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Welcome to a rather unusual issue of the Spectator podcast. Throughout lockdown, we're asking

our writers to read some of what they've written for the magazine. We had thought we'd do this

for two or three weeks and then we'd all be back to work. It seems as if lockdown is going to be

with us for a while in one shape or another. First of all, we have Frederick Erickson, who's

reading his cover story about what lockdown is looking like on the route out of lockdown is looking

like in Europe. We have James Forsyth, who's talking about how the government is going to be

rewiring itself after this is finished,

and Leith Arbuthnot, who has a book being published right now about the book launch party which isn't.

First of all, Frederick Erickson.

Last week, Europe started its liberation from lockdown, and it all feels like a study in national political

identity. Belgium took its first step towards deconfinement, but no one seems exactly sure what

that means. France is opting for complexity rather than simplicity. Italy's national plan for

easing its lockdown is more convoluted still, but few regions

bothered to follow it anyway. Spain, goes a national joke, went more slowly and started

with the reopening of the siesta. And in Germany, everyone is praising the country's scientific

approach to the pandemic, but as soon as they were allowed to roam freely again, many Germans

headed for the beer gardens. Governments say their approach is guided by the science. In reality,

science doesn't offer any clear way out of this mess. There is no vaccine around the corner,

no answers even to basic questions, how the virus spreads, how many have

...