The Twenties could be roaring once again

The situation looks bleak now, but when we emerge from this pandemic growth and prosperity will return, says Stephen Jardine

The worst thing about writing a regular newspaper column is the constant embarrassment of what has gone before. Previous efforts hang about as a stale reminder of the past, not least my final column of last year.

Traditionally it reflects on the 12 months just gone and looks ahead to what is to come.

In the case of 2020, it has taken me 11 months to work up the courage to look at it again.

“Brexit is by no means sorted but at least we have more clarity than 12 months ago. There are many bumps on the road ahead but at least we now know the direction of travel,” I wrote on the last Saturday in December 2019 before burbling on about how Greek food was going to be a big thing this year. Idiot. Moron. Buffoon.

No mention of a killer pandemic, or the closure of hospitality, or the existential threat to the very future of the land of food and drink.

Of course, at the time of writing, Wuhan was just a big city in China and flu was something I used as an excuse to get out of things when a common cold just wouldn’t suffice.

What a difference a year makes.

To be fair, if I’d devoted the last column of the old year to a prediction that the world would stop and a deadly virus that came from a bat would ruin everything, it might have put a bit of a dampener on the run- up to Hogmanay. Also, no one would have believed it.

As 2020 draws towards a merciful close, the whole year still seems unbelievable.

What on Earth did we use to worry about? Brexit? We will muddle through it somehow.

Global warming? Buy a bike and eat more veg. Over- tourism in Edinburgh? Something will come along to sort that out.

All previous concerns have been swept aside by a threat that is unseen and unheard. And it’s not going away. Eight months after Covid- 19 emerged here, it is still claiming lives and crippling our way of life.

A year ago the image of everyone wearing masks and being shepherded out of restaurants at 8pm to head home because nothing else is open would have seemed like sciencefiction.

Instead, this is the reality of an average night out now in Glasgow or Edinburgh.

Simple pleasures like a pint in a pub or a meal out with friends seem like unattainable ambitions at the moment but they will return in time.

This weekend brings Remembrance Sunday and the annual commemoration of those who have faced far worse than we can even imagine.

A century ago, the Cenotaph was unveiled in Whitehall and the Unknown Warrior was laid to rest.

That happened not just in the wake of the First World War but also in the aftermath of the Spanish Flu pandemic which killed 500 million worldwide.

More American soldiers died from influenza than from fighting but in two years the outbreak was over and what followed we now know as the Roaring Twenties.

In time, we will emerge from this pandemic and prosperity and growth will return.

We might even have that boom in the popularity of Greek food – and I promise not to say I told you so.