There are to be redundancies at the paper for which I work – a lot of them. There were already difficulties before the pandemic, but the near cessation of normal economic activity has meant, among other things, a collapse in the advertising revenues on which the paper depends. We are all in this together, but not in the way people meant.

This has been a divisive pandemic. And one of the divisions is economic: between the public sector, where jobs are by and large secure, and groups like nurses feel able to demand pay increases; and the private sector, where jobs are being lost and survival is uncertain. If there’s one bit of Scripture that has always seemed to reflect reality, and comes to mind now, it’s Christ’s incomprehensible words: “To them that have, more shall be given, and from them that have not, even that which they have shall be taken away.”

The last tranche of redundancies coincided with a mental health initiative from the HR department. So at the same time as people were going through the legally required consultation process, they were looking at chirpy notices around the office offering a series of mental-resilience workshops on topics like “Feeling stressed? How to beat it” and “Dealing with depression”.