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- So yesterday on London Real,
I got to sit down with Luke Johnson,
who is the Chairman of Risk Capital Partners,
one of the most successful entrepreneurs
in the hospitality space in Britain,
former Chairman of PizzaExpress, of Channel 4,
and one of the creators
of Gail's Artisan Bakery, Feng Sushi, et cetera,
and he had a lot to say
about these current lockdown measures.
And one of the things he said that was so poignant
to me was this.
He said, "The economy is us, you cannot divorce the two.
And when you decide to hold everyone at home,
it's going to have ramifications".
And it's a great concept to think about
because I think oftentimes we separate the economy, money
from who we are and our livelihoods,
but it actually is one and the same thing.
Our interactions every day,
where we go, the goods and services we purchase
those are our lives.
And if we can't be of service to other people,
if we can't go out and live this world,
then we don't really have lives.
And you see this really taking a big effect
on our mental health,
and you can see
how inextricably linked our economic health is
to our mental health.
And so for me, it was great to sit down
with someone like Luke
and talk about some of the really serious things
that are affecting our sectors right now.
One in three businesses
in the hospitality sector do not see any hope
in the next three months.
They think they will be going bankrupt.
660,000 jobs have been lost in this sector this year,
192,000 of those jobs right here in London.
These are desperate, desperate times,
but they don't have to continue like this.
And as Luke told me yesterday, he said,
"Brian, the fear-mongering,
the fear campaign done by our government",
he said, "it's apprehensible,
it's just a ridiculous thing that they've done
because we've terrified people to not wanna come back
to their cities, get back to work and get back
to doing what they were doing before".
And I agree with him.
I think that the main thing we need to do here is find a way
to get this sector, the hospitality sector,
it's only responsible for 3.3% of COVID transmissions,
back on its feet.
And I wish it would happen now.
Now, we might have to wait until December 2nd,
but even then we're hearing
there's gonna be even more drastic
than tier three lockdown measures,
earlier curfews, et cetera, and we're hearing
that it's gonna be locked back down again in January.
This is not the way forward.
This is not the way we're gonna save our economy,
this is not the way we're gonna save our younger generation.
And one final point that Luke made was this,
he said, "Brian, economists don't make jobs,
entrepreneurs make jobs".
It's a very important point.
He said, "Creating a job is an incredible thing
that makes a city thrive,
but unless you allow an entrepreneur to do that,
it's not gonna happen.
And how do you do that?
You give them stability, you give them a stable taxation,
you give them confidence in the future
and that's when entrepreneurs invest,
they put capital on the line,
they invest in black taxis,
they invest in restaurants that they kit out,
they invest in all of those things
and they invest in employees,
and that's how we create this vibrant economy
that we have here in London, or we had".
So we've gotta get back to these basics
and really invest in London once again.
And so that's why my main policy
of Get London Back To Work is so crucial.
It goes hand in hand with my Science First policy,
my Health First policy, my Education First policy,
because it's all linked,
again, it's all inextricably linked.
The economy to our mental health, to our physical health,
it's all one piece of the pie.
Again, if there's no economy, how can we fund our NHS?
We can't.
If there's no economy,
how can we keep our citizens mentally healthy?
We can't.
So we have to look at these as holistic problems
because they are.
And it's not a trade-off of one or the other,
you actually must have both.
You must have people healthy
and you must have the economy going,
and that's what we've gotta work for here.
So please leave your comments below,
tell me what you think about these ideas,
tell me what you think about Luke Johnson's ideas
and the desperate nature of where the hospitality sector is,
and tell me, do you think we should end this lockdown?
Thank you.
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