That was the week that was! I don’t think there could be a more appropriate phrase to circumference the events of last week.

The first full week of September 2022 may well go down in history as one of those weeks where you find yourself asking friends where they were that week, such was the drama, sadness and out pouring of so many emotions in the space of seven days and however we are feeling at this precise moment, we must remember a family has lost a Mother, Grandmother and Great-grandmother.

From a business perspective, many are still in limbo as although our new Prime Minister announced Government assistance for households to combat the spiraling costs of the utility bills, as we head full tilt into the most expensive time of year, no further announcement has been forthcoming in terms of support for businesses and under the current climate many are now getting very concerned.

The doorstep at which blame is laid for the current situation falls on the war in Ukraine which was started by Russia and yet surely when this first started, and the British Government were throwing around sanctions as though they were going out of fashion, they must have realized that to put it crudely at some point someone in Russia was going to turn off the tap! Based on that assumption, were their actions at the time appropriate?

Or were they simply adding fuel to the fire, if we hadn’t stepped in as a country would we have been seen as weak and vulnerable?

All questions which I suspect we will never know the answers to and none of which provides any assistance to those facing a very bleak winter.

As pubs threaten the existence of the twenty-pound pint, I suspect out of sheer frustration, quite frankly who is going to pay that sort of price?

There are many businesses whose electricity bill will outstrip their rent and that makes no sense for anyone, so paying what you can and keeping the doors open may just see us all through the winter. Antiques on High will be closed on Monday for the Queen’s funeral.