Columnists
Globally and locally, we need stronger business models for survival
When I wrote last week about business-to-business pain-sharing for survival, I was naturally thinking first about UK companies. I say…
The Spectator’s Notes
We know, because of the lack of widespread testing, that incidences of Covid-19 are under-reported. What is less well known…
The big success of small shops
From time to time, usually when things are quiet, the government brings on the dancing girls. David Cameron made Carol…
I have herd immunity
I am a type. I don’t like groups. I maintain few memberships. I question and resist authority, especially enforcement of…
There’s nothing equal about this virus
Filthy germ-laden townsfolk were out and about on the footpaths near my home on Easter Sunday, dragging with them their…
This war is the same as any other
‘We don’t talk about the war.’ Yet those of my generation and older reference it daily. The coronavirus is an…
The Spectator’s Notes
It is good of President Trump to offer Boris Johnson his best wishes and the best American pharmaceuticals (though no…
A new ‘sharing economy’ offers a path to herd survival
The phrase ‘sharing economy’ was coined a decade or so ago to describe collaborative new business models made possible by…
My only home-schooling success
‘What is the point of learning maths? When do you ever actually need it? How does it ever affect your…
Our flawed species still stands a chance
There was always one key flaw in our species. Which is that someone always shags a monkey. I have expressed…
Leave my cigarettes out of this
The owners of my local grocery shop, a mile or so from my house, very kindly sell me cigarettes in…
There is no end in sight yet
We have never had a moment like this before in our history: a time when the Prime Minister is, in…
Labour’s surprise advantage
First impressions matter in politics. Once the public have made their mind up about a politician, they rarely change it.…
Lockdown’s a treat for curtain-twitchers
Welcome, then, to a country in which the police send drones to humiliate people taking a walk and dried pasta…
The Spectator’s Notes
‘I am a columnist for the Daily Telegraph,’ I began a text message to an NHS executive last week. Due…
We’re anything but safe
Comically, Chinese Communist party officials have speculated that Covid-19 was planted by the US army. Yet a respectable conspiracy theorist…
Lower house prices and cheaper fuel will help recovery
The suspension of the residential property market is disheartening for those who were hoping to buy a first flat or…
The spiritual richness of solitude
A psychiatrist once told me that it takes one’s subconscious about three weeks to catch up with a significant life…
Don’t let anyone tell you there’s a war on
‘Shut up — don’t you know there’s a war on?’ Strong hints of that attitude have emerged in recent weeks,…
Top salary sacrifices now might avert a backlash later
The CBI’s guidelines on ‘best practice for business’ during the pandemic tell the 1,500 larger companies that make up the…
How will this ‘war’ change us?
In the past ten days we have seen the greatest expansion of state power in British history. The state has…
The world of make-believe is stranger than we realise
Last summer, in the bc era, I took my then three-year-old to a new group play session: ‘Lottie’s Magic Box.’…
The Spectator’s Notes
‘Lourdes shrine closes healing pools as precaution against coronavirus,’ says a discouraging headline in the Catholic Herald. Jesus ‘made the…
Below the crisis, a question floats: ‘Where do we find purpose?’
Perhaps we are at least past the beginning of this crisis. The phase where the hunt for multipacks of loo-rolls…
Lockdown in the little coronavirus café
‘Now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in To saucy doubts and fears.’ Shakespeare got there first, as ever, and…
