109 days in isolation/lockdown

Has the second spike started? Is Leicester the first town to be put in total lock down again with others to follow? It must be frightening for the people who live there. It will be almost certain that panic buying will start all over again. Even as far as Hull? A second wave has been predicted by many including me and the behaviour of the public in general cannot be excluded from the equation of blame.

Furlough payments have, in the main worked well but a business woman was on TV last night saying she could get no money as a self employed person. Her employees were fine under the furlough rules but she did not take a wage. Instead she took dividends from the company and NOT a salary so did not qualify for any payments. Why did she do that? To avoid National insurance payments of both the employers and employees contributions, that’s why, I think she did it. Dividends are Investment Income upon which National Insurance Contributions are not payable therefore saving loads of money. This was the case 20 years ago and unless things have changed, it is simply tax avoidance. She (and others) have now reaped what they sewed. If she had paid herself a normal wage, she would probably have been able to furlough.

Almost all who were coming to our golden wedding party have now been informed. Some of them indicated they may not have taken the risk anyway. Only a handful to get hold of now. Everyone was very understanding.

Went to Mum’s for a visit this morning. As usual she was in fine form. I took a load of black and white photos for her to look through. She really enjoyed that. They were all black and white so ranged from Germany to England. From pre-war to the 60s.

UK deaths Tuesday 30th June 155