Five years ago next weekend, we all gathered around the wireless as the prime minister addressed the nation. “From this evening I must give the British people a very simple instruction,” Boris Johnson said. “You must stay at home.” The slow-motion tsunami of Covid had forced the inevitable — full lockdown. We could go out only to shop for necessities, to exercise once a day and to go to and from work, “but only where this cannot be done from home”.
From that moment on workers were divided. Those with jobs that could not be done remotely — doctors, nurses, teachers, delivery drivers and so on — carried on as normal. For those who could work at a desk (or a sofa), their lives would
