Post-Christmas footfall plummets as UK shoppers avoid high street January 4, 2021 Footfall across Britain’s high streets plunged almost a quarter last week as Boxing Day sales failed to lure shoppers from their sofas, according to the latest data. The number of Brits hitting the shops fell more than 23 per cent in the seven days after Christmas compared with the week before, latest Springboard figures showed. [...]
Matt Hancock: South African coronavirus mutation ‘more of a problem’ than current strain January 4, 2021 The new South African coronavirus mutation is the fastest-spreading Covid strain yet and will likely present a “very, very significant problem” for the UK, the health secretary has warned. Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme, Hancock said he was “incredibly worried” about the South African variant. “That’s why we took the action that we did [...]
Coronavirus: Latest updates on lockdowns, vaccines and Covid mutations around the world January 4, 2021 Countries around the world continue to grapple with rising coronavirus rates, as two new mutations of the virus have sparked calls for fresh restrictions across the globe. German politicians have called for a three-week lockdown extension, as current measures fail to stem ballooning cases across the country. Tight restrictions in place including the closure of [...]
National lockdown looms as teachers go head-to-head with government January 4, 2021 Ministers have refused to rule out a third national lockdown in England, as coronavirus cases and hospitalisations surge beyond numbers seen in the peak of the first wave. Health secretary Matt Hancock said this morning that the new strain of coronavirus was spreading rapidly across the country. “We can’t rule anything out,” he told Sky [...]
Warm hookah pipes give away breach of lockdown rules in London January 1, 2021 Police in London burst in on about 50 people smoking water pipes and playing loud music inside a cafe, a major breach of strict Covid-19 regulations banning any kind of socialising between people from different households. The group fled when the police arrived, according to Reuters, but officers who searched the venue in Wembley found [...]
Lockdown board games: Forget Monopoly, here are the real games December 30, 2020 For decades board games lived largely unloved lives, their battered boxes pulled off dusty shelves on rainy days and holidays. But as we approach essentially another national lockdown, many of us will be dusting them off once more. Back in their heyday, board games were designed to be simple, with concepts that could appeal equally [...]
Loungewear sales up 1,303 per cent as lockdown changes consumer habits December 30, 2020 Loungewear and leggings sales spiked by 1,303 per cent in 2020 according to new data from John Lewis. The department store’s annual look at consumer habits shows lockdown’s impact on customers’ baskets. As well as sitting room fashion, sales of chess sets (a 121 per cent increase on 2019), TVs (45 per cent) and paint [...]
The best films to watch on a Tier 4 Christmas day December 25, 2020 As many adverts have told us, Christmas will be a bit different this year. There will be people we won’t be able to see, and celebrations we won’t be able to have. However, one thing that 2020 can’t take from us is our favourite Christmas films. Whether you like them as sentimental, dramatic, funny, or [...]
Whitbread – at the end of the day, someone has to pay December 24, 2020 Whitbread, the owner of popular hospitality chains Premier Inn, Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, has written to the landlords of its properties asking for a rent reduction of 50% for the next three months, to “share some of the pain” of the ongoing pandemic and the restrictions on hospitality. It seems, prima facie, a reasonable request. [...]
The Government scientists’ credibility is shot to pieces December 24, 2020 Imagine. No, not the silly childish song by John Lennon. Imagine there were no vaccines available. What would Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health, do? He might ask people to pay more attention to the scientific advice. But the plain fact is that the credibility of Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, and [...]