Furlough to be extended till September. Sounds a bit ominous really if the plan is to lift all restrictions on June 21st.
Furlough to be extended till September. Sounds a bit ominous really if the plan is to lift all restrictions on June 21st.
I can understand furlough being extended for certain sectors, aviation being one of them as although we in theory end all Covid restrictions on 21st June, if most countries dont allow holiday makers etc until say August, furlough being extended for them is fair.
I’m struggling to work out what other sectors need it on 21st June though. As far as i can work, all sectors will slowly start to reopen during April gearing up for the full reopening on 21st June.
I also fear extended furlough will increase resentment (and i am guilty of it myself) where those on furlough enjoy a summer with no restrictions on 80% pay while others face higher taxes to pay for it all.
I guess they're just trying to cover themselves. That timeline was only ever provisional.
I reckon most things will be open by the summer. I don't know about theatres and big sporting events being fully open but I expect things to be a bit more normal.
The big test is in the Autumn. That's when these things come back. But if the vaccine is all it's cracked up to be then that shouldn't happen.
I don't think we'll really find out if this is over till then.
That was quite noticeable in my organisation.
There was quite a lot of resentment from some of those "left behind" who had to pick up the workload of furloughed staff while it was perceived that the furloughed staff were having a lovely summer off on full pay (we were topping people's pay up). All very unreasonable, but understandable.
The organisation handled it all wrong. People were furloughed when they clearly still had work to do - hence other staff being burdened with their workload.
And while some of that resentment is understandable, it wasn't the furloughed people's fault. Some of them really struggled with it, it must have been quite unsettling as some organisations (not ours) used it as a gateway to redundancies.
Sensible move. Even if we are out of this substantively by June, it'll take the hospitality; entertainment and other sectors a while to get back anywhere near normal capacity. People's habits take time to change - I was only wondering today how long it will take runners (like me) to stop being treated like pariahs...
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
Its a fair comment and its not those on furlough fault as you say but it does create some unease amongst those working. You mention redundancies and i suspect if you are still on furlough in September, you wont be going back to your job in the vast majority of cases.
Some are calling for furlough to be extended as otherwise a cliff edge is created, similar to the stamp duty holiday, unfortunately there will always be a cliff edge as neither of these can be extended forever (unless of course they abolish stamp duty but separate matter). Jobs will still be lost at the end of this and i think over the summer its time to start looking at improving the prospects of remployment then continuing furlough imo
Stamp duty should be abolished unless you're buying a second property IMO.
Otherwise it's just a tax on moving house.
We had to pay £14,000 when we moved. And for what? Just to move house because London is crazily expensive. It's complete bullshit.
Agreed.
There was an interesting study earlier this year that proposed abolishing both stamp duty & council tax and replacing with a tax of 0.48% per year on property value. It cacluctated that this would save the vast majority of people money while also being a fairer tax. I.e those with more expensive homes pay more tax.
Deaths continue to be in excess of the usual winter deaths. It grew to 30% above average by Christmas and by early Feb it was 44% above.
You can keep pretending this isn't happening if you like. The data, which you claim to base opinions on, shows you to be wrong
Source: https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/static...nd-latest.html
And the "fake test" results continue to correlate with hospitalisations (also way above the average numbers certainly in London, I showed data on that previously) which correlates with deaths. That correlation is clear:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
And yes, you're basically right that if you're under 50 and healthy you're not at risk. Shutting down the entire economy was the wrong thing to do. But that doesn't mean there wasn't a situation which required a response, even if we agree the response was wrong.
And yes, in any crisis rich people will get richer. That doesn't mean that "they" are manufacturing a crisis, but of course people will take advantage of it.
I didn't think there was going to be a second peak of deaths either. The difference is the data showed me to be wrong, so I had to change my opinion. You seem to be simply denying or ignoring the data to cling to your paranoid world view that nothing is going on and that this is all about "them" trying to control you.
It isn't.
sounds good to me
as Letters says stamp duty is completely unfair
also the way they calculate council tax is BS - we're paying way too much just because of a postcade and the fact that the older houses here with much bigger (though not more) bedrooms are worth over £1m which ours is nowhere near