The pointless exercise in helicopter money that is the high street voucher scheme is now open, sort of. It seems no one in the NI public sector has ever heard of the concept of load balancing so the site immediately fell over on launch. My advice is to wait a few days and try it early morning or late at night, here is the page.
The entire premise of the scheme is stupid. Many of us have never been richer. During the lockdown, there was bugger all to spend your money on so savings accounts have never been higher. It would have been better to give the money to those who actually need it most. With 30% increases in energy costs, I am sure people would have preferred an increase in winter fuel benefits for example. If it was about helping the high street I am sure most businesses would have preferred rate relief.
Also as far as I can see there is nothing in the rules to stop you from going into your local supermarket and buying Amazon vouchers. You can also use it to pay for gas/electric top-ups so that is good.
But we are where we are. I shall be applying for the voucher and donating the money to charity or you could buy goods and give them to your local food bank. Or spend it on crisp and booze, fill yer boots.
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
