Covid has killed spontaneity for good

Maybe it had to come: a note on my local (London) message-board said that the two Marks & Spencer food halls where I have taken to shopping since the first pandemic lockdown are now offering – toot the bugle, as the Prime Minister might say – a booking system. Of course, this is presented as a big improvement, ‘part of our efforts to make shopping easier for our customers,’ according to M&S. It’s called ‘express access’, the idea being that, following the introduction of Lockdown II, you will be able to ‘book a slot’ to avoid queuing.

True, the system is voluntary. But how long will it be before those of us improvident enough to think that we can just, well, turn up and buy some lunch, find ourselves directed to the end of a well-marshalled queue – not just any queue, no doubt, but a Marks & Spencer queue – while better-organised shoppers roll up, apps at the ready, to be ushered past?

And so goes yet another little space, another little freedom.