I’m a sucker for a political memoir. I’m currently with Ken Clark, having this year read Alistair Campbell’s and most recently, Ed Balls’. His was finished in 2016, and his prediction, for instance, that Boris’s hopes of becoming PM had disappeared forever, show how long four years, let alone a week, is in politics. He did, however, talk about the many hours spent in 2003 by cabinet members and civil servants ‘wargaming’ what should be done in the event of a pandemic (which, at the time, SARS might have become). Should they close schools, for instance? Yes, because parents would keep their kids at home anyway. How early should they lockdown and start cancelling stuff? As soon as possible was the conclusion. And so on. In other words, the preparation was done years ago. And completely ignored.
“The working-from-home illusion fades”
Are workers working from home more or less productive than those catching the 7.02am to London Bridge every day? ‘Probably sitting at home in their bleedin’ jim-jams’, said someone recently of a less-than-helpful call centre employee, the assumption being that, were they surrounded by colleagues and with a manager cracking the whip, he or she would have sorted his energy bill more efficiently.
