It was a mist-shrouded, mythical land in which people talked about things such as “schools”, “hospitals”, “housing” and “jobs”. The meanings of these terms are sadly lost to us, but they appear to have seemed important at the time. Conversations about politics — if you’re brave enough to have them — are stuffed with phrases that barely registered five years ago. Backstop, prorogation, transition, Malthouse: the news sounds like Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues rewritten by a civil servant signed off with stress. The other day I spent five minutes in a supermarket queue while the woman in front of me had an impassioned exchange about the Letwin amendment with the checkout operator.

Source: The Times October 24, 2019 23:10 UTC