Matt Hancock
A tighter lockdown risks being a less effective one
When lockdown was first proposed in March, one of the many arguments against it was that people would tolerate being…
The delicate balancing act of lockdown messaging
Matt Hancock spent Monday evening trying to explain a very delicate tension to the public. There’s the good news of…
The truth about me and Dominic Cummings
It is such a relief that Dominic Cummings has gone. Not for the sake of the country or the government…
Trust is fraying – a circuit break would save it
Nearly a month ago I called for an urgent 24-day full national lockdown, arguing that the restrictions were unlikely to make a significant…
Boris Johnson’s human shield
At a Conservative party conference fringe event last Sunday, Lord Bethell, a health minister, was asked where he thought Britain…
The vaccine goalposts have shifted
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock provided a vaccine update this morning London time, reporting that the chances of the Oxford…
Three hours to prepare for a local lockdown
My weekend plans have somewhat been ruined by Matt Hancock tonight. The government has announced new lockdown restrictions for over…
Social distancing destroys our lives as social beings
A lockdown diary is an oddly negative thing. At the dinner parties that we aren’t going to, we aren’t discussing…
Who is in charge of the government?
Boris Johnson is still officially recuperating from coronavirus at Chequers and is ‘not doing government work’, according to No. 10.…
If anything is ‘essential’ right now, it’s cigarettes
The owners of my local grocery shop, a mile or so from my house, very kindly sell me cigarettes in…
How worried should we be about coronavirus?
Coronavirus may be more widespread than we think – and less deadly
Matt Hancock’s Boris endorsement irks One Nation Tories
Is Boris Johnson’s route to No. 10 now unstoppable? The former foreign secretary has more MPs backing him than any…
George Osborne: My campaign to Make Hancock Great Again
The best thing about the Evening Standard going to print at lunchtime is that we can be first to a…
The NHS must reform – or it will become obsolete
Since the Budget, economists have pointed out that Britain is turning into a health service with a government attached. The…
The amazing story of the married woman and the future Pope John Paul II
In his authoritative biography of Pope John Paul II, George Weigel writes lucidly about the unlucid subject of phenomenology. It…
