One of the many ways the coronavirus epidemic is damaging the social fabric is through its impact on civil society. Sometimes called the voluntary or third sector of the economy – the others being business and government – this sector is essential in ways the other two cannot be. Whatever one thinks of his politics in general, Edmund Burke was undeniably right when he wrote: “To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country and to mankind.”

The third sector is about subsidiarity – the local, the charitable, the voluntary, the space for private initiatives in a community where every individual has a role. The Charity Commission, which regulates those bodies in Britain entitled to tax exemptions because they work for the public good, has some 168,000 of them on its books. Before the epidemic struck their total turnover of around £80 billion a year was twice the size of the United Kingdom’s total defence budget.