Two extraordinary pieces in today’s FT. One which I think is supposed to be funny but only made everyone cross, one which is supposed to make you cross but just made me laugh in resignation.
The first is this gem: The awkward lessons of my luxury lockdown in Kensington.
The piece talks of Ocado deliveries being “whittled down to one a week”, the horrors of £95 an hour online tutoring, and the difficulties keeping a “casual but groomed” wardrobe up to date as a “freelance journalist blessed with an inheritance as well as a venture-capitalist husband”.
The writer means to be funny, but I fear she struck the wrong tone (we’ve all done it).
Also from today’s FT: FTSE bosses back on full pay after pandemic wage cuts.
With job loss announcements gushing and many businesses deeply unsure if they have a future, some big companies decided it was a priority to make sure the CEO is getting his/her full whack.
Even the FT, the voice of business, thinks it is plainly out of order. And as a source in the story notes, it is now difficult for those companies named to talk about their “principles” and “values” less they be openly mocked in the street.
The two pieces – one accidentally, the other on purpose – speak clearly to the idea that there are a small number of people untouched by almost any crisis, and the rest of us.
There will be more of this.
