The Week
Letters
Joy Sir: Alexandra Coghlan identifies the coincidence between the rise of recording and broadcast technology and the flourishing of the…
Ring out, wild bells
Save for those old enough to have lived through the second world war and its immediate austere aftermath, it would…
Barometer
Now and then Were households allowed to mix at Christmas during the plague? Samuel Pepys’s diary entry for 25 December…
Diary
Among the greatest bores right now are those friends who insist on telling you, usually as if it’s some kind…
Barometer
Last orders The new tier restrictions have made life difficult for pubs. How many are closed? — According to the…
Letters
Eton mess Sir: As much as I am a great admirer of Charles Moore, as a former Eton master and…
Plato beats the pundit
Today presenter Nick Robinson has been reflecting on the political interview. He contrasts his interviews with scientists about Covid with…
Diary
‘Stopping the diary/’ wrote Philip Larkin, ‘Was a stun to memory,/ Was a blank starting.’ I never really understood those…
Portrait of the week
Home The Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine began, rather slowly, to be given to some old people in hospital and health workers.…
A shot of optimism
At the beginning of the Covid crisis, some expressed the hope that a pandemic might at least bring a divided…
Letters
Left vs left Sir: Your leading article (‘Comfort spending’, 28 November) makes the classic mistake about modern politics which prevents…
Swear words
Freed from the bonds of the European Union, Britain is now in a position to sign whatever trade deal it…
Diary
I’m often asked why Channel 4 recently banned an episode of my show The IT Crowd because of ‘transphobia’. I…
Portrait of the Week
Home The Commons voted by 291 votes to 78 for new coronavirus regulations putting 55 million people in England into…
High and dry
Does it matter that Debenhams and the Arcadia group have gone under this week, taking 25,000 jobs with them and…
Barometer
Dangerous games Sage scientists advised against playing board games at Christmas. Some games to consider if you are feeling subversive:Pandemic…
Diary
I’m often asked when I’ll write a pandemic novel. I’m not sure I’d ever be tempted, though the backdrop of…
Comfort spending
Every country was blindsided by the pandemic; few governments responded to it by borrowing as much as Britain. The figures…
Barometer
Gloss over Should we be worried that the head of research into respiratory drugs at AstraZeneca is called Dr Pangalos,…
Classic examples
To what use does one put history? Romans thought it provided ‘lessons’. Modern historians rather sniff at the idea, but…
Portrait of the week
Home The AstraZeneca vaccine developed by the University of Oxford was found to be 70 per cent effective — 90…
Letters
SNP sophistry Sir: Andrew Wilson (‘Scot free’, 21 November) poses the question: ‘What if the case for independence was a…
Diary
It is such a relief that Dominic Cummings has gone. Not for the sake of the country or the government…
The wrong reset
The psychodrama in No. 10 is badly timed. The government has used emergency powers to ban meetings, church services and…
Letters
Still distant Sir: In James Forsyth’s analysis (‘Boris’s booster shot’, 14 November) he infers that a vaccine, if provided to…
