Effective communications is one element which may have changed Hounslow irreversibly during COVID-19. Its role has been paramount ,as I show in my new ebook – Life & Death in a time of Pandemic – which reveals the depth of the area's crisis, both human and economic, through the eyes of local social media.

Calling it a crisis seems almost to downplays the impact. The word more frequently applied is catastrophe – potential or actual – because of the borough's dependence on Heathrow Airport.