would have been more likely to cause the spread.

Complete waste of money. Gave some bigger chains a leg up, it was too late for many smaller businesses.

On a personal level it was great, used it a fair bit, nice to have a break from Covid doom and I know businesses who benefited

It was a daft idea.

But you'll responses are more likely to be biased by people's underlying opinions on the value of the lockdowns and other restrictions. The risk wasn't just that of catching the virus - which was fairly mild (pending the unknown outcome of long covid) for most people, the risk was to the overall functioning of the NHS, social care, education, public transport and public infrastructure systems.

I don't think everyone fully realises just how crippling prolonged and elevated sicknesses absences can be on public services that are run lean even in the fat times. Lockdowns and restrictions reduced non-Covid ill health, road accidents, workplace injuries, demand on public transport, etc. etc.

The interesting calculation would be to see whether a UBI would have been cheaper or more expensive (including direct costs and administration) then the various furlough schemes, SEISS, etc.

Well it wasn't good for the country's finances, wasn't great for covid transmission but we took every advantage of it, ate out at least twice a week!

Not as bad a lunacy as lockdown

Lockdowns were absolutely not unnecessary and saved thousands of lives. I think you mean only necessary to protect the lives of the vulnerable and elderly clearly lives not worth saving then.

Lockdowns and restrictions reduced non-Covid ill health

No, it just kicked it down the road. Seasonal viruses came back with avengance, children had little or no immunity to common illnesses, diabetes, heart and cancer care were all put on hold, so people either died, or are now too advanced to survive.

@NewNovember the same sort of people who rely on welfare / savings / pensions so will suffer from our economy being ruined ?

Fucking mental

Eat out to help out was fine. We used it several times and have no regrets.

It helped plenty of businesses round here, and no, they weren't rich people.

The first lockdown was necessary as we knew little about what we were dealing with. Subsequent ones were more questionable though and thankfully we are through all that bollocks now.

The max discount was £10 anyway wasn’t it?! So I have no idea where the ‘it was for the rich’ came from. No one was bagging half price a La Carte in Le Gavroche.

I felt at the time it was a planned way to circulate the virus in summer to try and create a peak to potentially lessen the impact for the following school year and winter while simultaneously pulling back from financially supporting the hospitality industry. I didn't participate as I preferred the option to eat out at other times in the week when it was quieter.

Restaurants I went to took the piss and bumped prices up massively so net cost to customer was the same.

Plus everywhere frigging rammed. It was a waste of time and money, to then lock down again pretty much immediately?

It was all a faff though, not moving from your table etc etc. We never bothered, just used takeaways.

100% agree. We buried my DSIL two weeks ago, she was a victim of Covid Cancer - nobody gave a feck about her until she was too advanced. No appointments, couldn’t see a Dr, long waits etc. It’s heartbreaking, we miss her terribly. She was 69.

The scheme was fine (and probably saved some restaurants from going under). I think we perhaps forget how nervous everyone had become of being in confined spaces, rightly or wrongly.

The level of fraud was not fine.

I have a feeling the Covid Inquiry will be quite a bit more rigorous than that old flannel on More or Less @SunnyEgg.

I’d say I’m surprised at posters turning their noses up at statisticians on more or less but I’m not.

There’s no limits to how much people believe in their own ability these days

Plus the Covid headlines worked a treat for a reason after all.

£850 million plus associated admin costs to the Govt & the costs of treating excess CV patients.

Anti-Lockdowners say LD cost the country dear, often blaming Labour... yet also boast of taking part in Eat out... hypocrites.

On the inquiry it kicked off with people holding up signs outside and a video of those who had lost loved ones

Hopefully when they say they’re looking at suffering they mean all of it. Mental health impact and all ages

And those diagnoses would have been made and treatments delivered if the NHS had collapsed under the weight of massed Covid in-patients and it's own internal sickness absences.

FFS think it through. Of all the freedoms people protest for it's rarely to exercise the freedom to think.