He's a sane voice all right, Maggie. I got half way through, got his message then had to stop to do other stuff. I'll try to remember as close as I can to what he said half way through, that "the only chance we have is to vaccine our way out." Spot on. We will never mask our way out or social distance our way out, not from now on. We must tell everyone how to be sensible, to know how the thing is spread but to allow everyone their freedoms to live normal lives. The playing field has changed, and it's all about vaccines. Unfortunately, unlike here, tens of millions of your countrymen have yet to realise that. Even Joe Biden, bless him, is sounding desperate about it. And let's not be parish-pump about it. We are not safe until the world is safe. And that means vaccinating everyone, everywhere.

A dear friend of mine has a lovely daughter, now in her 20s, who has achieved amazing things in the Royal College of Music. Next week she's playing the solo part in Mozart's clarinet concerto with our local orchestra. I won't be going because I don't want to be up close and personal with hundreds of other people for two hours in our local hall, not while the case rates are so high round here. It breaks my heart, but the risk just isn't worth it as far as I'm concerned. .