The Week
A happy hebdomaversary to The Spectator
The Spectator’s 10,000th hebdomaversary (hebdomas, ‘a group of seven’: a weekly cannot have an anniversary) will surely be celebrated with…
The case for trusting the public is stronger than ever
Our Plan is entirely new, comprising – 1. The whole News of the Week: selected, sifted, condensed and arranged as…
Portrait of the week: The Queen turns 94, Captain Tom raises £27m and Harry and Meghan block newspapers
Home The number of people with the coronavirus disease Covid-19 who had died in hospitals by the beginning of the…
Ian McEwan: The strange vocabulary of coronavirus
The vocabulary of Brexit has passed into oblivion. Now there’s fresh work to be done. We all know about ‘flattening…
Trump has a point – the WHO has failed
The United States has long regarded itself as better prepared for a pandemic than any other country in the world,…
Movie-makers should look to the Athenians before cashing in on this crisis
Covid-19 has not yet reached its peak but already the moguls of the small screen are plotting how to monetise,…
Letters: The ban on public worship has enabled more of us to experience spiritual riches
Divine works Sir: Luke Coppen writes that livestreamed services ‘lack the vital communal dimension of worship’ and ‘are, at times,…
How many racing drivers lived as long as Stirling Moss?
TV quizzes An ITV drama told the story of Major Charles Ingram, who was convicted of cheating in the gameshow…
Portrait of the week: Boris recovers, flour sales soar and France and India extend lockdowns
Home The number of people with the coronavirus disease Covid-19 who had died in hospitals by the beginning of the…
How did the virus get past my Obsessive Compulsive Corona Disorder?
When two members of my family went down with what appears to be Covid-19, I felt concerned. What I hadn’t…
Portrait of the week: Queen speaks, mobile masts burn and Boris Johnson goes into hospital
Home The number of people who had died from the coronavirus disease Covid-19 in the UK by Sunday 5 April…
Letters: Our churches bring comfort – they must reopen
Is ‘the Science’ scientific? Sir: I hope that those in the highest places will have read and will act upon…
Difficult decisions about ending lockdown need Boris’s instinct and judgment
Ending the lockdown will require a leap of faith – one that can really only be made by the PM
Is Bernie Ecclestone the world’s oldest father?
Game on A few things which are still going on, in spite of coronavirus: — Football in Belarus, where the…
How did the ancients cope in a crisis?
When a major crisis strikes in the modern world, the state and international bodies such as the IMF and World…
This is the life I’ve always wanted — social distancing without social disapproval
Week five… which is to say I’ve been self-isolating in the country since 6 March. Meanwhile, engagements which threatened a…
Portrait of the week: Coronavirus hits cabinet, EasyJet grounded and postman soldiers on
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, contracted the coronavirus disease Covid-19, as did Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary. The Prince…
Pericles would have approved of the PM’s response to the pandemic
It must be infuriating for those who see the Prime Minister as a prisoner of a rigid elitist mindset that…
How much are people eating during lockdown?
People power Boris Johnson said that the reaction to the coronavirus crisis showed ‘There really is such a thing as…
Letters: Why coronavirus is so hard to investigate
Corona mysteries Sir: John Lee highlights the issue of dying of seasonal flu vs dying of coronavirus when assessing attributable…
Life, of a sort, still goes on in New York City
‘How are you bearing up?’ ‘Is everyone terrified?’ ‘What’s the mood?’ These are the questions concerned family and friends are…
One thing is missing from the government’s coronavirus response: an endgame
The failures of Britain’s pandemic planning have been brutally exposed in the past few weeks. The scandalous lack of protective…
How much food have we really been stockpiling?
Time out When did British workers start being ‘furloughed’? The word furlough is first recorded in the English language in…
Letters: Civilisation will survive coronavirus
Covid questions Sir: I worry that Matt Ridley and others are trying to frighten us about Covid-19 (‘Like nothing we’ve…
Michael Morpurgo: Kale smoothies, writing, Pilates – my strict isolation schedule
Writers like me are used to long hours alone. I’ve never enjoyed that side of it. I don’t like the…
