The Week
Barometer
Boris and the butcher’s dog Who first coined the phrase ‘as fit as a butcher’s dog’? It has been traced…
Trump’s revenge
Donald Trump may be a narcissist, but since he is not mentally ill in the technical sense, he is not…
Portrait of the week
Home Dominic Cummings, the chief adviser to the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, left Downing Street after a week in which…
Letters
Cancelled procedures Sir: Your leader (‘A lockdown too far’, 7 November) suggests that the Prime Minister should have shown ‘leadership’…
In it to win it
So Humpty Trumpty has had his great fall. But how democratic or logical was his election in the first place…
Barometer
Shot in the arm Global stock markets reached a new high after pharmaceutical firm Pfizer announced a vaccine it is…
A deal to be done
It now looks increasingly likely that lockdown will end on 2 December, after all. The decision to impose further restrictions…
Diary
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is a useful stop for journalists looking for some rust-belt Americana not too far from New York. The…
Portrait of the week
Home Pfizer and BioNTech announced a vaccine against Covid-19 of 90 per cent efficacy from two injections three weeks apart.…
Letters
Woeful Wales Sir: Allison Pearson succinctly points out the absurdity of the so-called Welsh government and its assembly, now trying…
Natural order
The ancients knew nothing about global warming, but they still reflected on the relationship between man and nature. In the…
Diary
American expats have a conundrum on election night: do you stay up to watch the results come in or do…
Portrait of the Week
Home The government imposed a lockdown on England to last until 2 December. On television, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister,…
A lockdown too far
The benefit of having a lockdown announced some days in advance is the ability to savour what is about to…
Barometer
The start of lockdown The earliest known use of ‘lockdown’ in its current sense was in a 1973 story in…
Barometer
The Moon under water Nasa scientists using spectrometers claim to have found good evidence of water on the surface of…
Sovereign value
The term ‘Carthaginian’ is often used of the EU’s attitude to post-Brexit trade negotiations with the UK, i.e. as if…
Diary
Even in this bizarre year of Covid (for everybody) and ‘cancellation’ (for me), the last week or two has stood…
Portrait of the week
Home Wales, entering a 17-day ‘firebreak’, closed most shops by law but then tried to stop supermarkets selling ‘non-essential’ items…
What America needs
It is remarkably uncommon for a US president to fail to be re-elected. It has happened just twice in the…
Letters
Ask the English Sir: Toby Young rightly criticises the juvenile posturing of the devolved governments of the Union over Covid-19…
Barometer
Special Offa A regulation passed by the Welsh government to prevent people travelling from Covid hotspots in England has brought…
End the Sage secrecy
At the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis it was easy to see why the Prime Minister was so keen to…
Portrait of the Week
Home After ten days spent trying to persuade Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, to accede to the city…
Letters
State of the Union Sir: Writing in a week that an opinion poll shows 58 per cent support for independence…
