In an era of hundreds of available channels, television on demand, boxed sets, Love Island and Dr Pimple Popper, it is hard to remember, or for those who are much younger than me, to imagine the days of three television channels. There being only three channels meant that, regardless of what was being shown, prime slots got huge audiences. For many years, the BBC chose to fill one of those slots with a peculiar mixture of consumer issues, bureaucracy busting, vox pop interviews, oddly shaped vegetables, newspaper misprints and eccentric pets all rolled together in a programme called That’s Life. One pet who became famous for a short while was a dog called Prince whose claim to fame was that he could, to command, say the word sausages.

He’d have done well this week in Whitehall, with a possible mini break in Cornwall looming. The plight of the Northern Irish breakfast table seems likely to be a matter to take up some of the time of G7 leaders this week. The Biden administration, busily effecting a full re-engagement of the US with the world of diplomacy, has already made its feelings known about actions of the UK government over the Northern Irish border which may jeopardise the letter or spirit of the Good Friday Agreement. M Macron has let it be known that he considers it absurd that the UK is seeking to re-negotiate only months after the UK’s withdrawal terms from the EU were finally agreed. You have to have sympathy with them as Boris Johnson progressively feels time’s winged chariot bearing down on both him and the can that he thought he had managed to kick down the road for a while. Whilst we can chuckle away about sausages, there are some more difficult realities at stake here which are raising, and will continue to raise, serious questions about Northern Ireland’s status both as part of the UK and as a constituent part of the island of Ireland. It is to be hoped that a resolution can be reached which doesn’t risk the violence which has been seen in recent times and doesn’t adversely impact on the Northern Irish economy. It won’t be lost on many voters there that Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU in the referendum. Perhaps mercifully, the great assurer that Brexit would be easy, Mr Farage, is nowhere to be seen.

The G7 will also be talking pandemics, with the agenda said to extend not only to Covid 19 but also to contingency planning against future pandemics. It’s interesting to reflect that few politicians are ever criticised for spending on the massive military hardware that currently sits off the Cornish coast even though it may well never be used in conflict during its working life, but until 18 months ago, no politician would ever have dared to spend even a modest fraction of the amounts spent on defence on contingencies against pandemics.

Domestically, we’re waiting again. Monday is the day that we’ll find out what we can and can’t do from the 21st June onwards. The government has said that its decision will be driven by the statistics. The emerging problem, given further weight by recent statements from leaders in the public health sector, is that by next Monday, and very possibly by 21st June, we simply won’t have enough statistical evidence of the correlation between rising infection rate on the one hand and hospitalisations and deaths due to Covid on the other hand to make a statistically based decision. That will then put a Prime Minister who seems desperate not to disappoint us under pressure, a pressure increased by opinions expressed by a number of his back benchers who do not want a delay. This week, even Mrs May, who has been commendably restrained in relation to her successor since leaving Number 10, has joined in with criticism of the government’s approach to international travel. I suspect that a fudge is being developed, but we’ll see.

This weekend will also see the start of the European Football Championship, a welcome distraction for many. Whether you like football or not, let’s hope that it proves to be a unifying and uplifting experience, at least until, for England supporters, the seemingly inevitable exit via a penalty shoot out. At any rate, I’m looking forward to it. I have also been peering into the patch in my garden where I’ve been trying to encourage wild flowers to grow. The 12 year old me who watched Prince the dog doing his stuff back in the 1970’s would have been astonished to see how happy it made me last night to spot a couple of bee orchids growing in there. Boris is not the only person susceptible to time’s winged chariot.

Football or no football, enjoy your weekend.

Ian Waine leads Prettys’ Corporate Services Team and has advised on a large number of corporate recovery and corporate restructuring cases over the last 30 years. He can be contacted at 07979 498817 or iwaine@prettys.co.uk.