Thunderbird

Thanks Munzy. It is indeed confusing and inconsistent. Despite us not having the kind of draconian stuff currently happening in some parts of Australia for example, large parts of our economy have in effect been in strict lock-down and life will never be the same for a lot of people. For example if it becomes widespread knowledge that the 2017/2018 flu season killed more people than this did (even with the dodgy figures) then people are going to start asking why all the fuss in the first place, and was any of it necessary? Given that it was somewhat unseasonable, perhaps people will say, why didn't we just shield the very vulnerable and let the rest of us get on with it? For example a child is at much greater risk of the flu than they are of Covid, so why shut schools given that there is (I think) no documented case worldwide of a child passing the virus to an adult? Also there is the Boris factor. He was fat, caught it, and had a nasty dose so we're told. So now we should all lose weight. Boris rides a bike, so now we should all ride bikes. Also, were it not for mass media pressure I don't think they would have locked down in the first place and Boris's original 'herd immunity' policy may have remained the policy. But because they did cave to it, I think they feel they've got to keep it going. It's like a "sunk cost" fallacy, i.e. throwing good money after bad. Some people are calling this whole show the worst mistake peacetime governments have ever made. Only time will tell if that's true. What will happen of course is that the Government will give itself a massive pat on the back and Boris will try and have his Churchill moment saying that "we beat the virus" - only we didn't, the virus has followed the path that most viruses do, lockdown or not. Because so many alleged Covid deaths (which can now never be proved otherwise) happened, they can in a circular, ex post facto kind of way, 'prove' that what they did, whatever it was, was right.

No worries!

I did indeed!

Now that Munzy, is an incredibly good question. I'm no conspiracy theorist but I believe the Government is doing all it can to cover up its own incompetence, so if that's a conspiracy then so be it. For example sticking to the totally discredited Imperial College 'modelling' (aka guessing) for starters. High deaths and fear-mongering justify the lockdown don't they? Like the face masks thing, months after the peak, and probably only because Sturgeon did it. The Government and mass media have done a propaganda job any tinpot dictatorship would nod at in approval. Now they are expecting people to go out and spend money whilst at the same time still scaring the bejeesus out of people. The economy is well and truly up the swannie. I have spent the last three months working on redundancies, mostly workforce reductions of around 20%. It's depressing. The person delivering your DPD parcel was probably on £35k a year a few months ago and feeling pretty secure. The Bank of England expects the UK to have the fastest and deepest recession since the ‘Great Frost’ of 1709. To put that into more context, that is a time when Britain had not yet undergone the Industrial Revolution, Louis XIV was still on the throne in France, and the United States of America did not exist.

In care homes, doctors were no longer required to agree on a cause of death, and the care home owner / operator was free to report any death as Covid if they saw fit. Then the body got cremated, so no evidence. Now imagine a situation where the care home staff (such as they were) sat in the coffee room either too scared, too understaffed, or even too lazy to care for patients and many patients then died of neglect. What's the operator going to do, come clean, or just say Covid? You don't have to be a genius to work that one out. There is currently at least one gentleman taking legal action because his wife died of thirst / starvation and it was put down as Covid. Once more people realise this, more whistleblowers are going to come out. It's going to gain momentum along with a few other things. I would not be the least surprised if this will be the end of Boris, Hancock, et al.

Totally agree. And their rather insensitive timing sucks too. I'm afraid he has made a total and utter pillock of himself and I fear will continue to do so. There are more than a few "celebrities" that have shown themselves up during this, for the complete waste of space they are.

It just shows the culinary skills of a lot of people where it would appear that the only way they seem able to prepare for staying at home is to hoard pasta. I suppose when the loo roll runs out they could use sheets of lasagne, as long as they cook it al dente, to minimise the risk of poke-through. All the decent, proper fresh food would seem to be in plentiful supply.

Thanks for the tip - going to check that out. I was recently watching some old clips of his tries, he was an absolute legend.

Do they use special glass on the wine bottles in aircraft? I have often wondered about the many kinds of lethal weapon available in the catering department.

This is good advice, you're not building a brand (not now at any rate), you're selling your services to potential customers. In the early days of starting a business equal importance is often given to everything, then later in you realise what works and what doesn't. For example getting business cards printed. I have not used business cards for years and in fact I no longer have them at all.

Anyone seen James Delingpole at the Bristol protest? Pretty funny. It's on Breitbart news.

If you're B2B then social media will be less effective than with B2C in my experience, unless your customers are massively into social media marketing themselves. I am a little sceptical about people who tell you they can get you to the top of google searches but I 100% agree that a decent website that's easy to navigate and tells customers what you exactly do in as few a number of seconds as possible is a good idea. The best marketing / selling is actually free, as grrcark says above, use your contacts and gain referrals, there's nothing like it. Never be afraid to ask. I have the following on my work email signature, and whilst it's a bit cheesy it actually works: PLEASE, DON'T KEEP ME A SECRET! I build my business on reputation and referrals. If you're happy with the service I provide, tell your friends, business contacts and colleagues. Best of luck.

Doesn't surprise me, you only have to look at the state that lot leave Glastonbury in.

They are, and will remain for some times, in a massive echo chamber where their ideas and opinions about who's "right" just bounce back at them. For a prospective deputy Prime Minister to go on national TV and expect to be taken seriously when they claim that babies are born without sex is beyond parody.

As far as I know it would apply to a zero hours contract if the income was above the auto-enrolment threshold.