Boris Johnson’s Macron-esque pettiness
How we all hollered with outrage in May when Emmanuel Macron closed France’s borders to people arriving from Britain on…
No. 10 is distorting the economy
Job vacancies at a record high, a shortage of 90,000 lorry drivers, farmers complaining about a lack of seasonal workers,…
Greta Thunberg is right
I am not usually on the same page as Greta Thunberg but she is absolutely right when she accuses the…
How are the vaccines affected by the Delta variant?
Has the emergence of the Delta, or Indian, variant reduced the effectiveness of Covid vaccines and if so by how…
Zero-sum game
Why the government won’t talk about the real costs of decarbonisation
Britain’s Covid economic bounce back is less impressive than it seems
The UK economy is rebounding at the fastest rate in Europe, and faster even than the United States: that is…
What’s the truth about the UN’s ‘code red’ climate warning?
Predictably enough, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report has been greeted with hyperbole about fire, flood and tempest. It is…
Are booster shots necessary?
Will Britain become the first country in the world to have a large section of its population immunised against Covid-19…
Britain, climate change and the reality of extreme weather events
‘Extreme weather will be the norm,’ says the Guardian. Britain is gaining a more ‘violent’ climate according to Sir James…
How many Covid hospitalisations are caused by Covid?
How many people have been taken into hospital and are dying with Covid, and how many have been admitted to…
Don’t fall for Rishi Sunak’s ‘Britcoin’
Do we need an officially-sanctioned, government-backed crypto-currency underwritten by sterling – a ‘Britcoin’ – as Rishi Sunak is said to…
We need to act now to block Britain’s social credit system
I have to admit that I didn’t quite get it right when, 12 days ago, I wrote: ‘There is a…
When will Boris get serious about balancing the budget?
Should we be pleased that net government borrowing for June came in below expectations, at £22.8 billion – £5.5 billion…
Could the third wave be running out of steam?
Will we get to 100,000 new Covid infections a day, as Sajid Javid has suggested, or even to 200,000 a…
The depressing spectacle of ‘freedom day’
It was billed as ‘freedom day’. Yet few people, it seems, either want to enjoy their new-found freedom or are…
Is climate change to blame for Germany’s flooding?
Greta Thunberg has declared the floods in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands to be the product of man-made climate change,…
A minimum corporation tax is nothing to celebrate
So is this what the new era of global co-operation looks like? The EU has agreed to delay the introduction…
Isn’t it time social media cracked down on racism?
No sooner had Bukayo Saka’s penalty kick thudded into the gloves of the Italian goalkeeper than you could see it…
Should we be mixing AstraZeneca and Pfizer shots?
To date, the Covid vaccination programme in Britain has involved two doses of one of three vaccines – AstraZeneca, Pfizer…
How much longer can the Treasury rig the housing market?
The past 15 months have produced a bizarre economic paradox. In 2020, the economy shrank at the fastest rate recorded…
Are PCR tests the best way to track Covid?
Throughout the pandemic doubts have been expressed about the reliability of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests which have been…
Why Warwick’s Covid modelling doesn’t add up
This week began with more frightening graphs from SPI-M, the government’s scientific modelling committee. A team at Warwick University calculated…
Rishi Sunak and the coming Tory battle over climate change
The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, isn’t normally given to waffle, which makes his maiden appearance on GB News all the more…
Is inflation about to bite?
The signs were there for all to see — pubs, restaurants, hairdressers and so on all pushing up their prices. Businesses…
Covid and the difficulty with ‘following the science’
Did anyone fancy being in Boris Johnson’s shoes before he made the decision to delay the full lifting of Covid…
