You are correct Driller, born July 1938 and consider myself extremely lucky to have firstly been born an Englishman and also when it was easier to climb the social and career ladder than it is today. On your details, why 'Driller'? Derived from being a farmer drilling the land/ Oil rig driller/Sergeant Major ()/Drill operator? Just curious, it's a trait of the oldsters!

Only an aside so we move on after the waffle.

1. Technology constantly moves on. This is a proven fact as I have certainly seen over the years and to list opinions on the 'fors' and 'againsts' is a very profound question. Two very basic examples would be the advance of the personal knowledge and equipment used by the medical profession and long may it continue. Another could be electronics and all it's various arms, which of course includes communications as we know them today, but these and many other technologies would advance irrespective of the current situation and wouldn't form part of the equation. You correctly mention on line retailing which has been around for a while and I see it continuing more so, again irrespective of the situation. Amazon need to pay full taxes on their profits and as they expand as a service then in theory their profits rise and likewise pay more into the coffers. I well remember a very different Nottingham of say the 50's as opposed to the Nottingham of today. There were the smaller shops around town that catered for most things, but in those days you could park your car in Slab Square as car ownership was much less then. So having private transport has created problems! GEM superstore (Asda) opened on Loughborough Road and was the city's first superstore and the public (now with more cars) found it was easier to park and buy cheaper, which obvious hit the smaller independents. Cultures have altered so much and Nottingham as one of the country's biggest industrial cities is no more. All to do with supply and demand, but this trend will continue.

2. To sum up ( my opinions only).

Lessons for the better will be learned from this situation as they always are after a crisis.

An awful lot will depend on how the government handles the situation. Forgetting the sniping from both sides, I think that in general the public think the government are doing as good a job as they can and I also think the Labour party aren't doing too bad either in opposition ie being very fair. Could it be that the two main parties will actually work more in harmony in the future, give and take on both sides? Brexit will definitely go ahead on time without extension and I really think it will be on WTO terms. I believe trade talks between us and the States begin this Wednesday in earnest with a view to getting a deal done this year (It will help Donald) and the Dem's want a deal as well, especially now where all countries want the best for themselves. So I can see ( forget Trump) us forging closer relationships with the US and the rest of our Commonwealth. So as mentioned earlier Driller, some possible good things, some possibly bad.