Readers' letters: 'We hope gastropub firm bounces back'

As someone who enjoys eating out with my partner Patricia, we have enjoyed going to many of The Seafood Pub Company’s gastropubs and getting to know some of the staff, and I cannot say how heart-breaking it must be for Joycelyn Neve, with her working teams, to have everything they have built up taken away from them.

As a customer, I am devastated for what has now gone, but more so for all those directly affected by this devastating news.

I just hope that once everything returns to some form of normality then something will be done to help companies like The Seafood Pub Company get their businesses back to near what they were before the lockdown, after all, it is not their fault these consequences have occurred.

It is a great shame for businesses like this to collapse through absolutely no fault of their own, especially with all the work and effort which has gone into building these businesses up.

I hope this is not the end of The Seafood Pub Company or Ms Neve’s restaurant businesses as I am sure there will be a market for this type of restaurant once we can go out for a meal again. I will be back out with my eating habits once it is safe to do so, and probably go out more than before, as, like many, we appreciate these services more now since being denied access to them during lockdown.

I speak not only for myself, but also Patricia, who is very keen to eat out, and probably many other delighted customers they have served over the years too. Ms Neve – we hope you will bounce back with more great gastropubs as we have confidence in you. You have the strength to get through this and return.

John R Jones

Warton

virus

Blunders by Government

When Boris Johnson boasts that, with regard to the coronavirus pandemic, he and his Government have presided over a “world-beating” performance, he is right in one sense. With 64,000 excess deaths, the UK has recorded the largest global spike in deaths compared with the average yearly death rate, and this country is already into the deepest depression of any developed economy.

Mr Johnson not only leads the most incompetent and morally bankrupt government that this country has ever had, he has personally made mistake after mistake.

It is a tale of missed opportunities and calamitous misjudgements.

The UK went into lockdown too late, a decision which some experts estimate probably cost tens of thousands of lives.

Then the testing regime was shut down too soon, rendering it unable to track the speed and spread of the virus.

During February and March, opportunities to check the spread of the infection by introducing travel restrictions and quarantine were missed, allowing the infection to be brought into the UK on at least 1,300 occasions.

Entering the lockdown late and leaving it early risks more needless deaths. Britain is opening up before dropping its alert level because the will to persevere evaporated when Mr Johnson failed to sack his chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, for breaking lockdown rules.

What Britain is left with is a Government which has blundered and continues to blunder. Which cabinet minister was responsible for the official instruction that hospitals should discharge the elderly into care homes when testing and personal protective equipment was non-existent?

Who was responsible for the policy of handing out contracts to private companies without competitive tendering or even a cursory check on whether they were up to the job? Which minister decided that local authorities, who regularly manage outbreaks of meningitis and sexually transmitted diseases, were not needed for the delayed trace and test system?

The buck stops at Downing Street. The Prime Minister must acknowledge that mistakes were made and learn from them.

However, considering his total inability to do that up to now, I would not advise anyone to hold their breath.

John Prance

Penwortham

statues

Vandalism isn’t the answer

I despair for today’s mob culture.

What do they want?

Whatever it is, vandalism isn’t the answer.

Do any of them have any historical knowledge at all of this country?

I doubt it.

It seems to me that having a good fight is uppermost in their minds, no matter what the cause.

This country is becoming a laughing stock.

To quote one international newspaper:

“The British are now fighting with statues.”

What next – the destruction of buildings and streets, simply because of the name?

If they have so much time on their hands, they should be thinking of helping those less fortunate, not planning their next riot.

I agree with Ava (LP Letters, June 15) about seeing the ‘left’ as intolerant and obsessed with erasing history rather than learning from it.

J Norman

via email