England is now the freest and most open place in Europe. It imposes no vaccine passports, no curfews, and no mandatory tests.

Nightclubs are closed in Munich and Marseilles, in Mullingar and Malmo, but they continue to thump out their hypnotic beats in Manchester. Face masks are being binned — though some people will doubtless cling to them as a kind of anti-Tory tribal badge.