The Week
Letters: When is a sport not a sport?
Save the children Sir: Your leading article is correct that the government should have evaluated the detriment caused by shutting…
Portrait of the week: Unemployment up, bathers banned and Corbyn’s brother arrested
Home The United Kingdom seemed reluctant to come out of its lockdown. ‘We are likely to face a severe recession,…
Plato knew that home-schooling can have benefits
Education is cumulative. The idea that it will be lost on a generation because, for one out of 42 terms…
Which football teams have welcomed the strangest fake crowds?
Unusual crowd FC Seoul apologised after using sex dolls to try to create some atmosphere as games went ahead behind…
Advisers advise – but it must be ministers who decide
From the outset of the Covid-19 crisis, the government was determined that scientists would play a central and highly visible…
My lockdown achievement? Getting shingles
The choir of Notre Dame made a recording of Howard Goodall’s beautiful version of Psalm 23. Unlike cathedral choirs here…
Letters: It’s not so easy to boycott Chinese goods
Jobs for all Sir: Charles Bazlington championed Universal Basic Income in last week’s magazine (Letters, 9 May). It is welcome…
What would a perfectly socially-distanced UK look like?
Safety first The government was criticised for its new coronavirus slogan, ‘Stay alert’. What are the most common safety slogans…
The Romans showed how quickly hospitals can be built
The speed with which ‘model’ Nightingale hospitals have been designed and erected across the UK reminds one of the experts…
The revenge of the oldies
Entering my 54th day of quarantine, I recall how much I was looking forward to this spring in England. There…
Portrait of the week: Europe’s lockdowns ease, England stays alert and Broadway stays shut
Home The government changed its slogan from ‘Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives’ to ‘Stay alert, control the virus,…
Reopening schools must be our first priority
It would be a tragedy if one of the legacies of Covid-19 — a disease which hardly affects children physically…
Cicero would have been quick to end the lockdown
The Prime Minister recently quoted Cicero’s famous dictum salus populi suprema lex esto, translating it as ‘Let the health (salus)…
Track and trace should not be our only exit strategy
The concept of the state tracking our every movement is anathema to this magazine and, we assume, to its liberal…
Letters: The toilet paper stockpile that lasted 80 years
The case for small homes Sir: Your editorial rightly highlights what must be one of the government’s priorities once the…
How many books are in the average home?
Admitting defeat 8 May is celebrated as VE Day, but it is also a date which marks a significant English…
Portrait of the week: Neil Ferguson quits, Rory Stewart drops out and Boris names his baby
Home The government put its mind to the puzzle of how to get people back to work. Draft advice was…
Can London’s theatres survive this crisis?
Never have I stared at my own face so much. Not because I want to, it’s just always there now,…
Portrait of the week: Boris’s son is born, Commons sits apart and Belgians told to eat more potatoes
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, returned to work at Downing Street after recovering from his Covid-19 sickness. Speaking outside…
How many 100th birthday cards does the Queen send?
Multiplying by hundreds The Queen penned a personal 100th birthday message to Captain Tom Moore, who has raised money for…
Rachel Johnson: What I wish I’d said about my brother’s treatment
When the post office and stores closed in our village on Exmoor, my youngest stared out of the car window…
The NHS has been protected – care homes have not
As the NHS was preparing for the Covid onslaught, thousands of hospital patients were discharged to care homes in an…
Letters: Country and town are in this together
End-of-life plans Sir: Charles Moore writes about his neighbour with poor lung function being telephoned about a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’…
Who else has made history at Captain Tom Moore’s age?
Oldies and goodies Captain Tom Moore, 99, raised more than £26 million by walking 100 laps of the garden of…
Letters: The joy of balconies
The closing of churches Sir: Stephen Hazell-Smith is quite right in writing that churches should re-open (Letters, 18 April), however…
