covid-19
Is the UK about to be forced into a vaccine war?
Is the UK about to be forced into a vaccine war? That’s the concern in Westminster after Brussels upped the…
Let's call time on Britain's gerontocracy
The boomers are eating their grandchildren. They don’t see it this way, of course, but they are doing it nonetheless.…
Will Covid cost less than expected?
It’s no surprise that the bill for Covid-19 keeps racking up. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s latest forecast predicts borrowing will…
Boris Johnson attempts to calm vaccine concerns
The message from Boris Johnson’s press conference this evening was one of reassurance. Following the decision by several EU member…
The EU's jab snatching ruse is legally absurd
For some months now, increasingly disturbing statements on the law or legal threats have emanated from the EU. Some of…
Why isn't Britain adopting the Danish roadmap?
Denmark’s greatest philosopher, Søren Kirkegaard, experienced only one epidemic in his lifetime, the cholera outbreak of 1853, which occurred after…
Don't blame the EU for the latest Covid vaccine clash
Far from subsiding, as it seemed to be doing last week, the European war over the AstraZeneca vaccine has intensified.…
Support for Merkel's party is crumbling
On Sunday, Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) suffered a historic election defeat in their former heartlands of…
My €25 Covid jab surprise
Around the time that poor M. Macron was casting televised aspersions on the AstraZeneca jab, I was offered one by…
Boris, Biden and the era of big government
Bill Clinton’s declaration that ‘the era of big government is over’ summed up the late 1990s political zeitgeist. Centre-left political…
The UK economy is suffering worse than most
Last week The Spectator highlighted new data from the OECD that offers a weekly update comparing a country’s current GDP…
Vaccines are testing Central Europe’s loyalties to the EU
In a fresh embarrassment for the EU in its vaccine rollout, breakaway member Hungary is now at the top of…
UK slams EU over 'completely false' vaccine claims
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has blasted claims by a senior Eurocrat that the UK is hampering the bloc’s vaccine rollout,…
Rishi Sunak's real opponent
Things are starting to get more awkward for Rishi Sunak — something the Chancellor has long been prepared for. He…
How worried should we be about a third wave?
At the beginning of the year, Boris Johnson and his advisers were at pains to tell us that by spring…
The rapid fall of Germany's health minister
Young, polished and confident, Germany’s health minister became the country’s most popular politician in 2020. A darling of the conservative…
Biden’s vaccine drive is too slow
I’m hooked on vaccine data. Barely an hour at my desk goes by without hitting refresh on a website telling…
Face masks in schools: a note on the evidence
Secondary-school children returning to school from 8 March will be required to wear masks in classrooms, at least for several…
Germany is regretting its criticism of the Oxford Covid jab
Germany’s fridges are filled with Oxford jabs. But there’s a problem: 80 per cent of the 735,000 doses delivered to Germany…
In defence of Keir Starmer
Now that we’ve finally heard Boris Johnson’s ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown, a key question remains: when will we see a…
We could all pay the price for the EU's foolish vaccine nationalism
I’m a card carrying, Europe-loving, wishy-washy centre-left liberal. It therefore pains me to point this out: the EU in general,…
Boris hints at a 'no jab, no job' policy
The most striking moment of Monday night’s press conference was Chris Whitty’s declaration that it was the ‘professional responsibility’ on…
Do we really want lockdown to end?
Despite it being highly unfashionable to change your opinion, my lockdown stance has shown agility. For most of last year…
Vaccination offers us a road out of lockdown. Let’s take it
As an epidemiologist and doctor who volunteered to return to the frontline in both waves, I have seen first hand…
Covid cases have collapsed
Last month, Imperial College’s React study claimed that new cases of Covid were static or even rising slightly. This contradicted…
