Financial Times Europe - 23.03.2020

18 ★ FINANCIAL TIMES Monday23 March 2020

I have lived with the same man for
more than a quarter of a century.
When we were younger and had
more energy, we bickered so much that
our friends called us George and
Martha, the warring couple inWho’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
Age has dulled our edges and for
years we have been in lockstep on all
the most pressing issues: Brexit,
climate change, Donald Trump, the
latest iPhone.
Then came thecoronavirus. Like a
lot of other people, we have discovered
we are on different sides of a faultline
we never knew existed. In the face of a
frightening pandemic, we behave
differently.
As the outbreak gathered pace the
week before last, we were visiting our
families in Australia. One of us read
obsessively about the virus, reaching
for the phone in the middle of the night
to monitor its advance and bounding
from bed each morning to check the
television news. That would be me.
“Oh god,” I groaned one day. “The
Johns Hopkins sitehas gone down.”
My other half, also a journalist,
looked at me blankly. He had no idea
the US university had a website
charting the grim march of infection

across the globe. Nor was he likely to

look at the site any time soon.

He was keeping an eye on serious

developments and texting worried

friends locked down in Italy. But he

was also sleeping soundly through the

night, baffled by my rising anxiety

about the muddled government

responses to the outbreak in both

Australia and our adopted home of

Britain.

When I told him I was going to try to

buy face masks in Melbourne for the

flight home, he stared at me as if I had

said I would be boarding the plane in a

space suit.

When I read that thedivorce ratein

one province in China, the first country

to go into lockdown, had spiked when

quarantined couples were finally freed,

I was not surprised to see one official

blaming it on all the housebound

weeks together. The row potential was

clearly limitless. “You only washed

your hands for five seconds!” “Your

face mask is upside down!” “Are you

actually trying to die?”

So why are we reacting so

differently? What does it say about

each of us?

Somebehavioural expertsthink our

responses to crises are shaped mainly

by experience. If we have lived through

traumas, or are trained to survive

emergencies, then we are likely to be

more calm and rational.

My partner has covered a lot more

war and strife than I have. He has been

taught to survive kidnapping in hostile

environment training courses in the

English countryside, which came in

handy when he actually did get

arrested in the second Iraq war.

Does that explain the difference?

Other mixed corona couples suggest

not. At least one fellow worrier I know

is a former war correspondent whose

wife keeps telling him to get a grip.

Another, also male, works in

emergency care.

The club of worriers is also tricky to

define. At first I thought we were a like-

minded tribe, already united in our

dread of fiscal ruin or planetary

destruction.

Then I discovered that one of the

first people in London to openly mouth

my fears of official incompetence was

Nigel Farage, the Brexit Party leader.

I like to think there is an

evolutionary benefit to the divide

between the skittish and the calm:

humans surely do better when half of

us are fretting about dangers lurking

ahead and the rest are asleep in the

chair.

Meanwhile, as London closes

down, I have developed an

unexpected fondness for Twitter

clips ofdogs hurlingthemselves into

big piles of leaves and the thoughts of

stand-up comics.

That led me to this advice for any

other couple confronting weeks of

forced cohabitation from opposite sides

of the corona divide.

“I feel there are some people who

are absolutely freaking out and some

people who think it’s all overblown

and we have nothing to worry

about,”said thecomedian and actor,

Kumail Nanjiani.

“To the former: stop reading

constant updates. You know what to do

to stay safe. Self care. To the latter:

start reading constant updates.”

[email protected]

‘If we have lived through

traumas, or trained to

survive emergencies, then

we are likely to be more

calm and rational’

The perils of

the mixed

coronavirus

couple

CROSSWORD

No. 16,432 Set by ZAMORCA





 

 

   



  



  

 



JOTTER PAD

ACROSS

1 Behave badly and smash model

Roman hero skipping about

(5,3,5)

9 Electricity supplier for artillery

unit (7)

10 Spooner’s residence better for

pet access (3-4)

11 Description of first murder

victim by lake (5)

12 Communities plan a

development including sea front

area (9)

13 Following initial destruction,

gale gets mostly lower and dies

down (8)

15 Grow old and conservative in

New York office (6)

18 Working with assistance close

by (2,4)

19 Cordial email sent off to secure

taxi (8)

22 Go round by parking at hotel to

reach bike track (5,4)

24 Old lady’s getting minimum of

tax allowance (5)

25 Excite expert with very fine

wine’s finish (7)

26 Best to run trip with church (7)

27 Policeman’s severe runs treated

with drug from community

medic (8,5)

DOWN

1 Little one briefly left in cot

chattered (7)

2 Found crack in prophet’s faith at

last (9)

3 Show reverence long after

King’s born (5)

4 Hospital always always admit

fellow with allergy (3,5)

5 Some epic errors turn up in

cooking instructions (6)

6 After nearly fatal resistance

soldier gets cold and listless (9)

7 Relish a sexy dance (5)

8 Notice surrounding river rising

fast (6)

14 High-risk affair describing

annoyance with America (9)

16 Baron, bafflingly popular with

Queen, gives easy answer (2-7)

17 Certain quote brought up about

politician has to be cut short (8)

18 Sit in gets hundreds supporting

old university verging on

penury (6)

20 Old stories regularly have

sweetheart married before end

(7)

21 One who minds about earth has

a vocation (6)

23 Husband in care of doctor’s

given rise to multiple notes (5)

24 Escalated muttered complaint

(5)

Femtech breakthrough

Women’s health start-ups are

finally pulling in serious money

ZCOMPANIES & MARKETS

Pilita Clark

Business Life

Housebound: the row

potential for some

couples in lockdown

is limitless— Warner Bros

FT graphic Source: S&P Global

Breweries’ financial

reserves

, m









Marston’s Mitchells

& Butlers

JD

Wetherspoon

Fuller’s Young & Co’s Shepherd

Neame

Interest

expense

Cash on

balance sheet

Share prices

Rebased

Source: Refinitiv







Shepherd Neame

Marston’s

Young & Co’s

Fuller’s

Mitchells & Butlers

JD Wetherspoon

March 

         

{ }

Coronavirus heightens risks for elderly

businesses as well as elderly people.

Britain’s pubs are one ageing group

that has struggled for relevance. Low

taxes on supermarket beer already

encourage drinkers to stay at home. A

government ban has now removed the

option of a trip to the pub.

Pubs have remained a great British

institution, even after financiers loaded

them with debt in the noughties.

Politicians once visited pubs to show

they had the common touch. Erstwhile

premier David Cameron drank with

Chinese president Xi Jinping in one and

forgetfully left his daughter in another.

After shutting them politicians might

need to help further to rescue taverns.

Their fragility was illustrated when

brewer Shepherd Neame scrapped its

dividend and cut management pay. The

government has deferred VAT pay-

ments and will pay the bulk of wages.

The chancellor has already offered

grants and a business rates holiday.

Fittingly, the biggest concern for pub

companies and their investors is

liquidity. The sector has high leverage,

often a legacy of reckless acquisitions in

the noughties. Net debt as a ratio

ofearnings before interest, tax,

depreciation and amortisation is close

to four times. Covenants will be pushed

then breached as earnings plummet in

the coronavirus lockdown.

Borrowings are backed with valuable

property. Developers salivate over

centrally located watering holes,

providing they can be redesignated for

a different use. Whittling costs down is

crucial to staying in business as a pub.

A lack of conventional commercial

rents gives pubs a small advantage.

Moreover, they take payment up front

and typically pay suppliers a month or

more later. Cash on hand plus available

credit cover last year’s interest costs

several times at most listed groups,

according to data from S&P.

Marston’s and Mitchells & Butlers are

exceptions. Debts are higher at both.

Interest was barely covered by

operating profits at Marston’s last year.

It holds cash of just £40m. That

explains why shares have fallen further.

Both groups’ shares are down 70 per

cent since the start of the month.

The call to government and bankersis

clear. Time, ladies and gentlemen,

please. Time, that is, to give publicans

the break they have been denied. The

trick will be to support the national

institution without giving a free pass to

the financiers who loaded it ith debt.w

The parallels with the banking sector

a decade or so ago are unavoidable.

British pubs:

closing time

MARCH 23 2020 Section:Features Time: 22/3/2020- 16:46 User:nick.miller Page Name:1BACK, Part,Page,Edition:EUR, 18, 1