Coronavirus

[Mike T]

There seems to be a head of steam building behind saving/subsidising city centre coffee shops and sandwich/snack outlets because office workers are not using them.

So what. These places are more of luxury, rather than being essential, and if the custom is not there, it is not there.
I suspect that, in the future, some office workers might realise how much they have saved during lockdown by not using these places and will become less lazy by making their own sandwiches and take a flask to work.

Having said that, many won't know what a flask is!

There are lots of businesses that provide something we enjoy, but don't really produce anything except jobs - and jobs are of course very important, but not if the workers and/or their customers are exposed to high risk. So coffee shops, pubs, restaurants - some are lovely places normally - I used to visit one of the non chain local cafes almost every day. Pubs are the obvious high risk non productive settings - unless people are outside of course.

I am with Profs Edmunds and Van Tam - we need to take things more seriously. Closing indoor access to pubs/cafes/restaurants is unfortunately the obvious thing to do.

And yes, work from home, and support your local takeaway pub/cafe/small deli, not your city centre Pret.