Shops reopening

No - it's only of passing interest to me. Mrs RT may find shopping therapeutic but I do not! Plus actually lockdown has inevitably reminded her of just how much stuff we have and how little of it we actually regularly need, and thus her appetite to be acquisitive has also been somewhat blunted.

No, I don’t like going shopping at the best of times so I’m happy to stay away for a while.

Those queues amazed me. Of all the things you could miss in life during lockdown who would have though a shitty little burger on a limp bun delivered to you by a spotty teenager in a building adored with some clown who looks like David Bowie one an acid trip on from Ashes to Ashes.

Good to see but I will not be rushing out there. Not interested at the best of times.

It makes no difference to me. No shops opening up here for the meantime and we will no doubt have to wait until they are all insolvent before they are given the green light! In any case I am in no hurry to rush back especially when you can't grab something to eat.

The reduction in VAT to 15% after the 2008/09 crisis was great: it lead to much greater compliance from small traders/tradesmen and although I haven't seen the figures I am sure it didn't bring in much less tax than the previous 17.5%. I reckon it would have been similar to when Margaret Thatcher reduced the top rate of tax from 60% to 40% and tax take actually went up. I am just sad that Politicians never seem to learn from these things.

I hope he does reduce VAT (and then finds it is great so keeps it at 15%)

Do you reckon a 2.5% drop would have much impact?

I’m generally in favour of optimising taxes and the 60% to 40% cut is a good example of that. Go too far to the political left and a ‘tax the rich’ mindset simply can’t compute  that those with some money will come up with a million legal ways to reduce their tax (and therefore the total tax take) , too far to the political right and a ‘tax everyone the same’ mindset can’t grasp the inequality that builds into society.

I've no idea but it was a tool rolled out by Gordon Brown as mentioned and it seemed welcome at the time. I'd have thought that any move to reduce VAT would have been aligned to leaving the EU so that people feel a tangible benefit from that.

That only works if it is permanent, which isn't being discussed so far as I am aware.

I worry if we did drop the level of VAT. All this free money has to be paid back and a reduction to 15% for a limited period would probably require a push up to 25% in a years time to help balance the books and there it will remain.

Rugby players out of shoes?

I didn't rush out, I'm still "WFH" but yesterday I became a bad accountant (I lost my balance). Phone call to the doctor's this morning as I was little better when I woke up, called back a couple of hours later for a telephone consultation resulting in having to go and collect a prescription. As the surgery is a couple of minutes walk from the town centre, and I parked on-street between the 2 places I walked there after the collection. First of all the town centre is a total mess, like a wartime bombsite as the High Street and one of the adjoining roads are being "pedestrianised". That's bad enough to contend with before you take into account the obstacle race to get to the Mall bit, or shops in the man streets. Only about a third of the shops were open, remaining closed were Argos, Robert Dyas, McDonalds, H Samuel and many others. Domino's pizza was open for take-aways as were a couple of small cafes. Boots has been open throughout, quite a large store. Only one person ahead at the prescription counter. No queue to get into the vast Primark (I didn't go in) but quite a long queue for TK Maxx - in fact I think this was the only shop for which there was a queue. There were quite a lot of people about but not enough to bring the 2metre "rule" into doubt.

The council run car parks remain free for now, but looks like charges will recommence from 1 July

Singapore's restrictions (most of them anyway) lift on Friday, but I still won't be heading out unless I absolutely have to.

I don't believe this is over yet. We're seeing second waves of infections in China, Korea and the likes, so there's still a need to be careful.

I'll clarify. Some had suggested a cut in VAT. I doubt that would happen as I suspect that a permanent cut in VAT is factored in to a post-Brexit-extension-leaving budget to communicate a difference in leaving the EU. I am explaining why I think they would be reluctant to cut VAT sooner than that. Nobody is suggesting we are all silly or shallow.