Footballers’ response to coronavirus: self-delusion or cheek?

Last week I was put on furlough from my job, which was – in a way – quite exciting, invoking images of sturdy sailors on shore leave (my grandfather, who was a sailor, had his own approach to this; jump ship from a vessel in port if he fancied a change). Anyway, the largest bit of my present work is to review art exhibitions and since there aren’t any exhibitions to review, and there’s a limit to the number of times you can exhort people to have a look at the Hermitage online, I could kind of see the point.

But now I’m thinking that I was actually dreadfully short sighted, not to say, selfish. Instead of acquiescing in what seemed like an obvious necessity – over which I had no choice whatsoever – what I should have done was invoke the greater good. How, I should have asked, was the NHS going to function if it is denied the tax revenue from the 20 per cent lost off my salary? (The Government is kindly paying the rest.)