COVID-19: Gaps, I see Gaps everywhere.....

Okay,

We're getting serious now. Boris has shut all the shops. But even now, after the most draconian rules put in place in the country's history (bar the Black Death), people are still not taking heed.

Here in Portsmouth all the pubs have done is blacked out the windows and are still open. Enter by the back entrance, cash-only, not on the books, nudge-nudge. The first gap that needs plugging. Landlords need to be warned and if they continue then fined and then hauled to the cells for a night. Maybe then they'll see sense. That's gap number 1.

My daughter works for a car spares supplier as a delivery driver. They're staying open as they are classed as essential. She can put her older son in school, but her childminder has shut up leving her literally holding the baby. She's can't go to work. She's not covered by the Government's 80% wage payment. She's now down to one wage coming into the house.
I've already had to drop a parcel containing nappies and baby food.
No help for her. Gap number 2.

The self-employed are kicking up a stink about the lack of support for them. The thing about being self-employed is making sure you save for a rainy day because your not eligible for benefits or holiday pay or any other employee benefits. That's why being self-employed you always charge more than an employee. You get paid more to cover your expenses and to salt an amount away for the bad times. You create your own safety net in the form of public liability insurance and critical illness cover. You keep money in the bank to cover you when you can't work for sickness or holiday and tide you over the lean times. The key is the phrase self-employed: you rely on yourself to provide all of those things, not someone else. Gap number 3 (Sort of).

If your client (not employer) is forcing you to work for the equivalent of a salary, then you shouldn't take the money. Simple as. That's why the so-called "gig economy" annoys me so much. Why would you do it if you cannot afford your own safety net? If you are SELF-employed, why would you expect someone else to pay sickness pay or holiday? That's probably for another time including the stupid IR35 tax rules.

Anyway. The wife is still working (care manager) and I'm still selling car parts. However our counter service and workshop services have closed to comply with Boris' announcement last night.

Tesco across the road was rammed at 8am this morning. People still don't get the idea of social distancing. I blame the schools for making so many idiots and society for not allowing kids to be slapped when they were growing up. We have a nation of adult children with no sense of responsibility. Gap Number 4.

Right now my son messaged me to say he needs kitty litter  and me and the Mrs need milk.

After last weeks shenanigans where I was apparently the only person in the family able to get bog roll, it seems I've been designated the man who can (find stuff to buy) by the family. I'm the official family scavenger.

COVID-19: The Madness of Crowds.

The panic-buying phase seems to be without end at the moment... how much stuff can these people pack away? Lofts across the country must be groaning at the huge amount of baked bean tins stored up there.

Roof fires across the country will also be on the rise due to the amounts of toilet roll stored in lofts too.

It's crazy.

I've had to buy toilet roll for my daughters on two separate days now. The downside of having kids and running your life round them rather than scouring the shops for supplies.

Luckily there's a Tesco across the road from work and I can nip in first thing to get the stuff.  But really, it opens at 7am and by 9am it's down to the last few bog roll options.... madness.

I see people are abusing shop staff when they get told they can't buy the shop out in one go. Almost always foreigners. The government may talk about the Dunkirk spirit, but a these days a large percentage of the country have no idea what Dunkirk or Blitz Spirit is, because they have no family history of suffering the privations of world war 2.

Anyhoo, I'm still at work despite government advice to the contrary. We don't have antiseptic hand gel, because we can't get any. Risk takers, ain't we?

Just had a blood pressure consultation this morning. It's way high because my stress response has been triggered. Not because of COVID-19, that I can handle. No, it's because my autistic son has been refused PIP payments.

The original fight to get him on DLA nearly cost me my sanity and left me with hypertension. I'm not looking forward to having another battle.

COVID-19: Working Against Medical Advice

Well, despite the advice given out by Boris yesterday, I'm at work today.

The advice being if you are eligible for the 'flu jab, then you should isolate for 12 weeks.

Guess what Boris, I can't isolate for 12 days let alone 12 weeks because I can't afford to.

SSP will not pay the bills.

My council tax hasn't been deferred, nor my car insurance, nor rent or my other outgoings. The only good news is I have a couple of week's worth of food in the house now.

So, I am at work today with all of my colleagues. We haven't shut the shop yet because the government hasn't given any advice in that regard. So currently we are serving customers and trying to mitigate infection transfer.

Customers that hand us keys now put them in a tray rather our hands. We wash our hands after each time serving in the shop.

And that's about s much as we can do.

If the virus becomes more endemic, no detail yet, but the owners may look at closing the shop and sticking with online and telephone orders only.