Everybody calm down about ‘eat out to help out’. It’s just a glorified Meerkat Meals offer
Patriotism is having a weird moment. There’s always an underlying hum of it, out there, in the meadows and the villages – that’s why we have the Last Night of the Proms and RAF flyovers – but in the midst of a crisis we bump it up a bit. Look back at the Covid-19 timeline, and tell me the crisis hasn’t made patriotism leap out at odd angles: that “we’ll meet again” vlog from the Queen, the wave of blue pride when Boris bravely defeated the virus, banging a pan for the NHS, VE Day’s curious Conga for Veterans! campaign. And now the latest way to help your country out is: going down to Pizza Express, ordering as many appetisers as possible, enjoying a main meal between Monday and Wednesday (during the month of August only), and getting a crisp tenner per-head off your bill. “Eat out to help out,” they say. For God, for Queen, for country.
Related: 'Eat out to help out': a forlorn dream for those struggling to feed a family
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