Lockdown has fallen

For the last 64 days I have prefixed my blips with the day number since Lockdown was first announced. I’m going to stop now as lockdown is affectively over. It was killed by Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings and the murder weapons were explosive arrogance and the shrapnel of selfishness. Collateral damage included the unity of the nation and any suggestion that this government is prepared to act in the public interest.

For my part I had a reasonable day in the Home Office, made slightly difficult by the glorious weather which made my room a trifle warm. But whenever I took a break for a cup of coffee or for some lunch it was so nice to go and sit in our garden café and look at all the beautiful colours. I tried to capture them with some window film that produces these kaleidoscope effects but you cannot match the glories of nature with prismatic trickery.

The highlight of the day was Simon Scharma speaking from Hay Digital, who gave the most astonishing tour de force exposition about tribes, his personal dissection of the growth of nationalism in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The man is a real intellectual pleasure. A joy to listen to. And on this occasion I was left with a sense of optimism that there is a way to reconcile the need for a sense of belonging and place with higher aspirations and international collaboration. We just need to get rid of our current prime minister and his advisors first.