War of the windows

Our office risk assessment for the COVID-19 period encourages employees to ensure workspaces are well ventilated. I don’t think this means ‘all windows open all day regardless of temperatures hovering just above zero.’ There is some over-zealous application of the window release by one particular colleague who wants to maintain a constant airflow. I sheltered in a meeting room all day and at lunchtime went for a walk to warm up.

I read an article about 24-hour shop openings in the run-up to Christmas, which will ‘give people the flexibility to shop when they can do so in the safest way.’ I don’t imagine politicians or business tycoons believe these words even as they’re saying them, and somehow I don’t believe that a shielding granny will be keen on going to Primark at 3am to avoid the crowds. Things would be a lot less disingenuous in this country if we just acknowledged that the national psyche is built around consumerism and individualism.

On the subject of rampant capitalism, a recent discovery has been the website Visual Capitalist. It has all manner of fascinating graphics and informatics, and is worth a gander.