Nothing to speak of: the horror of a world without gossip

The pandemic has put paid to the thrill of recounting illicit activities — and we’re all the poorer for it. "Reading online accounts of people’s indiscretions is a poor substitute for the electrical charge of hearing them at first hand, which perhaps explains why, when one of Britain’s leading epidemiologists breached lockdown to meet his lover, the nation reacted like a starved dog presented with steak." Ian Leslie comments in The Economist's 1843 magazine.