Shortest day of the year

I popped outside last night at 6:20pm to see the moon, the sky had cleared and l thought it might be a good crescent. I didn't like any of the photos but rather liked these palms lit up against the dark of the night.
News here just gets worse, the new variant of Covid is getting a grip, the government is running around in ever decreasing circles and Continental countries are closing their borders to the UK. Splendid isolation is all very well but how does this island feed itself? After the second World War Churchill said that never again should the country not be able to feed itself and have to rely on others- this seems to have been forgotten.