Life during lockdown

STOP building and planning bike lanes.

They are a massive waste of our money. They are built on a false rationale not proven in evidence - they don't help with obesity and public health because the people you'd need to target, such as the obese, are not using them. They add to congestion rather than relieving it. They are empty for most of the day. They are a grossly inequitable allocation of road space, giving a huge proportion of it exclusively to less than 3% of road users. The argument that "if you build it, they will come" is commercially illiterate and is not borne out in practice. There is no robust business case.

And, at a time like this when there is no traffic on the roads and the economy is on its knees, it's the wrong thing to focus on.

I agree with Paul Bowers. SMEs and the Self-employed are going to be the hardest hit and so far the least supported.  I am a sole-trader handyman /carpenter and rely on work in peoples homes.  This is clearly not possible in the lockdown.  My partner is high-risk so even when it lifts I will have to seriously consider my work options.  I can apply for financial assistance but my partner earns enough that I won't be entitled.  We both have children from previous marriages, we are renting and struggling to keep up payments. 

My partner runs a medical device manufacturing business. She has salaries to pay and has looked into financial support.  The financial assistance for SMEs comes in the form of loans.  These loans are guaranteed only to the lender with no protection for the borrower. The assistance she has been offered is from Venture Capital and banks and comes with reams of paperwork to complete before even being considered.  Both require a stake in the business as collateral (some more than 50%) and there is no guarantee that the loan will not be foreclosed. She has been advised not to take out any debt unless she has no other option. It seems that this situation has become another opportunity for the banks and other financiers to take over fledgling businesses for next to nothing at no risk to themselves. 

SMEs are the lifeblood of our economy, the employers of the future. Even Amazon was an SME at the start. If we fail them our economy will take so much longer to rebuild. They need rent reductions, safeguarded loans and tax breaks. These could be financed by the vast profits that online retailers have made over this period - perhaps by making the likes of Amazon pay the tax they owe? Meanwhile, shop local and support small businesses where possible.

Businesses need goods taken to and fro but the road network is now fully congested with snarling motor traffic.

Subsidies and credit to support cycle freight logistics usage would support them with operations without causing knock on damage to their communities.

Many SME's wont survive. lots have fallen through the cracks and of the support that is available the crippling rents will force them to go under. They are faced with a choice of getting into debt that they cant clear for months on end that they will struggle to clear if at all. 

Or many will have to remain closed. 

Theres been no help for those people from the government which when they've helped just about everyone else seems wrong, many have tried to struggle on but people just arent going out to use their services to help them through. 

Its time they were helped by someone

London Fashion Week

Actions like https://www.facebook.com/NHSPPECampaignByLoft25 show a new need for local manufacturing - gowns made within the Royal Mail delivery zones, without export bans or long delivery times, large minimum orders, and random delivery contents that come from the back of the planet in an emergency.

If London Fashion Week continues I suggest:
(1) low-cost show, maybe in Leicester or Leeds or Northampton to avoid too much travel into the centre of London
(2) and to reduce costs to exhibitors who are sometimes fashion graduates from courses discredited by Unistats for pretending that there is a career producing intellectual property to be made in cheap-labour countries, when there isn't  The students leave their own feedback on unistats about likelihood of being employed in the trade studied after something like a fashion design course, and satisfaction with the course. London College of Fashion is about the worst reviewed of any higher education instution. Almost as bad as the Economics course at London School of Economics where this idea of comparative advantage and knowledge economy jobs for 20 year-old graduates is still taught.
(3) exhibitors with good references from UK clothing manufactuers, for paying bills and being businesslike. Typically, exhibitors to be nominated by these manufacturers but a few perhaps from fashion colleges a year or two after graduating. Also, manufacturing in nearby countries with a similar welfare state to be considered. 
(4) the vanity project of buildings for University of the Arts' London College of Fashion and BBC on the former Olympics site to be changed. Only a college popular with clothing manufacturers and UK students should be subsidized. Manufacturing space could be better than college space. 

I will be doing my best to shop local as much as possible and to support high street stores. If I'm buying online at the moment, I'm trying to avoid using Amazon and use high street stores online offers instead.

Sort out public transport so that it is safe for Londoners to use.  This will help the economy to start to recover and help businesses adapt.

We can expect the threat of COVID to last for at least a couple of years and we need to be able to help people to travel safely so that the economy can move forward.  A recovering London economy will do more to support businesses and Londoners than anything the government can do.