What the fuck are people supposed to do?
Spend money on extra stock? Refurbishment? its there to cover expenses and staff costs. It's there when we need it - its not an invite to buy a fucking BMW.
This money is there to shore up a business, so it avoids insolvency. But the irony is of course that you get maximum bang for your buck by declaring insolvency - because the loan is guaranteed by the government. As Mandy would say, its a moral trap.
Keeping money you have for when you need it isn't stupid. You could have been a Tier Two restaurant in London laying in the truffles and oysters for Christmas Eve with that money.
Running as close to a bare bones operation as you can means you will be here to pay that money back.
But apparently the government don't care. Daily Mail certainly doesn't. I guess we now know that both organisations would prefer people to say fuck it and saddle somebody else with the bill.
Because that's what they'd do.
Welcome to covid capitalism