coronavirus
The hypocritical oath
‘Please tell me you’re Republicans,’ President Ronald Reagan joked with his doctors as he headed into surgery after an assassination…
Sunak warns of hardship
When Rishi Sunak was appointed Chancellor in February, he must never have imagined that his first address to the Conservative…
Prime ministers can’t pick the crises that define them
In a non-Covid world, next week would be the Tory party conference. Boris Johnson would march on to the stage…
The rise of blocked-off design
Plexiglass bubbles hover over diners’ heads in restaurants. Plastic pods, spaced six feet apart, separate weightlifters in gyms. Partitions of…
Portrait of the week: Curfew street parties, Trump’s taxes and a bone-eating vulture
Home More than a quarter of the population of the United Kingdom (three-fifths of the Welsh, a third of the…
The Socratic approach to Covid
Organs of the press are filled with opinion pages. The sublime confidence about Covid with which commentators advance these opinions,…
Who started America’s presidential debates?
Word for word US presidential debates are often traced back to the first televised debate, between Richard Nixon and John…
Letters: Lessons for Boris from the classroom
Lessons for the government Sir: James Forsyth suggests that the Prime Minister wishes to avoid sounding as if he is…
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…
How much does it cost to save lives from Covid?
Why has much more been spent on saving lives from Covid than other conditions?
Laurence Fox is a political force to be reckoned with
From the moment I started criticising the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis people have been urging me to start…
Trump’s enemies badly want him to survive coronavirus
President Trump is being helicoptered to Walter Reed Hospital following his coronavirus diagnosis. The media are following the story closely…
Trump campaign urges staffers exposed to COVID to self-quarantine
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien sent an email to staff on Friday after President Trump’s positive COVID test, urging them…
Should a Good Citizen snitch on neighbours?
If neighbours break whatever new Covid rules might soon emerge, it has been suggested that the Good Citizen might snitch…
Whose bright idea was the circuit-breaker?
It’s electrifying! Who invented the circuit-breaker? Thomas Edison patented it in 1879, realising what damage could be caused to electrical…
In Madagascar, more will starve than die of the virus
Earlier this month, in his weekly address to the nation, our President, the former DJ and coup leader Andry Rajoelina,…
It’s time for Boris to channel Churchill
How Boris can get Britain’s Covid fight back on track
The true cost of coronavirus on our economy
The economic scars of Covid will define the decade
Are the polls worth your attention?
The polls are predicting Donald Trump will lose in November — again. Is it worth paying them attention? Pollsters have…
The rule of four: how to make sense of Covid case numbers
Are Covid cases doubling or not? And if so, in what time frame? If you listened to Boris Johnson and chief scientific…
Rishi Sunak prepares UK economy for 'permanent adjustment'
The UK economy is no longer hibernating; it is ‘adjusting’. Today’s measures announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak are designed to…
Could we see Covid anti-virals before a vaccine?
In a strategy that now appears to be one of outright suppression, the government has put huge stock in the…
There is no Covid consensus
Today, 32 scientists, economists and other academics have written to the Prime Minister demanding a change in policy on Covid-19,…
Five questions for Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance
The chief medical officer, professor Chris Whitty, and chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, made a statement this morning on…
Is Covid really rising in Spain? A look at the data
In a press briefing today Professors Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance showed epidemic curves for Spain and France — demonstrating…
