Well everyone used to work in the quarries. They were great places to be trained in weren’t they? People went on to all sorts of jobs after the quarry closed because of that training. The nature of work has changed now though, I don’t really understand what everyone does nowadays.
I think all sorts of people are going to lose their jobs with this Coronavirus. All sorts of businesses are going to fail. The taxis, hairdressers, pubs, hotels… But then maybe new ones will grow up, one’s we’ve not thought of before. I don’t think people realise how much change there’ll be. They think it’ll all go back to how it was.
Usually I’d have 12 or more jobs lined up for next year [2021] but I’ve only got two. Farmers aren’t asking for fences or walling because noone knows what is going to happen with the subsidies, and the scheme is coming to an end in November after 10 years. It’s probably going to be more money for the environment and less on food, so that’ll probably mean more walls and fences but noone knows. It’ll take a while for them to work out the new schemes. During lockdown I’ve been doing more work in people’s gardens because they are spending more time there. Maybe I’ll have to do more of that.
We used to sell the fish we catch [mackerel, bass, pollock] to wholesalers. But now [post COVID] we are selling it directly to people. Its much better for us - we get a better price, and people seem to like getting it from us too: We take it straight to them from off the boat. We’re using a whatsapp group to let people know what there is. We’ve got a grant to get more iceboxes and things and that will help us do that more, because sometimes, when we get a big catch, we still sell it to the wholesalers now they’ve re-opened, because we worry it might go to waste otherwise. But maybe we will stop that soon, if enough people want it, and we can keep it in ice while we distribute it.
There was a really heated exchange on facebook the other day - on Saturday, the first day tourists could come back [after lockdown]. The motorbikes and cars just flooded in. I posted something about it and someone replied saying ‘yes but all these people will spend money in the Spar’. And I thought ‘really?’ Does anyone actually look at how many good quality jobs are created like that? How much does it cost us? Are these all temporary jobs? Do we really want really crap jobs, jobs that you can only just survive on, at any cost? I don’t know, it just seems to me we aren’t thinking it all through. But then, there’s no new thinking about jobs in the future is there? So of course we just try to re-create what we know, rather than try anything new. And then i feel bad thinking like that, because there just isn’t anywhere where we can work things out without getting heated. Facebook isn’t the way of working out how to create real jobs is it?
Lockdown made me realling think about my job [at bangor university]. I’ve decided to leave - it was just too stressful. I’ve got less money now but more time to do other things, and less need to spend money. I’m not sure how it will go, but something will happen I hope.
What’s going to happen to the art/performance/theatre sector? Just before lockdown we got funding for our first indoor performance. Its so ironic! Now we have to work out if we can make it into a film instead. I really don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Will there ever be a time when people gather together again?
It’s like we’ve gone back to the old days, when art and performance and music was free. We had no money, but we still did things somehow. They have sorted out the benefits a bit though, they seem to have finally worked out that people really need support.
I know quite a few people who have been working from home during lockdown, and who have decided they will only go to work say 2 times a week in the future. That’ll help with the environment won’t it? Less travel.
I like working from home, but I think we’ll go back to being in the office after lockdown has finished: its hard to just work on your own, without people to talk to.
If we are going to have millions of unemployed [conversation July 2020], surely that’s the time to try and build up local self-help networks, give people money, not just unemployment benefit but a wage to plant trees or clear out streams or pick up plastic. You know, what a wasted opportunity just to pay people to be watching daytime TV on the sofa. It makes you feel terrible,physically, mentally, your self-worth…