The times they are a-changin’ as Bob Dylan puts it so idiomatically. I used to offer visitors a choice of three gins: London, Plymouth or Cork; rather pretentious and these days gin is distilled all over the place; from Deerness on Orkney to Westward Farm in the Isles of Scilly. Even Co Louth has a distillery at Listoke.
Now I offer three varieties of soap before proffering whatever gin happens to be in the freezer. Since mid March I have not been into Waitrose and only once to Tesco and Fortnum & Mason. The corner shops provide most things and Tesco is a reliable deliverer of bulk items: loo paper, gin and cans of tonic. It will take a long time, if ever, for old routines to return.
Will there be a similar, permanent change to businesses? If that is the case I suggest that Covid has only accelerated changes that were already on the way. Tackling climate change is a project in its infancy. Technology offers alternatives to burning fossil fuels. Unfortunately there are disturbing global undercurrents. There is no reduction in the risk of a nuclear war somewhere on the planet and no reduction in military budgets in the US, Russia and China. I advise a defensive investment strategy: Personal Assets investment trust and McInroy & Wood Balanced Fund unit trust, for example. I advise some stockpiling in the cellar to keep our spirits up in what may be challenging times ahead. This strange architectural detail on an office building on Fulham Palace Road encapsulates the world we live in.
Perhaps it’s comforting that things haven’t changed much since this was written in 1964?
What an exceptionally grim looking building.