There's too much airy optimism about post-Covid Britain. Prepare for brutal cuts | Polly Toynbee

Boris Johnson says build back better', but buried in the budget are plans for a new dose of austerity

A year ago today the shutters came down and the plague year officially began. As hand sanitiser, toilet rolls, flour and pasta vanished from the shelves, no one imagined that more than 126,000 people would die. No one thought the economy would plummet by an unthinkable 10%, or that we'd still be locked down a year later. At midday today a minute's silence marks this national day of reflection". Bells will toll for the dead, with landmarks lit up at 8pm. The prime minister will observe the minute's silence privately".

A minute is not long, given how much Boris Johnson might contemplate; but then this prime minister is not one much given to reflection. In that minute, his thoughts may not stray far beyond immediate electoral gratification. He may secretly contemplate how truly remarkable it is that despite tens of thousands needlessly killed when his nanny state" phobia stopped him acting in time, his popularity rises by the day, thanks to the vaccine. He can reflect on his luck that the EU's vaccination missteps arrived right on cue to prove" him right on Brexit.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist