Brexit, for once some facts.

Barry Shittpeas

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 1, 2020
2,325
3,210
Has Johnson shafted pub, club, theatre & music venue owners with his half arsed announcement yesterday? If it’s not a mandatory closure, just discretionary, will insurance companies pay up if an event is cancelled? That could have a knock on affect to the public, they might not get a refund if the venue owner goes under.

Also, I can’t see landlords volunteering to close pubs. That’s a tough business, many living hand to mouth and being screwed mercilessly by pub chain / brewery owners.

These measures need to be mandatory so that proper compensation is paid.
 

Barry Shittpeas

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 1, 2020
2,325
3,210
Your thoughts please following on from yesterday’s announcement regarding social gatherings.
I organise a weekly bike ride for people with health issues and wanting to become more active. It’s had a lot of success and I can get 40 - 50 people some weeks. It’s won awards too, but that’s another story.

I can’t work out if this is the type of social gathering the fat man was talking about yesterday. I kind of got the impression he meant indoor stuff, like bingo, darts or interest groups. I think my bike rides are pretty low risk being outdoors (high volume air changes), non contact, no shared surfaces like tables etc.

I’d appreciate your thoughts on whether I should cancel these rides. Some of the participants have diabetes, asthma or are just not fit. I think some just come because they are lonely and enjoy the company. It’s a quandary.

Maybe British Cycling will publish advice in due course.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: flecc and Woosh

Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
20,329
16,853
Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
I’d appreciate your thoughts on whether I should cancel these rides.
I think it would be prudent to cancel a couple of those meetings until the government manages to reduce the rate of new infections.
We are still in the phase of exponential cumulative growth until social distancing curbs its rate substantially.
 

Wicky

Esteemed Pedelecer
Feb 12, 2014
2,823
4,011
Colchester, Essex
www.jhepburn.co.uk
Tricky - I'm trying to find out similar from ECB for my club and league for indoor cricket net practice / grass roots cricket. Where I see the difficulty with changing rooms and teas.

Just sees this from FA and would expect ECB to follow: “Following the government’s announcement today for people to avoid social contact and gatherings where possible, we are now advising that all grassroots football in England is postponed for the foreseeable future,” a statement read.:

Feedback I got from my club members mentioned the need for cricket season to maintain sanity and stave off boredom with the lockdown...

This general advise in UK is for non-essential travel and social gatherings erring on the side of caution. If you do do it, maybe consider breaking it down into smaller groups of four at most, and setting off with some distance between each group.

In Spain where folk are banned from going outside except to buy food, go to work, or get medical help for 15 days, some Brits are revolting...

 

oldgroaner

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 15, 2015
23,461
32,613
80
Your thoughts please following on from yesterday’s announcement regarding social gatherings.
I organise a weekly bike ride for people with health issues and wanting to become more active. It’s had a lot of success and I can get 40 - 50 people some weeks. It’s won awards too, but that’s another story.

I can’t work out if this is the type of social gathering the fat man was talking about yesterday. I kind of got the impression he meant indoor stuff, like bingo, darts or interest groups. I think my bike rides are pretty low risk being outdoors (high volume air changes), non contact, no shared surfaces like tables etc.

I’d appreciate your thoughts on whether I should cancel these rides. Some of the participants have diabetes, asthma or are just not fit. I think some just come because they are lonely and enjoy the company. It’s a quandary.

Maybe British Cycling will publish advice in due course.
Sad though it may be cancellation is the course wisdom dictates ,otherwise where any of them to fall ill, you would always be faced with wondering whether you made the wrong decision

By cancelling you can be pretty sure you didn't.
I believe it to be the best decision for all concerned.
As the saying goes, no mater how hard the decision

"A man's gotta do
What a man's gotta do"
 

oyster

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 7, 2017
10,422
14,609
West West Wales
Has Johnson shafted pub, club, theatre & music venue owners with his half arsed announcement yesterday? If it’s not a mandatory closure, just discretionary, will insurance companies pay up if an event is cancelled? That could have a knock on affect to the public, they might not get a refund if the venue owner goes under.

Also, I can’t see landlords volunteering to close pubs. That’s a tough business, many living hand to mouth and being screwed mercilessly by pub chain / brewery owners.

These measures need to be mandatory so that proper compensation is paid.
At least one local pub has decided to close - at least for now. Despite this appearing to be a relatively safe area. And the lack of mandate.

(Partner noticed an announcment reported on the web somewhere yesterday evening.)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Barry Shittpeas

oldgroaner

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 15, 2015
23,461
32,613
80
The best laid plans of mice and men

Being somewhat of a dangerous genius when it comes to finding applications for creating chaos (not my words those of my ex MD) I decided on a foolproof strategy for reducing social contact and contamination.
"Tesco Click and Collect" service
First problem: no slots till next Monday
second problem various items out of stock, as expected no toilet rolls or kitchen rolls, but more important from my point of view no Paracetamol.
My wife has been prescribed as requiring 8 every day for Cluster Headaches, but they are no longer available on Prescription

And rather than reduce the number of visits to shops I will be forced to do the equivalent of a "pub crawl" for supplies as the shops will only sell you two boxes containing at the most sixteen.

I thought I had a foolproof plan, no doubt dear father is looking up from below and saying
"Nothing is foolproof to the talented fool"

My goodness " i qualify as Prime Minister!" :cool:
 
  • Like
Reactions: oyster

Barry Shittpeas

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jan 1, 2020
2,325
3,210
The best laid plans of mice and men

Being somewhat of a dangerous genius when it comes to finding applications for creating chaos (not my words those of my ex MD) I decided on a foolproof strategy for reducing social contact and contamination.
"Tesco Click and Collect" service
First problem: no slots till next Monday
second problem various items out of stock, as expected no toilet rolls or kitchen rolls, but more important from my point of view no Paracetamol.
My wife has been prescribed as requiring 8 every day for Cluster Headaches, but they are no longer available on Prescription

And rather than reduce the number of visits to shops I will be forced to do the equivalent of a "pub crawl" for supplies as the shops will only sell you two boxes containing at the most sixteen.

I thought I had a foolproof plan, no doubt dear father is looking up from below and saying
"Nothing is foolproof to the talented fool"

My goodness " i qualify as Prime Minister!" :cool:
There is a shop in my nearest town selling paracetamol at £20 / box of 16. They also have Dettol surface spray / wipe for the same price. These times really bring out the best in people.
 

sjpt

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 8, 2018
3,823
2,750
Winchester
Sad though it may be cancellation is the course wisdom dictates ,otherwise where any of them to fall ill, you would always be faced with wondering whether you made the wrong decision
I think a big group like that would certainly be an issue even outside; it would be difficult to keep distance. If you can think of a way of facilitating lots of grouplets of 4 or 5 people that would keep many of the benefits and considerably mitigate the risks, fewer people to cross-contaminate and easier to keep space between them.
 

oyster

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 7, 2017
10,422
14,609
West West Wales
Parking charges. Round here we are relatively lucky in that parking isn't desperately expensive, indeed, there is still quite a bit of free short-term parking. But they have instituted various schemes like contactless. Unfortunately, by the time you have done some or all of select language, enter registration, select time, choose how to pay, swipe and then find you have to put card in and type PIN, you have actually physically interacted with the machine numerous times.

The parking permits schemes are not suited to our patterns of life and would end up massively more expensive.

I do think that some way of avoiding physical contact with car park machines might be a useful step. I can imagine, for us, being able to buy parking online, printing a ticket, and displaying that could work. But implementing changes like that might hit some barriers.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: oldgroaner

Danidl

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 29, 2016
8,611
12,256
73
Ireland
Parking charges. Round here we are relatively lucky in that parking isn't desperately expensive, indeed, there is still quite a bit of free short-term parking. But they have instituted various schemes like contactless. Unfortunately, by the time you have done some or all of select language, enter registration, select time, choose how to pay, swipe and then find you have to put card in and type PIN, you have actually physically interacted with the machine numerous times.

The parking permits schemes are not suited to our patterns of life and would end up massively more expensive.

I do think that some way of avoiding physical contact with car park machines might be a useful step. I can imagine, for us, being able to buy parking online, printing a ticket, and displaying that could work. But implementing changes like that might hit some barriers.
Funny you should say that. All the train stations in RoI have paid parking. One of the methods is using an app... The app downloaded to mobile phone. Credit card details loaded once. The default option is pay again.. where the location of the car park was preloaded. ,Then just the cards CvC code is reentered. If the location gas changed then a 4 or 5 digit location code is entered. The sweetener is that it is 25% less expensive than using coins. Once I was in a hurry, and forgot about paying, until an hour into the Train travel ,..no problem
 
  • Informative
Reactions: oyster

oyster

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 7, 2017
10,422
14,609
West West Wales
Funny you should say that. All the train stations in RoI have paid parking. One of the methods is using an app... The app downloaded to mobile phone. Credit card details loaded once. The default option is pay again.. where the location of the car park was preloaded. ,Then just the cards CvC code is reentered. If the location gas changed then a 4 or 5 digit location code is entered. The sweetener is that it is 25% less expensive than using coins. Once I was in a hurry, and forgot about paying, until an hour into the Train travel ,..no problem
I end up in a self-contradictory state here.

I hate the need to have multiple parking apps. (Some car parks here are National Park, some National Trust, some council, some "others".) But I agree that something like what you described would likely work quite well.

I think my dislike was intensified by the first system I came across which forced use of a phone. Badly set up, badly worded, confusing. And unacceptable that people were banned from parking if they were not in possession of a working phone.

Round here, too many 3G/4G coverage holes to make apps mandatory.
 
  • Agree
Reactions: flecc

Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
20,329
16,853
Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
  • Informative
  • Like
Reactions: flecc and oyster

daveboy

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 19, 2012
952
1,366
pontefract
There is a shop in my nearest town selling paracetamol at £20 / box of 16. They also have Dettol surface spray / wipe for the same price. These times really bring out the best in people.
This happened near me over 20 years ago during a fuel shortage. One of the garages put its fuel up by a massive amount overnight. After the fuel shortage they went bust because nobody would use them.
 
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: flecc and oyster

oyster

Esteemed Pedelecer
Nov 7, 2017
10,422
14,609
West West Wales
This happened near me over 20 years ago during a fuel shortage. One of the garages put its fuel up by a massive amount overnight. After the fuel shortage they went bust because nobody would use them.
I used to pass through a large town where one petrol station was renowned for high pump prices. Can't now remember the numbers but I do remember that people regularly mis-read the posted price.

Numerous complaints but they carried on. Their only customers were people passing through who made a mistake. The rest of the town was one of the cheapest!
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,154
30,570
Your thoughts please following on from yesterday’s announcement regarding social gatherings.
I organise a weekly bike ride for people with health issues and wanting to become more active. It’s had a lot of success and I can get 40 - 50 people some weeks. It’s won awards too, but that’s another story.

I can’t work out if this is the type of social gathering the fat man was talking about yesterday. I kind of got the impression he meant indoor stuff, like bingo, darts or interest groups. I think my bike rides are pretty low risk being outdoors (high volume air changes), non contact, no shared surfaces like tables etc.

I’d appreciate your thoughts on whether I should cancel these rides. Some of the participants have diabetes, asthma or are just not fit. I think some just come because they are lonely and enjoy the company. It’s a quandary.

Maybe British Cycling will publish advice in due course.
I'd say go ahead, cycling outdoors in fresh air is good for health and riders in groups are mostly at least a metre apart anyway.
.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Barry Shittpeas

Advertisers