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Everyone’s going to be late for school and work today. It’s pandemonium out there. Utter chaos.

I’ve never seen these quiet back streets gridlocked before.

All the traffic impacted by road works on the high street, taking their chances to hurtle up that side street and take a short cut.

Only, all the traffic impacted on the other end had the same idea, racing through from the bottom.

We meet in the middle, in a short residential street, one lane for cars to pass, construction workers unloading a hoist on one side.

Here, we grind to a halt, five minutes from home. But the worst is yet to come. Freed from the jam, I turn the corner for the last stretch home.

Here, a bus and a skip lorry are doing battle. The bus has nowhere to go, so the truck must reverse, back, back, back, until finally the passengers pass.

Freedom! But no, for now all the cars and vans backed up behind the bus take this as their chance to follow on through into, yes, gridlock.

There’s nowhere for them to go, but into the onward traffic jam. And as for us patiently waiting to make that final journey home?

Yes, there’s now nowhere for us to go either, because those hurrying behind the bus have blocked that stretch of road too.

A sure sign that when given the chance to work together for the common good, most of us will pursue our personal interests alone.

No one’s going anywhere. We’re all in this together. All stuck!