coronavirus
Andrew Cuomo’s Midsommar
Andrew Cuomo has turned his governor’s office into Pee-Wee’s pandemic playhouse. He has giant cotton swabs and foam mountains that…
Will making face masks compulsory help us get back to normal?
The government will announce today that from 24 July face coverings will be mandatory in shops and supermarkets. Those who…
Coronavirus has exposed the EU’s greatest flaw
Politics begins and ends with sovereignty: the duty and right to make the legitimate final decision. We have seen this…
When is a democracy not a democracy?
Displaying the pristine neutrality that has made her such a popular figure, Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis apparently tweeted the following last…
The Spanish approach to face masks
We self-critical British should never forget that other nations are pretty crazy too. I write this from Andalusia, Spain; and…
The young are the most vulnerable to the Covid crash
Coronavirus is deadlier for the old than the young. But for the young, it is economically devastating. A third of…
We’re spending lockdown defending a family of mice
Austin My first Independence Day in the US for many years. Usually I’d be in Paris avoiding Texas heat. My…
How dangerous are cricket balls?
The Prime Minister recently blamed the delay in the resumption of amateur cricket on the ball itself, calling it ‘a…
Portrait of the week: Sunak’s statement, shop closures and a hoo-ha over Boohoo
Home Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced measures intended to stimulate the economy. Under a £111 million scheme,…
How strong was the scientific advice behind lockdown?
How strong was the scientific advice behind the lockdown?
Keir Starmer needs to find his own Guilty Men
This is a week of bittersweet anniversaries for the Labour party. It is now 72 years since Clement Attlee’s government…
The pandemic’s invisible victims
I sometimes pick up some food at Tesco for an 86-year-old pensioner who lives a few streets over. At the…
Culture is going underground: meet the rebel army
Leaf Arbuthnot and Igor Toronyi-Lalic on the new cultural rebels
Dear Mary: Will my lockdown appearance be too off-putting for the office?
Q. Just before Covid, we moved out of London with the intention of having a quiet life in the country.…
How did the UK’s pandemic preparations go so wrong?
How was Britain so ill-prepared for a pandemic?
Mission impossible: Boris’s attempt to rewire the British government
Covid has revealed what is wrong with Whitehall
The bluff and bluster of Boris’s bland boy Brexiteers
From the balcony where I take my daily exercise there is a view of the commercial centre of London that…
Portrait of the week: Boris does press-ups, pubs reopen and Leicester locks down
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said he was ‘as fit as a butcher’s dog’ and did press-ups to prove…
If Boris wants to channel Roosevelt, he should end lockdown
If Boris wants to channel Roosevelt, he should end lockdown
Leicester has a history of lockdowns
Leicester lockdowns Leicester was forced to impose the first local lockdown, in response to a reported surge in cases of…
Does Boris's 'new deal' offer anything new?
Today Boris Johnson launched his ‘new deal’ for Britain – billed as an economic recovery plan to follow the Covid…
Should we be afraid of this new swine flu?
Imagine if a vaccine for Covid-19 was approved tomorrow, and that within weeks we had all been vaccinated. Would life…
How worried should we be about a second wave?
Now that we are two months past the peak of the UK coronavirus epidemic, many fear the emergence of a…
Who watches the broadcast watchdog?
At the beginning of April, I became so frustrated by the supine coverage of the government’s response to the coronavirus…
Political pandering won’t prevent Covid deaths
When the media have gone large on the conclusions of an overpoweringly tedious report, one of the biggest favours a…
