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I\\u2019m still locked down, and so, I assume, are you, so this week\\u2019s show is a game of two-halves.

In the present, I speak to my lockdown companion, my partner Agnes Frimston \\u2013 who, as it happens, co-hosts the newly weekly Chatham House podcast Undercurrents \\u2013 about how much fun she\\u2019s having being shut in a one-bedroom flat with me with no end in sight. We also talk about the various coping strategies the world at large is developing to help it get through lockdown; how public services are faring; and how the crisis might change the world and its politics.

We also put on mousturising face masks. While recording. It was that kind of day.

After that, an interview, from the before times. Back in March, I spoke with Donna Hall, the former chief executive of Wigan council and chair of the New Local Government Network. We talked about the interlocking crises \\u2013 budgets, social care, and so forth \\u2013 that were afflicting England\\u2019s councils even before the pandemic arrived. Once we\\u2019re out of this mess, such issues are, I fear, only going to get worse.

Skylines is the podcast from CityMetric, the New Statesman\\u2019s cities site. It\\u2019s presented by Jonn Elledge and produced by Nick Hilton.

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