Last one, because I’m seeing this incredibly reductive argument being touted by people I used to follow - you’re smart people, and I know you understand this, but obviously it’s easier to play this card because well, yeah.

*Obviously*, it goes without saying, the death of 700+ people in the UK alone weighs heavily on people. But death is an abstract concept at the best of times. Can you really conceptualise the deaths of 700 people without letting the despair and dread it fills you with consume you

I think it would take a very strong person to envision all that. To take that in. It doesn’t feel real. It’s an abomination.

Now, you have the PM, who you regardless of your or my feelings on him, well, he is the leader of the UK. Well, all of a sudden, it’s not an

abstract concept anymore. It feels very real. And I imagine, if you loathe him, it probably makes you feel a little bit conflicted. Regardless, them 700 people now have a face, a face you know very well.

Mass grief itself is a thing - see the national outpouring of grief for Diana. Obviously we will hopefully never be at that stage, but it is one in the same.

So people are experiencing what is tantamount to grief for everyone, because now, it’s not just a picture in a newspaper or on TV. It’s a person who, up until recently was boorish in the face of the virus.

This is basically people understanding their and other’s morality in a very unprecedented, alarming way. It’s not that people don’t care, at all - but there is only so much a human brain can rationalise.

700 people is hard. One of the most famous people in Britain, ostensibly the person who is supposed to keep us safe, regardless of whether you trust him or not? Well, that’s not.