Dining out: 35 million meals claimed in UK discount plan
London: Everyone, it seems, loves a discount especially when it’s on the government’s credit card. Early indications suggest that hungry, and often nervous, customers are being enticed back to restaurants in the UK as a result of a British government programme that provides discounts from Monday to Wednesday this month.
The plan aims to protect jobs in a sector that was hit hard during the coronavirus pandemic.
New figures published on Tuesday by the Treasury show food outlets claimed for over 35 million discounted meals in the first half of August with the number of covers more than tripling in the second week, when much of the country was basking in unusual tropical heat.
Under the program, sitting customers can receive a 50% discount on food and non-alcoholic drinks at participating restaurants between Monday and Wednesday up to 10 pounds ( 13) per person. Food outlets from Michelin-starred outlets to international burger chains can then get the discount reimbursed by the government within five days. So far, it has cost the government 180 million pounds ( 235 million).
It has previously estimated the total cost of the plan at 500 million pounds.
The so-called Eat Out to Help Out program is being used by around 85,000 restaurants, or nearly two-thirds of those eligible, in the hope that it will encourage people to return to dining out, particularly in the traditionally fallow early-week period.
Restaurants and other food outlets such as pubs were only allowed to reopen on July 4, more than three months after they were closed as part of the coronavirus lockdown.
It’s so nice to see our restaurants full of happy staff and customers again,” said Stephen Wall, managing director and co-founder of the popular restaurant chain Pho.
Local favorites have also seen an uptick in business, including the south Indian vegetarian restaurant, Rasa, in Stoke Newington, in north London.
This makes the customers come out, said assistant manager MusthafaKunnummal. So they may start coming out during the weekends. They are a bit more confident to go out to restaurants. I really appreciate this it did a great job. The government is hoping that the program will stave off job losses. (AP)
Nearly 100 cool new worlds found in our cosmic backyard
Washington: Members of the public have helped in discovering 95 objects known as brown dwarfs, many within a few dozen light-years of the Sun, says a study.
They are well outside the solar system, so do not experience heat from the Sun, but still inhabit a region astronomers consider our cosmic neighbourhood.
This collection represents some of the coldest known examples of these objects, which are between the sizes of planets and stars. For this new group of brown dwarfs, 20 citizen scientists across 10 different countries are listed as coauthors of the study to be to be published in The Astrophysical Journal.
Members of the public helped make these discoveries through Backyard Worlds: Planet 9, a NASA-funded citizen science project that is a collaboration between volunteers and professional scientists. Backyard Worlds incorporates data from NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) satellite along with all-sky observations collected between 2010 and 2011 under its previous moniker, WISE. (IANS)