coronavirus
The COVID response shows the left is losing its way
Last month, British Columbia announced that those who don’t wear masks indoors can now be fined $230. ‘To me, it’s…
The strange language of this year
‘Forget coronavirus,’ said my husband, ‘the word of the year is strange.’ The strange thing is he’s right. This wasn’t…
The texture of our country is changing before our eyes
On Saturday night we sat around the kitchen table, my family and I, and had a takeaway from the Turkish…
The case for Chinese reparations
It is time we started to talk about reparations. I am not of course referring to the demands made by…
Can Boris win round his rebel MPs?
The beginning of the end for Theresa May was when she tried to see if she could pass her Brexit…
Portrait of the week: Tiers, Scotch eggs and a devastated high street
Home The Commons voted by 291 votes to 78 for new coronavirus regulations putting 55 million people in England into…
The government is sending the high street to an early grave
Does it matter that Debenhams and the Arcadia group have gone under this week, taking 25,000 jobs with them and…
The problem with ‘immunity passports’
The many dangers of ‘immunity passports’
What are the best pandemic board games?
Dangerous games Sage scientists advised against playing board games at Christmas. Some games to consider if you are feeling subversive:Pandemic…
What does the different Covid data tell us?
In spite of the approval of one vaccine and the likely approval of at least two others, the government seems…
Russians are wary of Putin's vaccine
Never one to let a bandwagon pass by, Vladimir Putin launched his own national vaccine programme the moment Britain said…
They think they’re better than you
Nancy Pelosi’s salon visit. Bill de Blasio’s gym session. Gavin Newsom’s French Laundry soirée. Cockburn can’t even keep up with…
Did Brexit lead to the UK’s vaccine success?
Today the United Kingdom became the first country in the West to clinically authorise a vaccine protecting against Covid-19, after…
Why I can no longer police the coronavirus restrictions
Earlier this month I resigned as a Special Constable, after serving for ten years as a volunteer officer in three…
We don't want pandemic novels – we want gentle escapism
I’m often asked when I’ll write a pandemic novel. I’m not sure I’d ever be tempted, though the backdrop of…
We need a dose of vaccine realism
One of my geniuses as both a commentator and a character is to confront what for most normal people amounts…
Portrait of the week: Christmas is on, Trump is off and Piglet stars on a 50p piece
Home The AstraZeneca vaccine developed by the University of Oxford was found to be 70 per cent effective — 90…
A vaccine won't heal the scarring of lockdown
How can Britain recover post-Covid?
How the NHS has coped with the second wave
Across Europe, hospitals have been filling up again with the second wave of coronavirus. France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and the…
How to win over vaccine sceptics
How to win over vaccine sceptics
I was dreaming of a cancelled Christmas
I was dreaming of a cancelled Christmas
What we know so far about the Oxford vaccine
It’s three for three as far as positive outcomes from Covid vaccine trials are concerned. But the announcement from AstraZeneca…
What do excess deaths tell us about Covid?
Assessing the number of Covid deaths has been notoriously difficult throughout the pandemic. Over the summer, English figures were revised down…
Was Covid beginning to peak before the second lockdown?
‘I don’t think that word means what you think it means,’ says the Spaniard Inigo Montoya in the film The…
Criminal gangs are making billions from fake medical supplies during COVID
While it’s great news that Pfizer, BioNTech, AstraZeneca and other pharmaceutical companies are developing vaccines to prevent people from getting…
