Allsorts

These are new at a pub which, with appallingly bad timing, was taken over almost exactly a year ago by Tap Social, a local microbrewery offering training and employment to ex-offenders (strapline: criminally good beer). Their main base is on a small industrial estate on the outskirts of Oxford - the sort of boring, out-of-the-way place that you'd think would doom the enterprise but people flocked and until Covid it was a fantastic sociable space. It was so successful that they decided to expand, unfortunately just at the wrong moment. Their grand opening was cancelled during the first lockdown in March and since then they've been selling beer online and serving, mornings only, from a horsebox parked outside the pub.

I don't often walk this way any more so I was pleased today to see evidence that they're still buoyant enough to invest in some tables. I very much hope people will be allowed to use them when spring comes.


A few minutes later on my permitted exercise I spotted a bunch of police officers outside the probation office. As I walked past, a woman stepped out, looked extremely surprised, and was arrested. This is the third arrest I've seen in Oxford in just over four months and I did as has become my norm - to stand a discreet distance away and watch. This arrest was calm and an observer wasn't necessary but I was quite upset thinking about how the police knew she was there. Why didn't the probation service just go the whole hog and invite the police inside? It's not like she's ever again going to trust the service that's supposed to support her back into a crime-free everyday life.