lockdown
The best leader we never had
I spent Monday afternoon with The Wake Up Call, a new book by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge that lambasts…
The chilling treatment of Piers Corbyn
If you were looking for the archetype of a crank it would be Piers Corbyn. Rather like his long forgotten…
Nancy Pelosi’s bad hair day
Does Nancy Pelosi’s unfortunate trip to a hair salon have any news value? Or is it much a hairdo about…
Make America Normal Again
To win in November, Trump should seek inspiration from President Alexander Lukashenko, the 65-year-old autocrat who has ruled Belarus since…
Inflated exam grades let the government ignore its own failures
It was obvious that closing schools would hit the poorest hardest, inflicting permanent damage and deepening inequality. While many private…
I’ve started a dating site for lockdown sceptics
I started a dating site last Sunday. Not words I ever thought I’d write, but I’ve become a kind of…
In the race to recovery, Britain is losing
Britain is losing the race to recovery
What we can learn from Sweden
It is a particular pleasure to be returning to the columns of The Spectator, more than half a century after…
Economies run on confidence – the government mustn’t undermine it
Throughout the past few months the government has appeared to face an unenviable choice between saving lives and saving livelihoods.…
Never has a virus been so oversold
There’s nothing unprecedented about Covid-19 itself. The equally novel, equally infectious Asian flu of 1957 had commensurate fatalities in Britain:…
Is our test-and-trace system ready to stop a second spike?
Is our test-and-trace system ready?
If the office is ‘too dangerous’, why is everyone jetting off on holiday?
The whole of Surrey and south-west London seem to have gone abroad on holiday so I’ve got my sanity back.…
Why should anyone be forced to shield?
The best way (and with politicians sometimes the only way) to know whether people are aware they’ve made a mistake…
London in limbo: can the capital survive this crisis?
The capital is the motor of Britain’s economy. It needs to get moving again
Has Sweden been vindicated?
Sweden has released growth figures for the second quarter – a contraction of 8.6 per cent – and two narratives…
Can Boris avoid a winter lockdown?
As the government struggled on Saturday with the question of whether to impose a quarantine on those returning from Spain,…
You can’t sing in church but you can get a tattoo
From my seat in the greasy spoon café I looked out on a typical English row of shops on a…
Boomer and bust: Covid is fast-forwarding us into retirement
Covid-19 is fast-forwarding us into retirement
The brilliance of the ‘Black Lives Matter’ slogan
Four years ago, I bought a ranch in Wyoming. Not that I was tired of New York, but I’m fascinated…
My plans for a Covid inquiry
The public inquiry into the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis has already started. Not the official one, which won’t…
James Graham's small new drama is exquisite: BBC Four's Unprecedented reviewed
Let’s face it. Theatre via the internet is barely theatre. It takes a huge amount of creativity and inventiveness to…
Returning to what makes us happy: Brasserie Zedel reviewed
Brasserie Zédel is a grand salon under Piccadilly Circus and the only place I desired when lockdown (or lock-in) ceased…
The politics of hair dye
‘What are you going to put on my head to protect me?’ said the man outside the barber’s shop to…
Dear Mary: How can I help the host at a socially-distant dinner party?
Q. As we attend socially distant events, we expect of our hosts a scrupulous accommodation of our preferences around physical…
Will Zooming replace real-life socialising?
‘Are you seriously telling me you would rather meet up on Zoom than in reality?’ I asked a friend as…
