One of the inevitable condescensions of governments is that when the people lose faith in them the ministers imply that they know better than ourselves what is good for us. And then the patronising increases and we are told that they are “following the science”. Whose science? The United Kingdom has been splintered and divided whilst different scientists offer up contradictory opinions and solutions. Great governments listen widely, assess, reflect and remedy their mistakes quickly and humbly and avoid the pitfalls of braggadocio. They give a fully considered overview of a situation, not just cherry-picked statistics which can be manipulated to mislead and justify.
What does it mean for the hospitality industry? For me it meant that within minutes we were inundated with calls from people wanting a “last hurrah” today but soon the majority came in the form of cancellations — by lunch yesterday we had already lost nearly 2,000 covers. I fear deeply for the staff reliant on customers for their income.
Of course the impact varies and whilst I speak from a “full-service” restaurateurs point of view I am acutely aware of the damage this does to the pubs, bars and other venues of the capital that are struggling to survive already, with the Government compounding the manifestly stupid “curfew” initiative on the grounds of it curbing socialising by limiting drinking and naively believing that people will not wilfully disobey the edicts of tier two and not socialise at all. Have they not learnt the lessons of American Prohibition in the 1920s? It was an abject failure and served purely to increase both drinking and crime.
Our “single household” customers are now also advised not to use public transport — a situation that would be alleviated by the use of cars but we still have the burden of the all-day congestion charge and the blocked roads caused by the completely ridiculous and unused barriers.
The Government is justifying these ill-conceived and badly thought out initiatives to save their own skin
And how will this latest stricture be enforced? I understand that the operators are not expected to do the police work as such but if we are aware that separate households are mingling, where do we stand on serving them?
As ever, under the guise of saving lives the Government is justifying these ill-conceived and badly thought out initiatives ultimately to save their own skin. That might be another serious miscalculation.
Jeremy King is co-founder of the Corbin & King restaurant group.
