Read on Twitter
There seems to be a misunderstanding that people still physically going into work are all key workers
This is wrong and it's skewing the debate on further restrictions - and the lax rules that allow this to happen are the result of political choices about who to support and how
This is wrong and it's skewing the debate on further restrictions - and the lax rules that allow this to happen are the result of political choices about who to support and how
Mobility data for London is showing far more people travelling every day during lockdown 3 (~25% of usual) compared to during lockdown 1 (min 6%).... How is this allowed within the rules?
Contrary to popular belief you don't have to be a key worker to still be going to work, you just have to not be able to work from home
There are plenty of things that are nonessential but can't be done from home : receiving and processing shipments, selling takeaway food
There are plenty of things that are nonessential but can't be done from home : receiving and processing shipments, selling takeaway food
Firms that could close for the "temporary" first lockdown may now be in a far more dire financial situation today - BoE data shows a £90bn cash gap between the drop in cashflow and reserves https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/public-equity
These firms in distress are more likely to ask more of their workers and give them tasks that can't be done from home. From personal (purely anecdotal) evidence, everyone I know who's going back to work is doing so because they're scared their employer will go bust if they don't
The media discussion around tighter lockdown restrictions has focused on people taking walks in parks or long bike rides where the risk is negligible, but we know that offices, shops, and workplaces in general are much riskier https://twitter.com/mugecevik/status/1348771275536297986?s=20
If we are looking to reduce spread of the new strain, we need a frank discussion of which businesses are allowed to stay open
Clearly leaving it up to businesses themselves hasn't worked, or it hasn't worked enough with the new more transmissible variant
Clearly leaving it up to businesses themselves hasn't worked, or it hasn't worked enough with the new more transmissible variant
But if more businesses are forced to close then the government will be forced to offer more generous support to more firms, which based on Sunak’s non-announcement yesterday they are unwilling to do
This all can be boiled down to the conclusion many others have reached : you cannot separate out economic activity and virus transmission
Business support drives business behaviours, which changes worker activities, affecting virus transmission, requiring new economic lockdowns
Business support drives business behaviours, which changes worker activities, affecting virus transmission, requiring new economic lockdowns
Government should ignore newspaper photos of people walking in parks, and act now to increase business support and clarify who really is an "essential" worker, instead of leaving it in the hands of businesses on the verge of collapse
