The "return to work" line being pushed by the government is deliberately disingenuous.

It's meant to convey an image of metropolitan laziness to their base and try and trigger guilt in those at home.

I'm working damn hard at home.

The correct phrase is 'return to the office'.

And sorry, but government and companies don't get to spend thirty years gradually stripping back the minor mitigations for office life (free tea, break rooms, sponsored social clubs, cheap and uncrowded public transport etc.). Then turn round and try and tell me I should miss it.

I miss the people, sure. The office? The commute? Feck off with yourself.

I will shed no tears for the loss of the rapacious office space industry in central London, which i've watched kill pubs, cinemas, culture and communities.

Often as a vehicle for foreign investment. More recently as a vehicle for exported silicon valley hucksterism.

You want to save the small businesses that rely on that trade? You want to reboot the urban economy?

Embrace it. Convert those spaces back to viable ones for small business and to social housing where possible. Tackle pollution.

Get people LIVING in the centre again.

And start helping new and existing service industry businesses in zones 3, 4, their equivalents in other cities, and commuter towns like Stevenage.

Help us spend money in the places we used to commute FROM, not TO.

For YEARS governments have nodded sympathetically but done nothing about the plight of local high streets.

About towns like Hatfield or Stevenage that become shells of themselves as house prices price out locals and communities weaken as people spend most of their time elsewhere

The pandemic has just bowled a ball, under-arm, at local and national government - and at companies - that they can knock for six in this area.

It's delivered a system shock and an opportunity to pivot.

Don't tell us to 'return to work'. Some of us have never stopped. The rest of us, on furlough or made unemployed, aren't lazy. We're desperate to get back into it.

But stop demanding we go somewhere else to 'save the economy'

"Let the markets decide" is a phrase that has held toxic currency for way too long, but you know what? Just this once I'll agree with the conservatives on this.

Because we ARE the market. And we've decided that we don't have to go to the service industry. It has to come to us.

I've been thinking far too much about this over the last week. And it's just another area in which this government is demonstrating it's utter laziness and lack of talent.

Ditch 'return to work'. Ask (don't tell) people to 'return to lunch'.

Back in the office already? Do an extra trip if you can to that sandwich place you love. Here's a voucher.

Working from home? Pop out at lunch. Explore. Find a new place to eat, by books, drink coffee and buy things you need at home. Here's support for those businesses.

You want to go full jingoistic about it? Remind the Daily Mail that Napoleon once derided this country as a nation of shopkeepers.

Those shopkeepers beat him. And by patriotically creating and buying from more of them we'll beat this dreaded lurgy. And save your high street too!

But they won't. Because they are terrified of the next headline, the next missive from a mega-donor and with few exceptions lack any genuine positive ideology or commitment to the common good. Political survival is all that matters.

A good Labour government would do this different. A good Green government would do too.

And what's truly ridiculous is that a good Conservative government would do it too. Because it's so bloody obvious.

But we don't even have one of those. So 'return to work' is all we'll get.

I'll make one final (honest!) point on all of this.

It would be very easy to fall into the trap of thinking this is all about 'city people'. It isn't.

It's about taking the chance to support everyone.

Because when people are at home primarily, beyond local business sales, they're also there to have that kitchen work done that maybe they never wanted to take the time off for before.

Or they want extensions, or better gardens. Or better houses.

And suddenly those tech jobs are now PROPERLY open to you, or your kid, if you live in a village or town. Not just tech jobs either, but regular management jobs and other industries that until now you or your kid had to move to have access to.

It's a tough path, with change, but both the sell AND benefits are so easy for all classes and geographies, with a little bravery and imagination.

Shame there's none of that floating around at the top right now. But there we go.