Leading article
Open road
It seems all but impossible to convince government scientists of the wisdom of proceeding with the final lifting of Covid…
A tragedy of errors
It is hard to deny the importance of the issues raised this week by Dominic Cummings. His decision to identify…
Variants and variables
The scare over the Indian variant of coronavirus this week is a taste of what to expect over the next…
Welcome signs
While the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has no formal role in devising the bloc’s immigration policy, his…
Data, not dates
A slogan can come back to haunt you. For Boris Johnson, the words ‘data not dates’ sounded powerful at a…
A moment of truth
Sometimes, Westminster unwittingly makes quite a good case for Scottish independence. Britain’s Covid emergency has ended, but the damage of…
Out in the open
Over the past week, the country has started to spring back to life. Trains and buses are no longer running…
Royal standard
Fourteen prime ministers; 18 general elections; seven changes of government. Even in a stable country like Britain it is remarkable…
On the cards
‘The government would love to put issues such as these beyond the bounds of debate by creating an air of…
Minority report
Almost 20 years ago, Michael Howard spoke about the ‘British dream’: that immigrant families like his could come to this…
Friends in need
During the referendum campaign five years ago, the pro-Brexit side argued that by freeing ourselves from the EU’s native protectionism…
A fight on our hands
The power wielded by Nicola Sturgeon and her Scottish government means it’s hard to hold her to account for basic…
Touching distance
Since the start of this year, cases of Covid-19 have been in decline. Hospital admissions have fallen 80 per cent…
A democratic deficit
The campaign for a Scottish parliament was rooted in the notion of a ‘democratic deficit’. Scotland kept voting Labour but…
No offence
At a time when resources are scarce, the Merseyside Constabulary must have thought long and hard about its recent advertising…
On life and liberty
When the Prime Minister sets out his ‘roadmap’ for easing Covid restrictions on Monday, it will be against a backdrop…
Rebuilding welfare
Amid the many failures of public policy during the Covid crisis, one success has gone largely unnoticed. The Universal Credit…
The Scottish play
Scottish politics tends to go through long bouts of single-party dominance. In the 19th century, the Liberals were in charge.…
The freedom paradox
Who would have thought, this time last year, that the British government would be planning to detain British nationals at…
A lost generation
At the start of the Covid-19 crisis, Chris Whitty often made the point that a pandemic kills in two ways:…
The right balance
When lockdown was first proposed in March, one of the many arguments against it was that people would tolerate being…
Sir David Barclay, 1934-2021
When Sir David Barclay, along with his twin brother Sir Frederick, bought The Spectator in 2004, the magazine came as…
What have we learnt?
So great have been the government’s failures over Covid that it would be easy to forget to give credit where…
Ring out, wild bells
Save for those old enough to have lived through the second world war and its immediate austere aftermath, it would…
A shot of optimism
At the beginning of the Covid crisis, some expressed the hope that a pandemic might at least bring a divided…
