Hi folks! Apparently to qualify for the self employed ‘grants’ being doled out by HMRC sometime in the future, one has to prove one’s business has been affected by COVID-19. I can’t think of a business out there that could be more drastically affected than escorting can you? Contrary to conjecture, we’ve never been in a position to ‘salt money away’ and we’ve declared everything over the years & paid taxes. It’s going to be very interesting to see if we get a letter from the authorities offering the grant. (that’s what they’re proposing to do allegedly….contact all the self employed people they think will qualify; ) We’re listed as ‘therapists’. I wouldn’t mind betting we’ll never receive a fucking dime would you? Just like the SME’s too…promised the Earth by Sunak, yet in reality a tiny fraction, under a thousand in number as of last week out of 150,000+ applications deemed to qualify. Smoke and Mirrors, & never trust a politician. Government are underwriting the loans yes, however, the banks God bless them aren’t playing ball: no surprise there.
So how are we affected by Covid-19? Well for me (Geeze) it’s manna from heaven because a big vanilla website which was in the pipeline anyway has been brought forward. The best thing about it is the virus is making it even more relevant, so its a race against time to get it live. So far I’ve spent 200 hours on it with another 50 hours help from a full stack developer. We’re about 55% of the way thru. The fly in the ointment now is having to deal with third parties such as payment processors, & legal issues etc but fingers crossed we’ll navigate all the obstacles successfully. One good thing about living a hard life is when crap like Covid-19 comes along you’re more easily able to cope. Unlike the snowflakes. If they get their way, we’ll be on permanent lockdown until a vaccine is found; don’t believe that won’t happen…their voices are loud. The same virtue signalling leftie crowd that nearly put an end to Brexit. I’m amazed at the attitudes of so many furloughed people, who think they’re just going to walk back into their jobs in a few weeks and carry on somehow, Guy’s it ain’t gonna happen!!!! We’re an economy based on consumerism. Manufacturing went out the window years ago; If people have no money, there’s no spending. I predicted about a month ago that we’ll see 6-7 million unemployed. Soon after I shared that idea with neighbours there were reports that it might rise to about 2 million. Last week the OBR predicted 10% unemployed then they said maybe 3.8 million. This morning, the Welsh Office is talking about 6-7 million in the UK, albeit ‘temporary’ meaning it’ll start to go down in 2023. Great. Thanks guys. The longer the lockdown the more companies will close, simples!!
I’m not watching or listening to ANY of the incessant news coverage of Covid-19 at all, just grabbing the odd bit as necessary from my phone, mainly updates on whether I can still travel to our offices to get work done without fear of being spied on by a police drone. I refuse to wallow or be influenced by it, focusing solely on emerging a winner with Minx, not a loser.
I/we do however take notice of a certain Gerald Celente, whose an American trend forcaster, publisher of the Trends Journal, business consultant and author who makes predictions about the global financial markets and News. He’s been doing it for 40 years & is no fool. So, if you’re furloughed (some dictionaries give ‘fired’ as a synonym btw) you’ll have plenty of time to browse his You Tube videos…Recommended. Enjoy.