The F Word

This week I want to start with the F-Word. No, not that one but one that has all of a sudden become part of our every day vocabulary. Be honest and ask yourself if you had ever heard the word furlough before? If you’re not sure

a furlough is a temporary leave of employees due to special needs of a company or employer, which may be due to economic conditions at the specific employer or in the economy as a whole.

I criticised Liverpool, Tottenham and Newcastle on Facebook last week for furloughing their non-playing staff. Liverpool have since u-turned after all the flak they got which should be applauded. Fenway Sports who own Liverpool FC are worth $6.6 billion, Joe Lewis who owns Tottenham Hotspur is worth $4.7 billion and Mike Ashley who owns Newcastle Utd is worth $2.5 billion. So why should they be able to do it? Non playing staff at their clubs are receiving 80% of their salary through the government’s job retention scheme. It makes you wonder though if they’ve done it for financial needs or to get their playing staff to do something. It’s true that furloughing your non-playing staff isn’t a huge saving for the clubs but getting the playing staff to do something makes a huge difference. Football Players were singled by the Health Secretary Matt Hancock in answer to a question at a press conference, harshly in my opinion. When you think that BA, McDonalds, Virgin, Arcadia and Whetherspoons have furloughed their staff but no mention of RIchard Branson or Phillip Green, you wonder is the money going to the right businesses and people? Maybe they should have done a percentage figure based on their profits? Making bigger more profitable companies pay more.

Back to the football players who were getting a bad wrap. A lot of players have done things under the radar which hasn’t been reported. I agree they all should do their bit but we should remember that they pay up to 50% tax on earnings which goes towards the public purse. Most players live in the football bubble, which means being paid a lot, a house included and a sponsored car. All clubs have a player liaison officer who look after all their daily needs. I have a friend who used to do that job and left to build his own very successful business looking after players at lots of different clubs. They don’t live in the real world, they even have kids holding their hands and showing them where the pitch is on match days! It’s good to see something has now been done organised by Jordan Henderson called #PlayersTogether.

But others should be called out. What about the supermarkets? Most of them have seen huge percentage increases in sales, Tesco by 30% for instance. Surely some of that could be used by the NHS as the rise is only due to the lockdown. Amazon has seen a huge spike in sales also due to the lockdown.

Some good things are definitely coming out of the lockdown though.

Two giant pandas have mated for the first time in 10 years in a deserted Hong Kong zoo. Ocean Park theme park and zoo announced that Ying Ying and Le Le had decided to have sex on Monday.

Female Ying Ying and male Le Le had been showing signs that they were entering their mating cycles late on in March, and ended up acting on it for the first time in almost a decade.

Giant pandas are known among zookeepers to be very infrequent maters, so this was cause for celebration among the staff. Now they’re keeping an eye for signs of pregnancy in Ying Ying.

Spider-Man Star Tom Holland was at his local supermarket the other day when he realised he didn’t have a one pound coin for a trolley. He asked a homeless man sat outside if he could borrow a quid to do his shopping. The guy gave him the coin and off he went. On his way back out of the store Tom returned the pound to the Man and gave him £50 to thank him. His Dad was on the radio the other day saying he’s glad he brought his son up to do the right thing. Although most of the press were reporting it was £100 he gave, it was definitely £50.

Last Saturday’s Virtual Grand National raised more than £2.6m for NHS Charities Together. The computer simulated event staged after the actual race was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, was “won” by 18-1 shot Potters Corner.

Bookmakers paid out on the “winner” and are donating profits from losing bets.

Unbelievably though ITV had complaints from people asking why wasn’t the crowd social distancing? You couldn’t make it up!

Artists from the music world have pledged to do free concerts for NHS workers including, Oasis, well Liam definitely, Noel possibly. The Manic Street Preachers, Rick Astley, The Script, are a few I’ve heard of.

And finally Just a bit of info for everyone in the UK. A couple of weeks ago I managed to get a home delivery to my Mum aka the Duchess in time for Mother’s Day. I’ve since not been able to get one done through any supermarket as they all said nothing available till the end of the month. I went on to Tesco by chance this week and they’d released some times. So she now has a delivery in time for Easter. Keep trying and you’ll get that happy feeling I got. I also posted this on Facebook with loads of offers of help of which I’m truly grateful and also lots of great advice which has been a real help, so thank you.

Take care everyone and enjoy your weekend!

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at www.radioonemallorca.com on mobile through their free App for IPhone & Android, The Tunein Radio App, iTunes, the Spanish TDT TV service and all smart speakers. If you can’t hear him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance!

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com