Simon Jones: A new normal

Coronavirus has quickly gone from something that seemed to merely be on the peripheries of importance here in the UK to an all-consuming global event that could quite feasibly create a new version of what optics defines as normal.

Global markets have been left reeling following the spread of Covid-19 and optics is already feeling the impact. As I write this, Italy is under strict quarantine measures and the UK is teetering on the edge of introducing updated self-isolation advice for anyone with cold-like symptoms.

When the global financial crisis took hold in 2008, businesses didn’t waste any time in cutting cloth accordingly. Very few people will have escaped having to work harder to stand still and having to do much, much more with less. Has much changed since then? Have companies reintroduced their old fiscal policies? New parameters have been established.