The well-known entrepreneur Mr Duncan Bannatyne has said – reports The Daily Telegraph – that he will never open another business in Scotland again. The Telegraph reports him thus:
The Scottish entrepreneur said he would “never again” open a business north of the Border, adding: “I don’t know if many people would.”
Further:
Mr Bannatyne said his health clubs in Scotland have enough funding to stay solvent until the end of August, as they are cross-subsidised by his English gyms, but he could not provide any guarantees for September.
His outspoken attack was echoed by the PureGym chain, which said it was “truly extraordinary” that the First Minister had “not ascribed any real priority to working with us and our sector” during the pandemic.
The article points out that Ms Sturgeon announced her latest review of her lockdown exit plan for Scotland, which will see bingo halls, casinos and funfairs reopen on Aug 24.
Snooker and pool halls, bowling alleys and driving lessons can also resume on that date, but indoor gyms and swimming pools were only provided with an “indicative” date of Sept 14.
So that’s a ‘maybe’ plan for re-opening.
Surely it isn’t a surprise to a businessman that a government doesn’t care about his enterprise? I can’t personally find a logical path to the suggestion in the article that the reason for the Scottish government’s indifference is something to do with independence:
He said: “It’s unbelievable. There has to be another agenda. I don’t believe she has advice saying stadiums and bowling alleys are safer than gyms.”
Asked about her “hidden agenda”, he said: “Independence is king. ‘We don’t care about anything as long as we get independence.'”
How about it is simple disdain for business, that you find in pretty much any socialist? After all, offices are closed too:
Business leaders also attacked her decision to push back the date of offices reopening until Sept 14 “at the earliest”, with the Scottish Chambers of Commerce (SCC) warning: “Further delays may result in permanent job losses and business closures.”
And frankly, given the antics of the UK government giving every impression of targeting ethnic minority areas for ‘local lockdowns‘, why would you open a business in any other part of the UK either?
Not sure it’s much safer in the south…..
“And frankly, given the antics of the UK government giving every impression of targeting ethnic minority areas for ‘local lockdowns‘, why would you open a business in any other part of the UK either?”
I live in Bradford and the reason it’s in lockdown is because the” ethnic minority” don’t give a flying one…
I hear similar comments about Leicester from acquaintances there.
The reason there is lockdown is because the government chooses to use pretexts to impose them. People may well have given the government those pretexts by not caring to follow ‘advice’, but the issue is the government and the evil intent of those who run it.
Today The Telegraph is reporting that the impetus behind the lockdown was a spike from 45 to 59 positive tests in a week, out of over 100,000 tests per week.de
For me the most depressing thing about the whole Covid-19 pantomime has been the supine acceptance of ‘the public’, most of whom seem to have taken the meeja’s fear porn as gospel. So they simply acquiesce – all too willingly it appears – with whatever restriction on their liberty the government cares to impose. Too few think to themselves “hang on a minute, that doesn’t add up”, and so I don’t see there being much, if any, pushback any time soon. The mandatory mask horseshit being the latest example.
The words of Edward R Murrow seem pertnent: “A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves”. Ok, at the moment we seem to have a government of arse-covering clowns, but the doors they’re opening, the precedents they’re setting, are paving the way for the wolves, and that worries me. Greatly.
A nation of sheep may have to vote in wolves just to survive……
I’m tired of the COVID theatre now. The bottom line is that it is a virus, and will do what viruses do.
In the meantime:
Social distancing is ineffective
Mask wearing is ineffective
Lockdowns are ineffective
See this Tweet. And if you have time, read the whole thread:
https://twitter.com/boriquagato/status/1288820384242991112
“Mr Duncan Bannatyne has said – that he will never open another business in Scotland again”
He will open another business there the moment he guesses he can make some money again. That’s what businessmen do.
Bannatyne was a highly vocal supporter of the smoking ban, and clearly didn’t give a toss about the thousands of pubs which closed in its wake. That said, he’s absolutely right about this. I’ve often wondered, probably in these very pages, why anyone would bother to open a business here. They obviously don’t want you to.
The irony of the kleptocratic class is that they hate capitalists but need capitalists’ money to spend on their pet projects.
Who is John McGalt?
There is a saying in economics: “the only way to destroy a city more effectively than rent control is aerial bombing.”
I’d like to officially amend that claim to:
“The only ways to destroy a city more effectively than rent control are defunding the police or aerial bombing.”
This post has been overtaken by events.
It was the case that Scotland was worse than England, compulsory masks and various things that were to reopen in England but stay shut in Scotland, but this is no longer the case.
The Johnson government in England appears fanatically determined to be as Collectivist as the SNP government in Scotland.
I would advice the gentleman to go and open a business in Belarus – the nasty post Soviet dictatorship.
I am not joking – as the dictator of Belarus (nasty piece of work though he is) has not gone mad over Covid 19 as most governments have.
By the way – Mr Putin over in Russia is quite barking, he has gone in for lockdowns and has come up with a new way to test an experimental “vaccine”.
Just inject the new stuff into vast numbers of people – and see what happens.
I believe this was the “back story” behind the television series “The Walking Dead”.