We all know that £15m a month isn’t even a rounding error for the public finances? Right?

Here’s the thing. Double the Manchester ask to £30m a month. Scale it up to the entire UK. Assume it runs for 6 months.
And you get... about £4.2bn. Which compares to almost £40bn on the furlough scheme in its first five months.

In other words... hard to disagree with @stephenkb

I have some sympathy with the view that the economy is undergoing a structural shift, accelerated by covid, and some jobs that were viable in February will not be post-pandemic. More home working in the future probably means fewer branches of Pret. But, and it’s a big but...

does anyone really think people in current Tier 3 regions will drink less than people in current Tier 1 regions in a year’s time?
I see absolutely no reason why a suburban, and previously profitable, Bolton pub is any less viable than a suburban Sevenoaks one in the medium term.