We’re doing a bad job of pretending it’s back to politics as normal while we wait for a possible third wave

Everything in Westminster feels slightly static and off-kilter at the moment – we are all, to different extents, terrified that things will soon take a turn for the worse again, writes Marie Le Conte

‘Things still seemed fairly rosy this time last year, and we all know what happened after that’ (PA)

Are things back to normal in Westminster? In some ways, it feels like it. MPs, staffers and peers returned to parliament at the beginning of last week, and business as usual seemingly resumed.

Policies were announced in the press, fights were fought in the chamber, glasses of warm white wine were drunk across SW1. All was well. Or was it? If you looked closer, not everything felt quite right.

For a start, there is the reshuffle that has been on the cusp of happening for what feels like months. In fact, it hasn’t just felt like months; one of the first columns I wrote for The Independent was about the politics of reshuffles, and that was published in May.