What will Britain be like when coronavirus is tamed. Will it follow the pattern of the two other major catastrophes of the last century?
Let us go back to 1918.
The British people were exhausted, the country bankrupt. After that first flush of Armistice euphoria the national mood was sombre.
The boys came back from the trenches only to be demoralised by the vastly changed world and life. That war weariness lasted for years until the people and the economy revived.
On to 1945 with its two V for Victory days, Europe and Japan.
The country was again on the crest of the wave of rejoicing and celebration and this went on longer. We had the Festival of Britain in 1951.
It helped to overcome the after-effects of war - the crippled economy and our huge indebtedness to the USA, the sad sight of shattered cities.
An adventurous, far seeing government led by the quiet but brilliant Clement Attlee introduced the new health and welfare service. Prosperity was on the way.
Sixty five years on, we face another time of reckoning and revival, so different from those past two national experiences.
Our homes are not shattered, no-one has perished on the battlefield but every person in the country has been affected by the pandemic. Over 125,000 have died.
Dramatic technical progress over the past thirty years or so has helped to prevent an even bigger death toll while the development of new vaccines and vaccination of the whole population allow us to look ahead with so much more confidence.
There are still uncertain, worrying times ahead as we struggle to contain coronavirus, whatever form it may take, but we can face the future with benefits and greater confidence than our parents and grandparents all had those years ago.
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