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Will Britain enjoy a Roaring Twenties after all? The latest figures suggest that the economy has bounced back from the pandemic and the recovery is on track. Consumer confidence has hit

levels not seen since before the EU referendum five years ago. Fears that new variants could inhibit the ability of the Government to ease restrictions do not seem to have dampened the

enthusiasm of shoppers to spend some of their accumulated savings. The reopening of non-essential retail has been an unqualified success. So: happy days are here again? Not for everyone. In

the high street it may feel like business as usual, but most of the self-employed are a long way from making good the losses sustained over the last 15 months. This week, the Covid support

loans provided by the Government for small businesses begin to fall due. Many will struggle to repay them. Others who did not qualify for grants provided directly by the HMRC to the

self-employed have struggled to make ends meet. Confidence is returning, but investors are still wary. Despite continuing post-Brexit supply problems and an especially tough pandemic, the UK

has continued to be the most attractive destination in Europe for foreign investment. Last year’s decline was sharp, but even sharper across the Continent. Only France did slightly better,

but some of these were reinvestments and the UK led the field in new projects. The task that faces startups, and indeed all businesses that have taken the plunge in the last five years,

remains formidable. For most, the implications of the working from home phenomenon are still in their infancy. One of the key factors in the success of startups is the energy generated by

bringing disparate groups of entrepreneurs and skilled professionals together. That dynamism cannot always manifest itself online. The dialectic between individualism and collegiality is

what drives innovation. Geniuses often need to be in the same office or “hub” to strike sparks off one another. Many other things have changed since the now distant days before social

distancing and lockdown turned us into a nation of hermits. The housing market has not so much bounced back as pole-vaulted into heights not seen for a decade or more. This boom has been

driven primarily by the desire of city-dwellers for space. Along with the perennial gravitational pull of country life which, almost uniquely among Europeans, causes the British to seek out

rural retreats for their retirement, there was the life-changing lockdown experience of cleaner air, the absence of noise and light pollution and a new neighbourliness that, however briefly,

transformed the usual urban hubbub into a simulacrum of village life. Millions wish to perpetuate this experience. And those who have the means and opportunity are prepared to up sticks and

move in search of the tranquility that, as the economy roars back into action, they now miss. Britain never stays the same for long, but we like to present an unchanging face to the world.

Our vices come and go like the weather, but our virtues are constant. On Friday the G7 summit opens at Carbis Bay, near St Ives in Cornwall. The Prime Minister will play to our strengths,

building on the British vaccine triumph to promise prophylaxis against future pandemics and spread sweetness and light across the globe. We must hope that he will not overplay his hand;

there is no need for bombast. Other leaders will have their own agendas, which may or may not coincide with ours. They should all, however, be struck by one thing about this country: our

resilience. A year ago the media, at home and abroad, were writing off Britain as a busted flush. The high death toll was seen as evidence of much more than familiar problems such as high

obesity or incompetence in high places. The UK was compared unfavourably to just about every other polity on the planet.  Now we can see that things were never as bad as they seemed. The

worst ordeal, in the second wave, was yet to come, but last summer the extraordinary abilities of the British people were already stirring. We were fighting back, just as we have so often

done before in our almost uniquely long history as a nation state. By the dark days of winter, the resurgence was making itself felt. Morale never came close to collapse; once the

vaccination programme kicked in, confidence returned with astonishing speed. We have not looked back since. Forging ahead now, we have set an example to our friends and sent a message to our

enemies: underestimate us at your peril. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one

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