We’ve been out for dinner for the first time in six months, meeting friends who are moving back to the UK. Eating out now means on the street. Louise warned me of a story in the paper about the New York City rats getting hungry. We didn’t see any, and almost forgot there was a pandemic. But tables were distanced, the menu was by QR code, the waiter had a mask. And when we stopped for a drink on the way, we were told “Governor’s orders” meant no drinking without eating.
New York is more like Europe than the rest of the US, where management of the disease has been a debacle. The President’s interview denying there was such a thing as per-capita deaths (or cases) has everyone with their heads in their hands. His polling numbers are on the skids, but I’ve been reminded that Michael Dukakis, Democratic nominee against George Bush (elder) in 1988, was 17 points ahead at this time — and lost. Ninety days is a long time in politics here.
Zoom life has gone from novelty to normality. International Rescue Committee is a humanitarian organisation with 13,000 employees and 17,000 auxiliary staff (many are people fleeing conflicts) in 200 sites in 40 nations. So remote working isn’t new. But having no in-person global HQ is challenging. I’m worried about loss of cohesion and creativity. Zoom is efficient, but no small talk means less joshing, more checking up than checking in. We’ll try hybrid meetings in September (part in person, part on screen).
Covid has one silver lining. I’ve started running. Not far, not for long, but every morning. Everyone has masks. It feels terrible while I’m doing it but it’s a relief to have done so by the time I’m on my seventh Zoom call of the day.
Zoom has taught me to be a better cameraman — thanks to the producer on Newsnight who gave pass marks for a bookshelf shot. I thought I was going on to discuss US immigration detention centres being super-spreaders of Covid (and deportation flights, 180 from Covid hotspots since March, have been exporting the disease to Latin America). But the huge explosion in Lebanon took over the interview. Lebanon is said to be the victim of other people’s wars (a quarter of the population are refugees). Now it has a massive self-generated wound that needs an international effort to staunch.
My friend Zoë Heller has been putting me to the test since we were at primary school 50 years ago. My mother told me that while I was struggling to read Zoë could already write. Now I’m having to choose five books to provide a window into my life for her new podcast.
My parents read The Giant Alexander to me. My kids loved David Walliams stories
I remember my parents reading The Giant Alexander series to me. My kids have loved me reading David Walliams to them.
The best part of my job was visiting our programmes and meeting people. That’s out now, so it’s meeting remotely. This week is Yemen, devastated by war and Covid. It’s close to my heart — my former constituency of South Shields has Britain’s oldest Yemeni community. The country is in dire straits. We all have a mountain to climb now, but for these people, it’s like Everest in comparison.
David Miliband is president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee and a former foreign secretary