The Week
Does classical Athens give us a clue to China’s next move?
In 1984, China agreed a ‘one country, two systems’ treaty with the UK, designed to control the relationship between Hong…
Portrait of the week: Face masks in, Huawei out and Amazon’s TikTok trouble
Home New regulations would compel people to wear a face covering in shops in England from 24 July on pain…
The bill for a Banksy: how much does graffiti cost railways?
Take cover The government has said it will make wearing masks compulsory in shops. Mandatory masks rather run against the…
Letters: Why Hugh Dowding deserves a statue
Police relations Sir: As a former Met Police officer, with a similar background to Kevin Hurley, I was surprised how…
Portrait of the week: Sunak’s statement, shop closures and a hoo-ha over Boohoo
Home Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced measures intended to stimulate the economy. Under a £111 million scheme,…
At last, we have a foreign secretary who’s not shy to make a stand
It is hardly a profound observation to say that the government has not functioned as well as it might have…
SOS: Save our singers
‘Musician’ is how I described myself to the nice Latvian lady interviewing me the other week for an ONS survey…
What are online shoppers most likely to snap up?
Price of protest Greenpeace was fined £80,000 for defying a court order and occupying an oil rig in the North…
The chilling truth about the Facebook advertising boycott
The printed press is not a natural ally of Facebook. Silicon Valley publishers have hoovered up so much advertising that…
Letters: Police must focus on deterring crime, not responding to it
Deterring crime Sir: Rod Liddle is right to highlight the politicisation of the police as a source of their inadequacies,…
Portrait of the week: Boris does press-ups, pubs reopen and Leicester locks down
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said he was ‘as fit as a butcher’s dog’ and did press-ups to prove…
Leicester has a history of lockdowns
Leicester lockdowns Leicester was forced to impose the first local lockdown, in response to a reported surge in cases of…
Tiberius and the ‘phantoms of liberty’
Word has it that ministers already do not bother to argue their corner with the government’s inner ring, while a…
The left-wing case for Keir Starmer
Do you remember where you were when the BBC showed a rerun of Bowie’s Glastonbury set? When we ask each…
Portrait of the week: Lockdown eases, debt rises and three killed in Reading
Home Pubs in England would be allowed to reopen for table service from 4 July, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister,…
Britain is reopening. Now it needs rebuilding
The Prime Minister’s announcement that pubs, restaurants and many other facilities will be able to re-open on 4 July amounts…
As V&A director, I won’t save Clive of India
‘Pray for us St Sebastian that we may deserve to pass through this pestilence,’ reads the inscription on a 15th-century…
Which former prime minister earns the most for corporate speeches?
Voyage into history How did the Labour government respond to the arrival of the Empire Windrush on 22 June 1948?…
What can Roman outbreaks of malaria teach us about Covid?
When Covid-19 first appeared, its similarity to Sars made some assume it could not mount a pandemic; others that it…
Letters: Churches have risen to the challenge of lockdown
Back to schools Sir: I share Lucy Kellaway’s enthusiasm for seeing school-life return and inequality gaps closed (‘A class apart’,…
Portrait of the week: Statues, steroids and support bubbles
Home Britain went into a frenzy of iconoclasm. The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square was hidden by the…
Britain must begin its recovery – before more damage is done
The discovery in Britain that a £5 steroid, dexamethasone, can be effective in treating Covid marks a potential breakthrough in…
We are living through a frenzy of conformity
Reality seems thinner these days. As I walk along the high street, passers-by drift apart as though afraid of crossing…
Made to measure: where did the metre come from?
Made to measure The government started reviewing whether we should stay two metres apart while social distancing or whether one…
Why stop at destroying statues?
The actor John Cleese has been wondering if we should destroy Greek statues because Greeks believed ‘a cultured society was…
