coronavirus
This pandemic has put politics on fast-forward
‘The normal grease of politics is not there,’ bemoans one sociable cabinet minister. Certainly, the whispered conversations in corridors that…
Writing obituaries can be strangely life-affirming
There’s nothing morbid about writing obituaries
Fake news is spreading faster than the virus
The uncontainable spread of fake coronavirus news
Ten reasons to end the lockdown now
Writing in this magazine a month ago, I applauded the government’s stated aim of trying to follow the science in…
Boris Johnson should be wary of comparisons with Churchill
Despite his carefully-crafted bumbling image, Boris Johnson is anything but daft. When vying to replace the apparently rootless Tory moderniser…
Doctor rebuts NYT hit piece about Kushner’s coronavirus efforts
The doctor at the center of a New York Times story alleging Jared Kushner bungled the administration’s attempts to procure…
Get ready for the corona coup
House Democrats, flummoxed by their failed attempt to remove President Trump earlier this year, are gearing up for another round…
Can we rely on a V-shaped recovery?
Can the UK expect a V-shape recovery? The Bank of England has this morning published data revealing very deep V,…
Does COVID-19 mean socialism or social collapse?
Inequality is the price we pay for civilization. Property rights, inheritance customs and unequal gains from technological innovation have long…
Will churches open their doors as lockdown eases?
The grumbling of high church clergy should now lessen a bit. They were complaining, in some cases furiously, about the…
Is it 'speculation' to say the UK has the most deaths in Europe?
It’s a grim news week for the government with Dominic Raab announcing in Tuesday’s press conference that the UK coronavirus death toll…
Does lockdown really decrease Covid deaths?
It has become clear that a hard lockdown does not protect old and frail people living in care homes –…
The 2020 question: which candidate will stand up to China?
Imagine you are in your late thirties living in Ohio working at a steel or other manufacturing plant in the…
Neil Ferguson’s remarkable fall from grace
I originally had Neil Ferguson down as a kind of Henry Kissinger figure. The professor of mathematical biology at Imperial…
Lockdown is over. Someone tell the government
The coronavirus shutdown is over by public demand. There are crowds of sunbathers in the parks of New York City…
A German court has plunged the eurozone into fresh crisis
An epidemic has been raging across the continent. The economy is in lockdown, and GDP is in freefall. But, hey,…
Covid statistics are just politics by other means
Statistics is the continuation of politics by other means, to misquote Clausewitz. One hundred and fifty years after the crushing…
Israel’s antibody breakthrough
The Israeli government is reporting this morning that the country’s Institute for Biological Research has made a breakthrough in the…
Our toothless response to China is embarrassing
If you have been troubled by the government’s failure to get tough on the country responsible for our present malaise,…
Herd immunity may only need 10-20 per cent of people to be infected
Since mid-March there has been an assumption that herd immunity against Covid-19 would not be achieved until around 60 per…
Sweden tames its ‘R number’ without lockdown
Sweden has been the world’s Covid-19 outlier, pursuing social distancing but rejecting mandatory lockdown. Schools, bars and restaurants are open…
Have we been fighting a very different disease to China?
One of the great mysteries of coronavirus is how the epidemic has become much more severe in Europe and North…
The problem with immunity passports
Could we see ‘immunity passports’ in Britain? Ministers are reportedly discussing them as a route out of lockdown. According to today’s…
Spain's fiendishly complex rules for easing the lockdown
Once upon a time, when travel was still allowed, I checked into a small hotel in back-of-beyond Extremadura, in South-West…
Is the PM an example of why those with Covid-19 should be hospitalised earlier?
There is so much to ponder in the prime minister’s interview about how Covid-19 almost killed him. But, in respect…
