Surreal times here in the UK. A week into lockdown and I have seen some very odd things. The Conservative government has gone further than the largesse of stimulus in chancellor Rishi Sunak’s first budget two weeks ago. Since my column at the time, Sunak has released three budgets, and in effect nationalised the economy by propping up businesses and guaranteeing workers’ wages to save jobs.

Other bizarre things for a peacetime UK are shelves stripped bare of essentials by panic-buyers, a black market in toilet paper, and supermarket queues snaking around the block. But perhaps weirdest of all, the pubs are all closed...

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