The World of Zoom

Another Wednesday afternoon in lockdown. Same old, same old…Well, not quite. At 2.00 pm I’m joining a poetry reading by Steve Pottinger, which is also being beamed to students and staff at a college in Dubai, though for them it’s an evening gig. This is a Black Country poet describing a late-night bus from Birmingham to Wolverhampton…although as he’s also dealing with Trump, a Mexican woman who’s been “disappeared” and a young musician last seen near a Swansea beach, you couldn’t describe it as parochial. Whatever he’s doing, they love it. And so do I, but after ninety minutes I have to break off and have a quick cup of tea, because at four pm I’m watching the Putney debates.

A work-out for the mind, as lawyers and academics wrangle over the balance between the legislature and the executive, and distinguish between parliamentary sovereignty and parliamentary supremacy. But this all needs putting into context i.e. British history from the middle ages and the current practices of lawcourts across the world in ensuring social justice…Phew! But it makes a change from Brexit caricature about the will of the people. And it’s all there, available in the ether, for free. What did we do before zoom?