{"id":1599,"date":"2020-08-01T00:54:44","date_gmt":"2020-08-01T00:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/?p=1599"},"modified":"2020-08-14T13:16:10","modified_gmt":"2020-08-14T13:16:10","slug":"difficult-decisions-post-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/2020\/08\/01\/difficult-decisions-post-lockdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Difficult decisions post-lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Harbour on 7 July 2020: photo by Malcom Mackley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That was quick! All of a sudden the Harbour has filled up, boats launched, moorings taken, beaches <\/span>buzzing<\/span><\/span> and even the sunshine has returned (at least wh<\/span>ile<\/span><\/span> I am writing this) and our solar panels are producing hot water. It <\/span>wa<\/span><\/span>s a <\/span>speedy<\/span><\/span> transformation brought about by <\/span>the coming together<\/span><\/span> of the pent-up energy of the boating community, some of whom would normally have <\/span>gone<\/span><\/span> abroad at this time of year, and the astonishing hard work and preparedness of the Harbour staff. This will ha<\/span>ve<\/span><\/span> made a <\/span>big step<\/span><\/span> towards repairing the black hole in the Harbour\u2019s finances, but was not an ideal <\/span>way<\/span><\/span> to launch <\/span>the<\/span><\/span> Harbour dues scheme based on engine size<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There are more <\/span>elements<\/span><\/span> to complete the picture. The <\/span>land slip<\/span><\/span> at Ditch End which has <\/span>closed<\/span><\/span> the road to the Venus Caf<\/a><\/span>\u00e9,<\/span> shut down <\/span>Millbay car park and filled East Portlemouth with cars has yet to be rectified; but the completed Gara Rock<\/a> is doing a thriving <\/span>trade<\/span><\/span>. Moreover, South Pool\u2019s <\/span>Millbrook Inn<\/i><\/span><\/a> is re-opening<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

H<\/span><\/span>owever, it is not plain sailing for small local businesses which have had no income <\/span>for months<\/span><\/span> and <\/span>have to decide<\/span><\/span> whether to take out a loan to <\/span>allow them to reopen<\/span><\/span>. <\/span>Although<\/span><\/span> interest rates <\/span>might be<\/span><\/span> low, the gamb<\/span>le<\/span><\/span> is on the weather. If <\/span>the summer is<\/span><\/span> fine, they may <\/span>earn enough<\/span><\/span> to repay the loan; but if the weather collapses, they will be deeper in debt and<\/span> go under<\/span><\/span>. One has only to look at the number of shop and restaurant closures across the UK to see the risk \u2013 and we are no<\/span>thing like<\/span><\/span> over Covid-19. That blessed day will dawn, not when a vaccine <\/span>becomes<\/span><\/span> available which <\/span>could<\/span><\/span> even be the end of this year, but when both a high percentage of the population ha<\/span>s<\/span><\/span> been successfully vaccinated and new cases (including British travellers) are not <\/span>import<\/span><\/span>ing <\/span>Covid-19<\/span><\/span> from other parts of the <\/span>w<\/span><\/span>orld. In a \u2018normal\u2019 year about 130 million passengers (around 350,000 a day) travel through Heathrow and Gatwick alone. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, here is<\/span><\/span> something which does not seem to have been widely reported. In the <\/span>middle of the acute Covid crisis, the two landing craft, LST-507 and LST-501, which left Slapton Sands on 27 April 1944 as part of <\/span><\/span>Exercise Tiger<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/a> only to be torpedoed in Lyme Bay with the loss of 749 US lives, have been given the protection of Scheduled Monument status<\/a>. Gradually we are coming to recognise the sacrifice of that awful disaster.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That was quick! All of a sudden the Harbour has filled up, boats launched, moorings taken, beaches buzzing and even the sunshine has returned (at least while I am writing this) and our solar panels are producing hot water. It was a speedy transformation brought about by the coming together of the pent-up energy of the boating community, some of whom would normally have gone abroad at this time of year, and the astonishing hard work and preparedness of the…<\/p>\n

read moreDifficult decisions post-lockdown<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1599"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1637,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1599\/revisions\/1637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}