Shopping

We drove down a number of shopping streets yesterday. "Want to stop?" asked Ailz. "No, not really," I said. Shopping under the current rules is no fun.

Coronavirus has killed the kind of shopping I really like- which is exploratory- and best done in a cramped and crowded environment that makes social distancing unfeasible- where the aisles are narrow and you have to take care that your trailing garments don't knock fragile treasures off their perches. Will that kind of shopping ever come back? Probably, but not for a while yet- and many of the shops that used to draw me in- the antiques emporiums, the musty bookshops, the old curiosity shops run by cranky geezers with no-one to please but themselves- will have cashed up and drawn down the shutters for good and all.

I never liked out of town shopping malls- which is just as well because it looks as though the future of shopping they once represented is now the past. The company that owns Manchester's Trafford Centre- and several others- went bankrupt a week or two back. The Trafford Centre is weird- with stylings that suggest a cheaper version of the Las Vegas version of ancient Rome. It'll make a lovely ruin.

The Question That Won't Be Asked

Ailz and I are devising a family quiz- for all ages from four to ninety-something- to be delivered this evening via Zoom.

"Here's a question I might throw in at the end," says Ailz-

"Q: What will Amsterdam's red light district workers be wearing when they go back."

A: Gloves and a mask."

(This may sound like a feeble joke but is apparently a fact)

"I don't think so," I say.

"You're really miserable this morning," she says.

"No," I say, "I'm just being a responsible grandparent- another word for which is 'coward'"

What Dictatorships Always Do

By cracking down on the protesters in Hong Kong the Chinese Communist Party is doing what dictatorships always do- punching itself in the head. Hong-Kong is the smartest, brightest, most prosperous city in China- but it's also a free city and that won't do. What the tyrants don't get- and never do- is that the freedom is a necessary part of the mix- and if you take it away you'll lose the smartness, brightness and prosperity too.

It's as if you were to say, "Oooh I really like this curry, but we next time we need to make it without the spices."

Hitler thought he could rule Europe- but first he had to get rid of all his clever people- many of whom were Jewish, others of whom were gay or otherwise "degenerate".

Stalin had a similar idea.

Chairman Xi may well succeed in shutting down Hong Kong because he's the one with the muscle- but it'll be his own funeral in the long run.

I don't expect the Chinese Communist Party to last for very much longer.

Here in the Commons Mr Johnson has just opened a "bespoke route" for Hong Kong people with a British National overseas passport to come to this country and get on the conveyor belt towards full citizenship. It's the least he can do- and both the decent thing but also very much in our interests. Chairman Xi is moving to get rid of his best brains, his sharpest entrepreneurs- and we'll be very happy to take them off his hands.

China's loss will be Britain's gain.

So thank you, Chairman Xi (you twit!)