More from the Mad World

In the supermarket this morning, it was clear that panic buying has already set in. The shelves that once displayed roll after squidgy roll, pack after shiny pack of toilet paper were entirely bare. Bemused shoppers, unused to such Soviet-style retail experiences, were standing around marvelling at the sight. Actually, they were less bemused than amused at this latest specimen of human folly – especially the older ones, who were joking cheerily about going back to the good old days of squares of newspaper on a nail in the outside privy.
  No doubt this is just the beginning: once panic buying gets going, it creates a chain reaction, making panic buyers of us all, thanks to a few idiots acting selfishly. Even I, I must admit, when I later noticed a nine-pack on the shelves of another, smaller shop, bought it – which I wouldn't normally have done. That's how it works.
 Some panic buyers, however, seem to have the right idea: I noticed that half the shelves devoted to whisky were bare. Whisky will get you through better than a garage full of toilet rolls.

Elsewhere in the mad world, the Extinction Rebellion house, around the corner from me, has become even more of an eyesore and affront. The council, needless to say, has yet to send in the JCBs...
 The XR mob were milling around on the high street this morning, clearly mustering for some kind of event. I was looking forward to the opportunity of throwing orange peel at them, but they'd melted away when I came out of the denuded supermarket, musing on the state of things. What a world, as Rufus Wainwright puts it, What a world we're living in...