The Week
Barometer
Voyage into history How did the Labour government respond to the arrival of the Empire Windrush on 22 June 1948?…
Assuming liability
When Covid-19 first appeared, its similarity to Sars made some assume it could not mount a pandemic; others that it…
Letters
Back to schools Sir: I share Lucy Kellaway’s enthusiasm for seeing school-life return and inequality gaps closed (‘A class apart’,…
Portrait of the week
Home Britain went into a frenzy of iconoclasm. The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square was hidden by the…
Time to recover
The discovery in Britain that a £5 steroid, dexamethasone, can be effective in treating Covid marks a potential breakthrough in…
Dairy
Reality seems thinner these days. As I walk along the high street, passers-by drift apart as though afraid of crossing…
Barometer
Made to measure The government started reviewing whether we should stay two metres apart while social distancing or whether one…
Why stop at statues?
The actor John Cleese has been wondering if we should destroy Greek statues because Greeks believed ‘a cultured society was…
Letters
Hong Kong’s success Sir: Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson are right to compare the UK’s Covid-19 response with Hong Kong’s…
Barometer
The Colston chronicles Who, exactly, was Sir Edward Colston? Colston was born into a family of merchants and spent the…
Diary
A lockdown diary is an oddly negative thing. At the dinner parties that we aren’t going to, we aren’t discussing…
Take back control
There is a grim inevitability to the trickle of round-robin letters from scientists who feel aggrieved at the government’s handling…
Portrait of the week
Home The government lurched uncertainly in dealing with coronavirus. Not all years in primary schools would after all return before…
Letters
Hong Kong’s future Sir: So we have a moral duty to protect the people of Hong Kong and guide them…
Letters
Poor treatment Sir: My recent experience supports Dr Max Pemberton’s view that the NHS is letting down thousands of patients…
Barometer
Covid deaths Has Covid-19 evolved to become less deadly? — Global infections reached a new peak on 29 May, with…
Portrait of the week
Home Primary schools were allowed to reopen but many did not want to. MPs voted to return to their physical…
Diary
One victim of police brutality is police decency. Our son has a tutor, J., who works with autistic kids in…
Law and disorder
In Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed, a black entrepreneur had his bar destroyed before he even had a chance…
And end to decent dying
From 22 March 1986: They used to say that war is the ruin of serious soldiering. Too much disorder, too…
Usefulness before justice
When the PM’s chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, was discovered to have made his fateful journey to Durham during lockdown, there…
Diary
I can’t remember the day I realised Santa Claus wasn’t real but I will never forget the moment I lost…
Barometer
Site test What’s on offer in the town of Barnard Castle? — Ruined 12th-century castle perched high above the Tees,…
Has lockdown worked?
Who occupies the post of chief adviser to the prime minister is not generally an issue of great interest to…
Letters
Disastrous decisions Sir: One cannot but agree wholeheartedly with Lionel Shriver (‘This is not a natural disaster’, 16 May). Given…
