The Week
Portrait of the week: Schools stay shut, Colston tumbles and bell tolls for Japan’s bike bells
Home The government lurched uncertainly in dealing with coronavirus. Not all years in primary schools would after all return before…
Letters: What Hong Kong really needs from Britain
Hong Kong’s future Sir: So we have a moral duty to protect the people of Hong Kong and guide them…
Letters: the NHS shutdown is hurting patients and costing lives
Poor treatment Sir: My recent experience supports Dr Max Pemberton’s view that the NHS is letting down thousands of patients…
Has Covid-19 evolved to become less deadly?
Covid deaths Has Covid-19 evolved to become less deadly? — Global infections reached a new peak on 29 May, with…
Portrait of the week: MPs return, dentists reopen and racing resumes
Home Primary schools were allowed to reopen but many did not want to. MPs voted to return to their physical…
Let’s not forget all the decent cops out there
One victim of police brutality is police decency. Our son has a tutor, J., who works with autistic kids in…
American police should not be above the law
In Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed, a black entrepreneur had his bar destroyed before he even had a chance…
And end to decent dying
From 22 March 1986: They used to say that war is the ruin of serious soldiering. Too much disorder, too…
The ancient Greeks would not have spared Dominic Cummings
When the PM’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, was discovered to have made his fateful journey to Durham during lockdown, there…
The Cummings road trip debacle is my last straw
I can’t remember the day I realised Santa Claus wasn’t real but I will never forget the moment I lost…
What is there to see in Barnard Castle?
Site test What’s on offer in the town of Barnard Castle? — Ruined 12th-century castle perched high above the Tees,…
Has lockdown worked?
Who occupies the post of chief adviser to the prime minister is not generally an issue of great interest to…
Letters: Why we need music festivals
Disastrous decisions Sir: One cannot but agree wholeheartedly with Lionel Shriver (‘This is not a natural disaster’, 16 May). Given…
Portrait of the week: Cummings under fire, protests in Hong Kong and a big cat in East Finchley
Home Open-air markets and car showrooms will be allowed to open from 1 June and other ‘non-essential’ shops from 15…
Letters: When is a sport not a sport?
Save the children Sir: Your leading article is correct that the government should have evaluated the detriment caused by shutting…
Portrait of the week: Unemployment up, bathers banned and Corbyn’s brother arrested
Home The United Kingdom seemed reluctant to come out of its lockdown. ‘We are likely to face a severe recession,…
Plato knew that home-schooling can have benefits
Education is cumulative. The idea that it will be lost on a generation because, for one out of 42 terms…
Which football teams have welcomed the strangest fake crowds?
Unusual crowd FC Seoul apologised after using sex dolls to try to create some atmosphere as games went ahead behind…
Advisers advise – but it must be ministers who decide
From the outset of the Covid-19 crisis, the government was determined that scientists would play a central and highly visible…
My lockdown achievement? Getting shingles
The choir of Notre Dame made a recording of Howard Goodall’s beautiful version of Psalm 23. Unlike cathedral choirs here…
Letters: It’s not so easy to boycott Chinese goods
Jobs for all Sir: Charles Bazlington championed Universal Basic Income in last week’s magazine (Letters, 9 May). It is welcome…
What would a perfectly socially-distanced UK look like?
Safety first The government was criticised for its new coronavirus slogan, ‘Stay alert’. What are the most common safety slogans…
The Romans showed how quickly hospitals can be built
The speed with which ‘model’ Nightingale hospitals have been designed and erected across the UK reminds one of the experts…
The revenge of the oldies
Entering my 54th day of quarantine, I recall how much I was looking forward to this spring in England. There…
Portrait of the week: Europe’s lockdowns ease, England stays alert and Broadway stays shut
Home The government changed its slogan from ‘Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives’ to ‘Stay alert, control the virus,…
