The Home Working Dream

 This pandemic has seen a radical shift in work across Britain.

Many more people that can are working from home.

The greens have long promoted this as a way to reduce commuting emissions and improve quality of life.

However, now that it is in full swing there is a snag.

It is hurting the service industry.

Pret A Manger have shed a significant amount of jobs and the city is deserted, as they lose the commuter footfall.

This may not seem a great tragedy to some, but it does pose the question: Can we make the structural shift without endangering a huge amount of service jobs?

Are we going to see a work from home world post lockdown and is it really progress?

Avoiding people

So now we wear face masks in shops, on buses, on trains and in beauty parlours. 

But we’re not wearing them all the time and so social distancing is still necessary.

So when you walk past someone in the street you have to swerve to avoid them.

This feels so unnatural and anti-social.

When is it going to stop?

How long do we have to act like everyone’s got the lurgy?

Don’t get me wrong, this virus is best avoided.

But acting like I’m wary of everyone is getting upsetting.

Businessman spit

Keep your spit to yourself people, there's a virus going round.

This lunch time while walking down the high road I saw a man spit on the pavement.

The man was dressed in a business suit and jeans with, get this, a surgical mask round his chin.

He was with two other men with no mask, but as he effectively wasn't wearing his I see them as silly as each other.

There is a virus going round, you have a mask and you spit...

I've seen spitting before in pandemic times, but this has got to be the silliest.

Be careful, there are some silly people out there. 

VJ Day 75 years on

It is the 75th Anniversary of VJ Day today.

A two minute silence was observed this morning at 11 am to commemorate the lives lost.

Hopefully people up and down the country took the time to remember the Japanese lives lost as well as the  Allies.

The end of World War II saw us enter the nuclear age, yet it also saw the beginning of real peace with Japan.

Japanese culture now filters over here in the form of Manga and Anime, as well as higher art.

The JET programme now pays British nationals to teach English in Japan.

We have truly made peace with our enemies.

What are the lessons learned to recreate lasting peace elsewhere?

I do not pretend to have the answers.

Youth anonymity

A 17-year-old boy who was found guilty of the murder of a teaching assistant can be named as Rocky Marciano Price after reporting restrictions were lifted at Preston crown court.>

The reporting restrictions were lifted because this was a heinous crime and the local community applied pressure for the release of a name, full article here.

This is troubling.

A child criminal is still a child criminal despite the nature or severity of the crime.

How far do we slide?

The Jamie Bulger murderers were known for a long time by their victim.

I don’t think we should be naming and shaming 10 or even 17 year olds.>

A criminal record is wiped clean when children come of age.

Why should a disturbed young boy be denied this privilege?

Grade snobbery

As I suspected snobbery has worked its way into this year’s grading system.

See this tweet from Emily Pettite.

Keir Starmer has waded in to say: “Something has obviously gone horribly wrong with this year’s exam results.

Nearly 40% of young people have had their grades marked down and that’s thousands of young people whose opportunities could have been dashed.” 

Just because a school has performed badly in the past doesn’t mean it will always do so and students can beat the odds.

The Tapas Room

Open for just 17 days The Tapas Room in Brixton makes a nice addition to the covered market.

The restaurant has inside and outside seating and offers a select range of tapas.

Portion sizes are small, so to fill yourself up you will need around three dishes per person.

The salt cod croquettes are especially good, they just melt in the mouth.

They offer an array of cured meats and cheese, which are reasonably priced.

With wine the meal came in at a little over £30 a head, but unfortunately that included some olives that didn’t arrive, check what you pay for.

The atmosphere is friendly and the staff attentive, they give you plenty of time to eat your meal.

A great new addition to the market.