Most people tackle a jigsaw puzzle by first completing the outside frame. With a four-week extension to lockdown now confirmed, the puzzle in front of us currently has the top (Jeremy) and the two supporting sides (Sam and Marianne) completed, but is lacking the crucial, underpinning base: Bryanston School. Most of the other pieces have at least been turned picture-side up, and we have assembled all the necessary ecclesiastical bits to enable us to put the tour together, and to work out how many pieces are likely to be missing in the soprano, alto, tenor and bass sections.
It’s quite a challenge. And the mental process is not helped by hints on this morning’s news that the extension might, after all, need to be only two weeks, meaning we wouldn’t have had to cancel in the first place. How is anyone supposed to plan anything in such circumstances?