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Disaster reveals character, they say. And the times we are living in are certainly doing that.

It’s unquestionably a hellish moment to be a business reliant on public footfall.

But the manner in which such companies are reacting to the current crisis is giving us quite the insight into the characters of the people at the top.

Just last week we saw the incredible heartlessness of Britannia Hotels and its treatment of staff at the Coylumbridge Hotel in Aviemore, where people were made unemployed and homeless at a stroke.

It made me think that it might be worth keeping a list of the Heroes and Villains of Coronavirus.

Let’s see how things stand as of this week, shall we?

VILLAIN Wetherspoons owner Tim Martin

The famously arch-Brexiteer – who looks like a Frankenstein’s monster created by welding together the different body parts of various Wurzel Gummidges and who, until a week ago, was a virus denier who was still urging people to go out to pubs – told his staff that they would no longer be getting paid until the company received its Government bailout cash.

Which could take until the end of April.

But he was not without a heart.

In a video message, he told his employees to go and get a job at Tesco for a while. Cheers, Timbo!

His supporters ask – what else could Martin have done? If people aren’t going to pubs, how can he pay staff?

I’ll just point out that The Frankenstein Wurzel is worth an estimated £500million and that Wetherspoons spent years making record profits.

What did they do with that money? Did they just set it on fire? Maybe that could have been useful to, I don’t know, help the staff who made you the profits get through a very difficult time. Crazy idea, I know.

HERO Waitrose and John Lewis

The group announced measures to help staff and customers during the coronavirus crisis, including a million-pound Community Support Fund to be distributed by shops to local communities, a support fund to aid staff facing additional childcare costs as a result of the pandemic, and protected shopping times for the elderly and NHS workers.

They also committed to delivering boxes of staple products to local care homes and community groups, and donating products to create care packages for customers to share with vulnerable neighbours.

I don’t know about you but I’ll feel a whole lot better about it the next time I’m paying what feels like a lot for a gourmet pack of pasta at Waitrose…

(Image: FOX via Getty Images)

VILLAIN Gordon Ramsay

Old Pineapple-Coupon took to Instagram about a week ago to say: “Our focus has to be on the health and safety of our employees, guests and community… all our London restaurants will temporarily close.

Whilst we don’t know when we will reopen, what we do know is by supporting each other through this terribly challenging time, we will come through this stronger than ever!”

How lovely. Then he laid off 500 staff.

A chef who worked for him tweeted: “Such a shame to see how the company that you worked for and gave everything you had for two years throws you away like you are nothing but a little piece of s***, especially in difficult times like this.

Even though they have absolutely nothing to lose by keeping you.”

What did Gordon do? He jumped up on YouTube to promote his new series Scrambled. Yeah, you know what scrambles me, Gordon? The fact that you are worth something like £140million and did this anyway.

I’m not a whizz with the old calculator but assuming (a very generous assumption) that all 500 staff were paid the government-mandated maximum of £2500 a month for three months, it’d have cost you £3.7million to keep them all on until the end of June.

Or just under three per cent of Ramsay’s net worth. Still, let’s not be too hard on Gordon. He does have a lot of fabulous homes to maintain.

Let’s hope one of them is remote enough to keep him away from an angry public once this is all over.

HERO Clarks shoes

As someone with a lifelong affection for Clarks shoes (Hush Puppies back in the day, kids. Wallabees nowadays), I was saddened to hear that Clarks was closing all of its shops in the UK and the US in a bid to help prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Sad but fair enough – let’s face it, it’s not an ideal time to be in the foot-handling business.

But the company made it clear that its staff would receive full pay and benefits until the crisis was over. There was, rightly, a huge outpouring of affection for the retailer online.

So let’s not forget about stuff like this when we come out the other side. Let’s think about where we spend our money.

Because the virus will eventually pass. A stain on your character is forever.