covid-19
The economic case for ditching mask mandates
After many months of hardship and sacrifice, freedom is finally within grasp. Boris Johnson has reclaimed his buccaneering, libertarian spirit…
Boris Johnson's plan for 'freedom day'
Four weeks later than planned, ministers are preparing to lift nearly all Covid restrictions from 19 July. This afternoon, Boris…
How WhatsApp mums saved Kenya’s castaway children
Kenya In March, Global Britain signed a new, post-Brexit trade deal with Kenya. This was a welcome agreement for my…
How crises shape government
Crises often exhaust the capacity of governments to renew themselves. All consuming problems do not allow prime ministers to have…
Hancock has made a mockery of his own rules
How much trouble is Matt Hancock in? The Sun splashes this morning on the Health Secretary’s affair with aide Gina…
The hypocrisy of Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock has not, we can agree, made it his business to lighten the public mood during the pandemic. That…
What can Britain learn from Israel on ending lockdown?
Israel has been the world’s whole-country experiment to establish how, and how fast, Covid vaccination can return life to normal…
Prepare for the EU’s ‘Hamilton moment’
The EU may boast a common currency like any other state (even if nearly a third of its 27 members…
What's the real reason Israel's vaccines were rejected by Palestinians?
Sipping an iced coffee in a Tel Aviv café this week, it felt like it was 2018 again. Nobody wears a…
How Russia lurched from vaccine victory to Covid crisis
Russia made headlines last August when it triumphantly unveiled its pioneering coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V. But now, nearly a year…
Ministers need to start bracing Britain for the third wave
The third wave of Covid-19 is well underway, driven by the now-dominant Indian variant. It may now be no more deadly than a typical…
My medical embarrassments are my business and no one else’s
While we were looking forward to Freedom Day, the National Health Service was busy planning something extra special to coincide…
Delay, data and the need for transparency
Boris Johnson delayed 21 June, he said, because the data did not merit a full reopening. The specific data government…
Brexit, lockdown and the fracturing of British politics
Is our society becoming less tolerant and more viscerally tribal? Or is our politics provoking people into committing more angry…
Lockdown delay is a price worth paying
For the first time during this pandemic, I think we should delay lifting restrictions. Looking at the latest data, it…
Is furlough holding back the jobs market?
The latest employment figures, published this morning, confirm a remarkable aspect of the Covid pandemic: that it appears to have…
The cost of delaying 'freedom day'
When Boris Johnson announced that unlocking would be guided by ‘data not dates’ he handed detractors ample scope for derision…
Boris Johnson delays the end of lockdown
Boris Johnson has this evening confirmed that he will delay the lifting of all Covid restrictions by four weeks to…
Speaker blasts Boris again over lockdown announcement
The government has just suffered a further verbal drubbing for the way it announced it would be delaying the roadmap…
The lockdown delay has triggered a constitutional crisis
It is not the Battle of Marston Moor, but it strikes me that we are now in something of a…
What Tory MPs fear most about a lockdown delay
As Boris Johnson prepares to announce a four-week delay to the final stage out of lockdown, he faces a mixed reaction.…
The manhunt dividing Belgium
Belgium’s leading virologist is in hiding, holed up with his family in a government safe house. The reason? A right-wing…
How Starmer can beat Boris
How should Keir Starmer deal with a problem like Boris Johnson? Despite the Prime Minister’s mistakes in the handling of…
Should we mix Pfizer and AstraZeneca Covid jabs?
Should the NHS be mixing vaccines for better effect, or at least offering people who have had one dose of…
What happens next? Gauging the fallout from the pandemic
What just happened? Some 15 months after the pandemic first struck, it’s still horribly unclear, which is perhaps why there…
