The Week
Portrait of the week
Home NHS staff in England will have to be fully vaccinated against Covid by the spring. Britain had ordered 250,000…
Letters
Heat Sir: May I place some of Nigel Lawson’s comments in a sensible historical context (‘Stupid fuels’, 6 November)? First,…
Acts of remembrance
On the advice of doctors, Queen Elizabeth II will not attend this year’s Festival of Remembrance at the Albert Hall.…
Diary
Two weeks ago, I resigned my post as philosophy professor at Sussex University. For three years, I’ve faced bullying and…
Only right and natural
MPs are not exactly attracting plaudits for their recent attempts at governing. Perhaps Cicero’s three-book work On Duties (De Officiis)…
Barometer
Horror shows Eight people were killed when fans of rapper Travis Scott rushed the stage at a concert in Houston,…
Letters
Carbon deceit Sir: At this week’s climate change conference, countries will be urged to follow the UK’s ‘lead’ in setting…
The nature of Japan
From ‘The rule of taste’, Anthony Thwaite, 6 March 1959: The society of aristocrats, connoisseurs, wise men and heroes which…
Nature vs nurture
The ‘social mobility tsar’ Katharine Birbalsingh has suggested that children, born evil, ‘need to be taught right from wrong and…
Barometer
Another minute Addressing COP26 in Glasgow, the Prime Minister claimed it was ‘one minute to midnight’ in the fight against…
Diary
COP26 is not your typical power summit, because world leaders, NGOs and hacks are all in the same scrum. Outside…
Portrait of the week
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, told delegates to the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework…
Cold comfort
The COP26 summit is unlikely to be an outright flop. There has been no shortage of drama, with speakers seeming…
Letters
Hard to reconcile Sir: Although not an Anglican, I appreciate Michael Nazir-Ali’s dilemma (‘A change of mind and heart’, 23…
Portrait of the week
Home The Queen will not attend the COP26 meeting in Glasgow next week; she had resumed light duties after having…
Sunak’s surprise
The Conservative party has always sold itself to voters as the party of low taxation, but it has now pushed…
Diary
Rishi Sunak had a pre-game Twix and a Sprite to prepare for this week’s impressive Budget. I used to have…
Plato the censor
The Globe theatre’s project to ‘decolonise’ Shakespeare, as if that would make plays like The Tempest ‘acceptable’ to them and…
Barometer
Filming fatalities The actor Alec Baldwin accidentally shot a cinematographer on set when mistakenly given a gun loaded with real…
Zero strategy
The commitment to reach ‘net zero’ emissions by 2050 is the most expensive government proposal in modern history. Yet it…
Letters
Doom and gloom Sir: The depressing article by Tom Woodman (‘You must be kidding’, 16 October) confirms my growing fears…
Diary
The wonderful thing about woke narratives is that you only have to wait a while until they collapse. The core…
Barometer
Drinks at the palace The Queen was reported to have given up regular drinking. What do we know about her…
As a matter of curse
Twitter and other easily accessible means of online communication have encouraged the public to believe that Their Voice Will Be…
Portrait of the week
Home Sir David Amess, aged 69, the Conservative MP for Southend West, was stabbed to death while taking a constituency…
