I spent some time reviewing the last eighteen years of mixing and packing this week. We have come a long way on many fronts and have learned a great deal, but we are still vulnerable to the loss of one of our top three customers. Profitability and delivery remain key priorities.

Day to day, we are currently still dominated by the Covid pandemic that leaves us uncertain whether everyone will turn up each day and Brexit, which seems to be causing significant price increases and many difficulties in obtaining materials and components.

Talking to my fellow manufacturing Directors, there is a weariness with all of the Covid restrictions, a barely rational enthusiasm for booking holidays and despite the obvious and vital benefits of the advances in video conferencing, there is a near desperation to be able to meet people and chat face to face.

I have experienced the unexpected dislocation of communications between our managers arising from the separated shifts and what I perceive to be the even more significant lack of what I call the “water cooler moment”. This is the vital communication lubricant in which a few seconds in passing two people transmit and receive the gems of information that can make the difference between an order completed and an order delayed, between a task done and a task unfulfilled. This is barely understood by those who believe that working from home will save them enormous overheads, those who believe that management by email edict and the ubiquitous Teams meeting will easily replace the subtleties of tone and body language that accompany the ten second greeting and “by the way – did you know?”.

I think that there is a Ph.D. thesis in there somewhere.

Meanwhile, back at the Plant, we have continued to be busy, and doubly so, with the number of mistakes and miscommunications that have resulted from the loss of vital details and missing insight. Obviously, we are trying to improve our systems, our training and our leadership on the shop-floor. I hope that we will be stronger and more resilient for the experience, as long as we can learn from it.

Like Boris, we are continuing to invest in the business and in our people. Politicians at home and abroad are positioning themselves to be in the best light when the final reckoning comes. Boris has an advantage so far, in that he backed the Astra-Zeneca vaccine and the health service has done such a good job of delivering it. How will he and the First Minister fare in the longer term?

In the wider world we have a placebo that proves to be more effective than the substance under test and the need for traffic police in space to keep Elon Musk’s satellites from crashing into NASA’s.

And the Mars rover is squeaky.