Leading article
No one has made a clear and logical case for this lockdown
The benefit of having a lockdown announced some days in advance is the ability to savour what is about to…
A Biden victory would be no great boon for Britain
It is remarkably uncommon for a US president to fail to be re-elected. It has happened just twice in the…
We deserve to know what Sage is saying
At the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis it was easy to see why the Prime Minister was so keen to…
Britain is a successful melting pot – and the government should say so
When the Black Lives Matter protests struck London in the same week that Public Health England published a report into…
Now the Tories must make it their mission to repair the country
The centrepiece of Boris Johnson’s speech to Tory party conference this year was his Damascene conversion to the merits of…
The lockdown battle of Marseilles is a warning for Boris
From the vantage point of Downing Street, Boris Johnson may feel reassured that the further measures against Covid-19 he imposed…
Iran hasn’t earned the right to bear arms
Hard though it is to remember now, 2020 began with a very different dark cloud on the horizon. For a…
Labour’s identity crisis
On the face of it, there could scarcely be better conditions for a revival of the Labour party. Even before…
Ministers need to defy the instinct to lockdown
One of the many ironies of the past few months is that young people, while least affected by the virus,…
How Boris can get Britain back to work
This week was built up by the Prime Minister to be the moment that would mark the return of economic…
Tanking the tanks could be a big mistake
That an abundance of tanks is no guarantee of a happy and secure nation was evident from the Soviet Union’s…
Joe Biden should not take victory for granted
There is a great mystery lying behind the 2020 US presidential election: how come a country of 350 million, which…
Inflated exam grades let the government ignore its own failures
It was obvious that closing schools would hit the poorest hardest, inflicting permanent damage and deepening inequality. While many private…
Economies run on confidence – the government mustn’t undermine it
Throughout the past few months the government has appeared to face an unenviable choice between saving lives and saving livelihoods.…
How Boris should pick his peers
It is no credit to British democracy that we have the second largest legislative chamber in the world. The only…
New fault lines are appearing in the EU
Anyone who imagined that the departure of Britain would make for more harmonious EU summits in future will have been…
The confusion in government goes beyond face masks
When Michael Gove delivered the Ditchley Annual Lecture last month he spoke about why citizens feel that the political system…
At last, we have a foreign secretary who’s not shy to make a stand
It is hardly a profound observation to say that the government has not functioned as well as it might have…
The chilling truth about the Facebook advertising boycott
The printed press is not a natural ally of Facebook. Silicon Valley publishers have hoovered up so much advertising that…
Britain is reopening. Now it needs rebuilding
The Prime Minister’s announcement that pubs, restaurants and many other facilities will be able to re-open on 4 July amounts…
Britain must begin its recovery – before more damage is done
The discovery in Britain that a £5 steroid, dexamethasone, can be effective in treating Covid marks a potential breakthrough in…
It’s time for Boris Johnson to take back control
There is a grim inevitability to the trickle of round-robin letters from scientists who feel aggrieved at the government’s handling…
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…
Has lockdown worked?
Who occupies the post of chief adviser to the prime minister is not generally an issue of great interest to…
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…
