They want to open the pubs

again. This is headline news in our paper this morning. Why? They claim that 20%  of our pubs could go to the wall unless they reopen now. While I am genuinely concerned about the people who would lose their jobs as a result my answer to that has to be "there are 20% too many pubs then". 
Some other businesses will go too - if they haven't already gone. They will usually be businesses which were struggling to survive anyway. Our local shopping centre is small. It had six clothing shops for women -  too many. There was also a shoe shop for women. One clothing shop has gone and the shoe shop has gone. Another clothing shop has not yet reopened - although there are signs that it might. One more is operating on reduced hours until June. The "nail parlour" and the "facial and eyebrow threading" place are still closed. The travel agent and the "flight centre" are still closed - nobody is going anywhere. The "gift" shop is open again - but it only employs one person.
Thankfully the bookshop has survived, indeed it has done well. People seem to be reading books and that is a good thing. Their problem is getting stock in. 
That pretty well covers the shops apart from those that sell food or alcohol or places like the chemist, optician and other "usual" services. It really isn't a big place. I suspect that something else someone has poured their money and soul into may well fold as well. 
A little further down the road though there is the "pub on the corner". They have their drive through sales and they have added to that with a takeaway menu. They are agitating to be open. They want people in there spending their money on alcohol and the poker machines.  But, how much money do people have for that sort of thing right now? There is always a problem with people spending more than they can afford on these things but if they reopen the pubs and people go back to old habits in there then more people outside pubs will lose their jobs - because right now even more people don't have that sort of disposable income. Spend it in the pub and we are going to have even more problems than before.
I do wonder whether politics will win over public health and people and I know I am not the only person to wonder about this.
If I cross the road I can get to our local library. It is open but under very strict guidelines. It is a very good library, one of the best in the state. There are four meeting rooms - none of which can be used right now. There is a very big area for the books and the computers and seats for people to read. Some people spend all day in there. Right now though they only allow ten people in there at a time - including the two staff on duty. You can stay for a maximum of ten minutes  - just time to return a book and find something else to read. They plan to reopen to full services slowly because the staff know how important the library is to the entire community. While a few users are impatient most have been more than willing to wait - because they don't want to risk having to close everything down again. 
I wish the pub going community would think the same way.