The Week
Portrait of the week: A royal baby, Boohoo buyouts and France legalises lunch al desko
Home On Sunday 7 February, as the week began, 11,465,210 people in the United Kingdom had received a first vaccination…
Letters: How to repair the Church of England
Save on bishops Sir: The Church of England is once again missing the point if its financial crisis will result…
What Pliny the Elder and David Attenborough have in common
When it comes to natural history, Sir David Attenborough rules the airwaves. Pliny the Elder (d. ad 79) who, as…
Trump is being defended by Foghorn Leghorn
We weren’t long into Bruce Castor’s opening speech defending Donald Trump in his impeachment trial before we knew it was…
What were the GameStop investors actually buying?
Best before The government plans to introduce labels on domestic appliances informing consumers how long they are likely to last.…
Minority groups should ignore the anti-vax charlatans
My great-great-grandmother, born on a Barbadian plantation and transported to what was British Guiana in the 19th century, gave rise…
Letters: How to revive Britain’s orchestras
Good conductors Sir: Yes, it is sad to see talents like Sir Simon Rattle and Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla leaving our shores…
How to be ‘liberal’, according to the ancients
Certain parts of academia seem to wish to turn the study of classics away from a historical, language- and evidence-based…
Sturgeon and the impunity of the SNP
Scottish politics tends to go through long bouts of single-party dominance. In the 19th century, the Liberals were in charge.…
Portrait of the week: Variants, vaccines and goodbye to Captain Sir Tom Moore
Home About 80,000 people in eight places in Surrey, London, Kent, Hertfordshire, Southport and Walsall were asked in door-to-door visits…
What would BLM make of Cicero’s views on mutuality?
The Black Lives Matter website (different from the new Black Liberation Movement) mostly presents an image of an organisation of…
Portrait of the week: Vaccine battles, illegal haircuts and Biden’s chat with Boris
Home Supplies of the Pfizer vaccine (made in Belgium) were feared to be at risk from a declaration by the…
Are we returning to ‘normalcy’ or ‘normality’?
New normal Why have so many people started saying ‘normalcy’ rather than ‘normality’? — Normalcy has been traced back to…
Letters: Don’t overlook the Trumpisms
Canterbury tales Sir: Having opened my copy of The Spectator upon arrival in the post, I read your article ‘Welby’s…
The horrifying toll of lockdown on the poor and mentally ill
I start the week with someone throwing faeces at me. I thought people were supposed to clap for doctors these…
Quarantine and the freedom paradox
Who would have thought, this time last year, that the British government would be planning to detain British nationals at…
Vaccination is the only way out of this catastrophe
Monday started with me opening my bedroom windows to let what little light there is come through, only to find…
Are there any mountains left unclimbed?
Bad service Economic growth fell by 2.6% in November, the month of the second lockdown, compared with falls of 7.3%…
Letters: The Church of England’s Covid shame
Paradise lost Sir: After reading Jonathan Beswick (‘Critical mass’, 16 January) I am writing to express the shame I feel…
The ancients were defined by actions, not attributes
Diversity is ‘about empowering people by respecting and appreciating what makes them different, in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, religion,…
Portrait of the week: Vaccination, inauguration and a food box denunciation
Home The government undertook to offer a first dose of vaccine to the adult population of the UK by September.…
To reopen schools, we need to vaccinate teachers
At the start of the Covid-19 crisis, Chris Whitty often made the point that a pandemic kills in two ways:…
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…
Letters: Lockdowns ruin lives
Lockdown damage Sir: I am sick and tired of people taking the moral high ground and looking down on ‘lockdown…
How close have protestors got to entering parliament?
Parliamentary objections The US Capitol was raided by Donald Trump supporters trying to prevent the confirmation of Joe Biden’s election…
