Evening Standard comment: To save London we must go out again | Keep on running

The pound is stronger. The economy, says the Bank of England today, is recovering more strongly than feared — although that’s all relative when what you feared was Armageddon and what you get is simply the worst collapse in output in recorded history.

So is Britain on the mend? Not if you look at the one bit of the British economy that pays the bills for life across the rest of the country, London. It’s no exaggeration to say that the centre of our amazing city is dying. Zone One isn’t quite deserted but the re­opening of shops, restaurants, offices and galleries hasn’t brought life back.

Instead, large parts of it seem to be operating in a sort of zombie half-light: Tube stations where staff outnumber travellers for much of the day, their escalators humming with no one to use them.

For a few weeks of lockdown, this looked temporary. Now the terror is that as winter arrives it might become something close to permanent.

So it was good to hear Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick spell out some truths when he was interviewed this morning. “We need to get back into central London,” he said. “Those of us who can, who do have secure jobs, should be safely going out to shop and to use restaurants and getting back to work to support the national economy.”

That isn’t the message that’s coming from other bits of government. Our erratic Prime Minister lurches from excessive optimism about ending social distancing — by November, he said not long ago — to a funk about whether normality will ever return.

The Mayor is doing nothing to lead a fightback for London’s economy, not even allowing Transport for London to mount a campaign to get people out of their cars and back on to public transport in safety.

The centre of our amazing city is dying … large parts are operating in a sort of zombie half-light

There will always be a debate about reopening the economy: but other countries in Europe are doing it more effectively than us.

In Britain only about a third of people who work in offices are back at their desks. In Germany it is around three quarters and in France higher than that. A direct result is that Paris is better placed to emerge strongly from the slump — and overtake London as Europe’s leading city.

The risk of that, to our long-term prosperity, and our ability to pay for happy, healthy lives with good public services, is huge. Our city needs saving before its centre becomes a wasteland of silent streets and boarded-up shops.

Keep on running

You can understand why the organisers of the London Marathon seem set to cancel plans to hold the event as normal in early October.

Bringing 40,000 sweaty, panting runners together in London’s streets, watched by huge crowds, won’t work with social distancing. But it is still a massive shame.

Instead of the full event they are discussing holding a shorter race for elite runners in one of London’s parks.

That will be a good spectacle, probably watched on television by people sitting at home.

But it will lose the joy of the marathon, which is that amateur runners, raising money for charity, can take part in the same event on the same course as world-record breakers. Everyone is in it together. Let’s hope the real marathon will be back soon.