We start 2021 to the crashing of shutters pulled down on shops forever, pubs boarded up, their beer poured down the khazi, high streets a barren wasteland of tumbleweed, the country bankrupt and yet as we scratch around for the last cabbages on the shelves now all the grub's stuck at Calais, you can be sure of one thing – HS2's barrelling ahead.

It's like these geezers in yellow hi viz have never heard of the coronavirus or ever wondered why trains keep running with just one bloke on board and he's the driver. They've never heard of Zoom, obviously, 'cos they still think one day it'll all go back to where it was and we'll all be jammed like sardines into grubby old carriages again and be really grateful for HS2 running 60 trains an hour to Brum.