I really like a public occasion. My parents always dressed in their "good clothes" - not their very best that would have been ostentatious - to go out and vote together. For a moment they were not just mum and dad but public citizens.
Coronavirus is holding up to us an image of ourselves and our society. Inequality has become, not a matter of just regret or concern, but a truly deadly business. The coronavirus divide means that those in the poorest areas are dying at twice the rate of the richest areas. Death rates from Covid-19 infections are higher in BAME communities. Unemployment seems to be hitting our BAME communities harder. Among council tenants 50 per cent of new claims for universal credit are from black, Asian or mixed communities.
