Death by a thousand cuts?

Mandatory masks are coming in for retail and public transport, well, in a few days or something, they clearly need to give people time to find where they shoved them during the halcyon days of summer where 95% of the population decided that masks were no longer needed, regardless of the advice.

And while hospitality has so far remained immune to the mask edict, there seems to be a sense that it’s only a matter of time before those restrictions start to creep back into our businesses.

We’ve already seen the death by a thousand cuts approach start - once again, there’s no official line on things, but health bosses and advisors are urging people to limit social interactions in the run up to Christmas - a move our wise and munificent leader Boris has slithered his way out of answering directly when questioned yesterday.

Despite endorsing the health advisors' advice earlier in the week, he’s sticking to the mantra that the “guidance remains the same” but it’s under review.

Now that’s reassuring isn’t it? Slippery Boris might have said “nothing changes for hospitality”, but don’t worry - he’s a man of his word, isn’t he?

Scapegoats

So once again, we find our industry being casually scapegoated by advisors to a government that struggles to get to grips with a crisis.

There’s no official rules restricting hospitality, but there’s plenty of back channel chat trying to cut us down at the knees.

On top of this, the constant drip drip in the nationals about cancelling Christmas, and party bookings being cancelled left right and centre, almost as if they’re willing it to happen.

As yet, we're getting mixed reports on changes to customer bookings, with some saying no impact yet, but other reporting huge cuts, whatever the situation, there’s certainly a lot of jitters out there.

Clarity would be nice, and perhaps a consistent approach from our wonderful leaders when it comes to the advice to consumers - we could then at least have a stab at having a reasonable Christmas - it’s not a lot to ask.