lozgti1

Obviously we have had lots so far. But I think lots to come.

Just seems a vicious circle. Fine, the government have paid everyone to stay at home for a bit. I just think that was just a sticking plaster for a few months. I think it is going to be economic chaos shortly. And it is really quite scary ;(

Who thought airline pilots would ever get the push?!

BMWhere?

Once the furlough money dries up, anyone who's business hasn't recovered will most likely get laid off!

The announcements yesterday should help those in the hospitality industry which is good.

Travel industry is set to take a hammering though as people don't have the confidence to travel a) because of Corona and b) because they fear the travel company/airline may go bust! Also business travel will probably be permanently down and people have adapted to video conferencing!

The situation is bad in all countries, but the catastrophic handling of the crisis in the UK means the economy will be hit harder than most Add on a hard Brexit at the end of the year and the UK is royally f****d! Looking at the amount of money the government is throwing at the Corona problem (which Sunak in general deserves a lot of praise for!), EU membership seems cheap as chips! At some point all this extra government spending will have to be paid for which means tax increases or more austerity is just around the corner!

I'm just grateful I work in one of the few companies that has had growth during the crisis - Thankfully our division was carved out of a large corporate into a new independent company a few years ago - that corporate has been hit extremely hard and will have massive job cuts, so could have been a lot worse for me!

R666ORY+1

Pilots have been under threat for years now, Covid is the latest reason but it has been fragile for a long time. My brother trains them for a living (also flies to keep himself current). But his opening speech is an honest and stark one. Has been for some time “half of you in this room won’t be employed post training”. He is a Captain (has been for years) ground/SIM/air instructor. Most recently assessor/examiner qualified too.

Profit margins are so tight, you can fly half way round the world for the same price as a single to London from Glasgow central if you need buy a virgin ticket last minute. Another lad I know for over 20 years has just given up his job as a pilot and works in the rail sector because of this. My brother is looking at buying a van and becoming a delivery driver (not a lie). Says it’s better job security!

Country is screwed, Brexit seems like a light hearted joke these days but will definitely impact harshly soon enough.

Some people are taking the pi$$ though. Getting 2.5k per month hand out but have to do volunteer work. Guy I used to work with is doing exactly this. Digging graves now. Must be one of the most highly paid labourers in the UK!

the shreksta

iTrader: (20)

Whilst I appreciate the 80% the government paid me it was much to much. I could have survived on less than 50%. Why do people need 80% when everything was closed apart from supermarkets,i think that the government paying 80% has left us high and dry now.

Tidgy

It's swings and round abouts at the min, short term there will be losses, medium term then alot of those jobs will return, anything air travel is screwed at the min, but as soon as it starts up again alot will come back. Hospitality is the same, short term pain that will return when things open back up again.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Have to agree on the furlough cash. You can’t exactly spend much income stuck at home bar netflix, amazon and takeaways. Even my car insurer (NFU) gave me a good-will refund half way through the policy!

Of course those already in debt; be it loan or mortgage need it...but again it should be written into law that all lenders should extend or defer any existing loan at 0% interest for at least the lockdown period and 12 months if they lose their jobs.

Job loses are inevitable; IMO there are a lot of zombie companies out there...just about treading water since the last recession, or burying debt whilst top level management/owners wring every penny for themselves before it folds.

andy97

iTrader: (1)

A female cycle friend, just left Jet2 late last year. She went back to being a Anesthesiology consultant.

Her passion is flying, but the working conditions became intolerable.

She seems well happy with her 30 mile cycle into her hospital each day

lozgti1

True. I'm 52 now and in days gone by, if there was no job, there was no job. Can't ever remember the time a government paid your wage while you were out of a job.

Mind you, I can't remember what I went into the kitchen for nowadays.lol

Tidgy

but what about now its stopping? im down to 0% as i got made redundant, i have managed to save a few months worth so hopefully find something before **** really hits the fan

HonestIago

IMO it is setting us up for UBI dependence which, lets be honest, is going to become a necessity in coming decades. What I find most troubling is people not realising what is being done to our currency as this all unfolds - the BoE now printing another £100Bn (admittedly nothing compered to what the Fed is up to). This is how anyone with cash in the bank gets their pocket picked by stealth such that it can be redistributed by means other than taxation.

BMWhere?

Hope you can find something soon!

IdonthaveaScooby

Isnt every country printing money , so evening up things

i cant see how house prices can be kept UP there

Tidgy

cheers, first signs of things maybe starting to pick up are there and the outlook in the industry is positive across the board from all the feed back im hearing, so fingers crossed

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

I had a painter do some work at my house last week and it turns out he is an out of work EasyJet pilot, I suppose you do what you need to do to get by, anyways he did a cracking job of the landing.

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

All the papers keep reporting the country will bounce back next year, even if one million jobs are lost the total of unemeployed won't be as bad as say seven years ago? Once recovery happens the jobs market will open up.

IdonthaveaScooby

You do wonder how sensible/ right it is that amazon is basically removing high street shopping - only acclerated by covid .
they are just a logistics company - that is now going to turn into your bank

and there's nothing that is going to stop them..!

Tidgy

i think ther writing has been on the wall for high street shop tbh, councils have been so obssessed with raking in money they make it difficult for people to get there, prices are higher than online aas well.

Notts removed free sunday parking and it basicly killed sunday shopping over night.

R666ORY+1

I have found the answer to a previous thread of mine (I don’t own it, I just started it) “Comedians worth a visit post Covid”.
Steve (I’m guessing) do you have dates yet! I actually sprayed apple juice everywhere on reading that! By far the best “one liner” I’ve heard in a long time 😂👍🏼.

lozgti1

lol.good one

IdonthaveaScooby

All designed to keep house prices as they are artificailly high

otherwise our daft sustem all collapses

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

The councils are helping the like of Amazon by issuing parking tickets for fun and making it harder to get a car into the city centre to go shopping. Also have you tried to get a sales assistant to help you when you actually do want to buy something. I find it quicker and easier to buy most things online, usually they are cheaper and they can be delivered to your house the next day.

A lot of the big retailers are using online services but they are using shop front prices for online shopping so when it only takes a moment to check the price is cheaper on amazon your obviously not going to pay top price.

i also like the retailers doing click and collect online but 90% make you pay for it online before you can collect where as again if your paying first you may as well pay cheaper at Amazon. The sooner retailers get their head in the game the better it will be for them.

IdonthaveaScooby

But if you’ve got an actual shop , you’ve got to produce shop prices havnt you !?!


all these retailers won’t have a choice but to be a part of amazon, at this rate


or go under

NOSSY_89

Mate you should see how they have destroyed brum. There was a massive carboot/Sunday market right in town and you can imagine it was heaving. People going there would then often go into the main centre. But the council had a brilliant idea of charging per person to enter the carboot as a customer. Footfall declined and then they knocked the whole thing down. The markets they are charging an astronomical amount without doing any refurbishment that is really needed to the buildings and they wonder why there are fewer and fewer traders. Lets talk about parking, most roads have yellow or double yellow lines and there is so little council parking. Instead all the private parking has gone to extortionate prices. There was an open car park that was £5.50 a day, not bad at all, next to it was the Euro Carpark that was about £6.50. When the open car park closed so construction of a building could start prices were jacked up to £4 per hour. If you want to park in Selfridges or the other Bullring car parks its like £24 a day might be even more now.

But also don't forget we now have the clean air zone thing coming in meaning you will to pay £8 just to get into the city centre.

Don't forget corporations run your council. There are definitely handouts going to politicians

IdonthaveaScooby

All part the plan , Amazon Tesla NCP

Who do you think owns largest yacht in Monaco

lockheed

iTrader: (1)

Its Lewes Hamilton ( the oppressed ) Ironically

IdonthaveaScooby

https://megayachtnews.com/2019/09/si...ht-owner-dies/



Lewis's is a bit of tidler in camparison

Dr Hu

Until they sort out Business Rates and extortinate 'high street' rents for all these pension company owned Property Portfolios the traditional High St is doomed - as it simply cannot compete with Online that have none of those costs.
The first thing they try when a big chain gets into trouble is reduce its huge rent bill

NOSSY_89

The same companies that turn around and say your pension pot is worth nothing all the while lining their own pockets.

BMWhere?

Removing business rates is the first step, its an archaic tax that punishes the high street and makes it uncompetitive to online or out of town shopping centres that don't have to pay business rates.

Then you can take a look at what has been done in Preston, where the local council has done a great job to regenerate the high street which (at least before corona) was bustling with a great mix of small boutique shops, cafes and the traditional high street stores. Google the "Preston model" (or "Cleveland model" for the original US idea) about what they have done.

It all comes down to three key things, firstly offering support to local businesses to increase employment and put more cash in peoples pockets, secondly, supporting new businesses to open up on the high street, and lastly, regenerating and modernising the look of the high street including pedestrian zones and parking/park & ride in order to make the high street an attractive place to visit.

In the end, for pure shopping, online will be virtually impossible to compete with on price, so the high street has to offer something that online shopping can't and that is the experience! If getting in or out of the town/city centre is a pain and costs a fortune to park, you are already off to a bad start. If the center is then all run down with boarded up shops and every other shop a poundland or bookies, then you will completely lose the positive experience of shopping in person. Make the high street easy and cheap to access, attractive to walk around in, then the ability to browse shops, try on clothes and stop for a coffee or aperitif, then people will enjoy the experience and keep coming to the high street for shopping. People will continue to buy online and some things will never be successful again on the high street, but offer the great experience and the two can survive together!

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Totally true.

Its been years since I’ve been to Brum to shop (or anything else at that). For those very reasons; Post war Brum WAS rebuilt for the car...and since they REMOVED road capacity in a time when traffic was increasing; Mass house flyover is a good example. Quick way to circumvent the East if the city for through traffic and huge car park beneath it. All gone. Now all we have is the likes of NCP and ECP cartels reaming your **** to park and useless public transport that doesn’t take you anywhere without walking between multiple stops in all weathers.

As a result; By bye shops. Of recent...

Lee Longlands; Gone. Half my house is furnished with stuff from there.

Superfi; Gone...The days of carrying a giant pair of floor standers to the car park round the corner are long gone.

Can you imagine lugging stuff bought from the above on a train/bus? Or any other shopping spree if you dare let the GF drag you out on a cloth shopping spree!

Then there was working there; When I was in HVAC working on air con units in shops and offices I could not park anywhere...the standard reply is use public car parks...fine; If I can find a space and not in the van (height restrictions), but I’m not dragging a 30kg nitrogen bottle plus tools with me so I park up front or in the loading area and either get a ticket whilst loading/unloading (as it’s not a 10min job)or accosted by security staff.

It seems Bham council are hell bent on banning the car but have done nothing over the past 20years to replace it! They plonk a new shopping centre on top of New street which cannot cope with existing rail capacity and from which won’t take me to/from home. HS2 curzon street is miles away from anything: Stupid plan, and the Metro goes the wrong way! Andy Street just started a new metro link finally bringing some public transport nearer my neck of the woods...where was he 20years ago? Too little too late. Hagley road south had loads of derelict hotels/B&B lots were owned by the highways/council for making space for road expansion, like a bus/cycle lane, maybe a metro line down the middle (like they do in cities in France and Spain) or at least a dual carriageway wide enough to pass a double decker without side swiping oncoming traffic...Nope they went and sold it off so now the road can’t be widened. Bravo imbeciles.

And they wonder why retail struggles?

Amazon invested in infrastructure and logistics...while Bham removed it!

Credit to them...unlike say eBay which is just a middle man and does nothing else for the UK; Amazon employs, it builds and it sells; nothing was stopping any other retailer from doing the same...so long as it wasn’t in a high street or within a city!