Pubs or kids?

[coffeeandllbd]

Whitty said we cannot have it all. Pubs are jobs. School is mental health.

I have a 13 year old struggling with lockdown. I would choose schools. My brother would choose pubs.

Who would you choose?

Schools without a doubt.

School. Kids are the future of the economy - no schools, no education, no jobs, no economy.

Economy is useless without people. People before profits. Introduce a universal basic income for survival.

Does it have to be one or the other? Part time school and pubs open with restrictions. So unfair to close all pubs entirely, would result in huge job loses.

I think the question more accurately is probably non-essential retail and hospitality or kids.

And I choose kids.

I know I’m a proper doom monger but I really think there is going to be a massive reshaping if our culture and industries because of this and a lot of people will be out of work and it’s going to be shit. Then I think there will be new and different industries. e.g. less people working in coffee shops more people working in online retail.

Schools but I’m not confident the government will choose children over economy

I don’t think it has to be an either or choice. Both are important for different reasons. Schools should adopt part time blended learning approach and pubs (including non essential retail/restaurants) should be open with reduced capacity, Covid secure rules like they are now. People saying just schools 100%, where is the money coming from in the longer term to fund schools if there is no economy? Let alone NHS and everything else. What about the mental well being of the greater population if more things are shut down. Far too simple to say schools vs pubs as is being proven Covid is far from simple.

It another knee jerk reaction from this inept Government. Boris has only himself to blame for this, supporting Cummings jaunt to my neck of the woods over Easter, paving the way for everyone to follow suit.

Choosing between the 2 is just ridiculous. Only this week he was banging on about everyone must return back to the office, no logic in his thought process at all.

Whitty (and Boris) were clear schools are the priority regardless of what else has to give as a result. At last !

CKBJ

Fair point. We probably won’t end up at 100% of one and 0% of the other.

The government have said schools back full time and my personal prediction is an absolute shambles of a autumn/winter term with kids in and out like yo-yos and schools shut down left right and centre. Followed by a government announcement that they are going to do part-time from January.

Meanwhile, many businesses have said that operating at 50% is not financially viable beyond a few months so will close anyway.

@tootyfruitypickle not convinced, I heard the words “should be priority” not “will be priority.” Also “pupils should be back to school in September” not “will be back to school September”. In my opinion a very subtle difference.

If the public in general would adjust their expectations just one tiny iota and stop thinking that being asked to follow restrictions put in place so venues can be open was a personal slight on them and work with places instead of against them, then it's feasible to have both.
The measures in place in hospitality and leisure aren't going to work unless the customer does their bit too - the staff and businesses can't do everything for everyone, at some point customers have got to take some responsibility for themselves instead of demanding that they get what they want at any cost.
Hospitality staff are just punching bags at the moment for frustrated and angry people who don't really care about the spread of the virus, don't care about the risks and think that customer service (aka getting exactly what they want, when they want it without any impediment) overrides everything, health, safety, the law, a global pandemic......
Children need to be back at school, the effect of this is going to be so far reaching into their futures, we're messing with the next generations lives. And people need to be back at work and paying taxes to fund the services we need - and that includes pubs.
But forced to choose I'd say schools because personally I think there's more to risk from them not being open than pubs.

Schools

Children’s well-being would always be the priority for me.

Whitty doesn’t live in the real world. Whether it leads to a resurgence or not, things are going to have to reopen. Neither 5 million unemployed due to closure of hospitality or kids not being educated is viable.

The U.K. government are all over the place. The aim of lockdown was never to prevent there being another resurgence.

Schools, and I have no school aged kids and friends working in pubs

@Roselilly36

Children’s well-being would always be the priority for me.

Because that’ll be marvellous for the kids with parents who work in closed sectors who end up long term unemployed

Whitey does live in the real world

Whitey can also take a long term view, not just be bounced by how he feels now

Short term mass unemployment with a faster recovery is better than a slower decline into mass unemployment and a slower recovery. A poorly controlled virus will affect the economy longer and harder in the long run.

So my answer is both. It just has to happen, whether viruses increase or not. Kids need to be educated. People need to work. Tough shite to Whitty if he doesn’t like it.

Whitty does not live in the real world. He does not have to take any cognisance of the wider economic impact of medical decisions made.

I don’t understand the love for him on this site. He inspires no confidence in me at all. The only thing I can find in his favour is he’s better than that idiot Harries.

It's not that Whitty doesn't live in the real world, it's just he has tunnel vision on the Coronavirus. Unemployment affects people's health. Kids being out of school affects their well being and future prospects. I also can't believe this is the same man who frankly seemed very laid back in early March, telling us all we needed to do was wash our hands.

But there won’t be “short term unemployment” if a sector employing 5 million people collapses.

sengastrawberry

Whitty doesn’t live in the real world. Whether it leads to a resurgence or not, things are going to have to reopen. Neither 5 million unemployed due to closure of hospitality or kids not being educated is viable.

Perhaps Chris Whitty understands better than you that opening everything up will lead to mass unemployment which will be even worse than what will happen without controlling things?? They have taken steps one at a time and have reached the limit (for now).

I dont think it should be either or. I've been to several pubs recently and they all have far more precautions in place to limit transmission than schools. With respect it feels like most posters on here moaning about pubs take their opinion from a tabloid headline/pic rather than actually visiting them recently.

Schools should do more incl. masks, reduced hours/days for class sizes etc. so that they can open alongside. Schools shouldn't trump everything in my opinion, they should open alongside other areas of society.

Chief medical officer for England, Professor Chis Whitty, told the briefing: “The idea that we can open up everything and keep the virus under control is clearly wrong and what we are seeing is that we are at the outer edge of what we can do and therefore choices will need to be made, but people are very clear, for example, that schools are an absolute priority for the welfare of children.”

Was on another thread.

It may be both stay but nothing else opens up for a while.

People really don't get that an uncontrolled virus will lead to mass unemployment. It's like we can see a problem now and have a knee jerk reaction rather than thinking it through

We know from history that the us states that took the hardest action with the 1918 flu recovered faster than those that values employment more. It's a short term gain for a long term loss.

We see in Sweden that their relaxed approach as not gained them anything economically

It could also lead to food shortages. We locked down after the french said they would not allow lorry drivers across the channel.

And where will you go if your child beaks a leg because there won't be hospitals to go to if the virus runs uncontrolled. The NHS is already talking of exhaustion and mental health problems with their staff, and we have less than 10% of the population infected, they won't cope if another %60 become infected

So it's not a case of we just have to put up with the virus to save jobs. That's just a way to kill the economy for longer.