There is no doubt now that 2020 will be forever characterised as the year of coronavirus or as the year of pandemic, but not as the year of Covid-19, for all that such a label might be more accurate. We are beginning to see the parallels with a hundred years ago and the 'Spanish 'Flu' outbreak, so much of which is the same. Europe, in the second half of this year, is coming to terms with having had a wave of disease and is hoping not to have a second wave, but the balance between the apparently conflicting demands of public health and the national economy is not an easy one to achieve. In all respects the UK seems to fare badly, suggesting to me that it is high time we overhauled our accepted institutions, including our version of democracy.
The stumbling of UK.gov towards the disaster that is, and will continue to be, Brexit ran through this half year, much as it has done since 2016 but with an end of sorts in sight. Whether what results is an end rather than a continuation, we still wait to see, even on December 10th, where yesterday BoJo the PM was indicating that a no-deal (what he calls an Australian deal) is steadily more likely. Given his quite unbelievable lack of statesmanship, I'm expecting one of the worst case results to occur. This collection is larger than previous and my first year in excess of 40 essays, partly because lockdown drives one to sit at a desk more often. For the first time I have inserted Snippets, which I think may be the first of a series, collecting small points observed no one of which, when first noticed, is worthy of a page immediately. Since page 313 generated five of the 19 for this half-year, it looks like a working method worth continuing. We will see. Well, given the number of visitors to this site, probably only I will see. Not an issue, since I mostly write for my own benefit anyway.
