The Week
Diary
Writers like me are used to long hours alone. I’ve never enjoyed that side of it. I don’t like the…
On liberty
For days, the Prime Minister had been resisting the kind of measures which have placed many other countries into lockdown,…
Portrait of the week
Coronavirus Sunday dawned with 233 people in the United Kingdom dead thus far from the coronavirus Covid-19 (a week earlier…
Portrait of the Week
Coronavirus The government asked all people over 70 to cease from social contact for at least 12 weeks in order…
How to be self-sufficient
Those with signs of Covid-19 are being asked to ‘self-isolate’ (Latin insula, ‘island’). But do they have the mindset for…
Diary
As every Chancellor knows, behind every figure in the Treasury lie thousands of human stories. At times like these, saving…
Barometer
Taking off Who came up with the concept of ‘helicopter money’? — The term is derived from an essay in…
A common cure
For the Chancellor to produce an emergency bailout package just six days after delivering his Budget is an extraordinary state…
Letters
British science Sir: Dr Fink is right that the UK bats well above its weight through curiosity-driven research (‘Back to…
Ancient and modern
Plagued by the past
Portrait of the week
Home At the beginning of the week 319 people in the United Kingdom had been found to be suffering from…
Letters
Musical inspiration Sir: The interview with Antonio Pappano was splendid for those of us who admire him in Australia but…
The debt virus
It’s always tempting for governments to respond to economic trouble with a debt-fuelled spending splurge, but it’s a notoriously blunt…
Diary
I have been trying to write about a great unpleasantness for some time: the trans debate that we don’t really…
Diary
‘Aren’t you meant to be in quarantine?’ the man in the cloakroom queue asks. I sense that his enquiry is…
Civil unrest
Thirteen years ago, when John Reid became Home Secretary, he declared the ministry he presided over ‘not fit for purpose’.…
Portrait of the week
Home After a Cobra emergency meeting about the coronavirus Covid-19, when the number of cases in the United Kingdom had…
Letters
We need career detectives Sir: Your lead article (Trial and error, 29 February) rightly condemns Tom Watson for pressurising police…
Barometer
Heathrow’s nine runways When was a third runway for Heathrow first proposed? Heathrow was always planned to have multiple runways.…
Viral hysteria
Last week Ross Clark expatiated on the hysteria and panic generated by Covid-19 that threatens to send the world into…
Portrait of the Week
Home The government told Britons returning from 11 quarantined towns in northern Italy to isolate themselves, for fear of spreading…
Diary
I made the mistake of saying I thought insects might help feed the world. They are high-protein, cheap to farm…
Barometer
What a hole The World Health Organisation added processed meats to its list of ‘known’ carcinogens. A few of the…
Brevity goes a long way
The PM is insisting that the briefings he finds in his red box every evening should be, well, brief, and…
Letters
Devolved or decentralised? Sir: Paul Collier (‘Northern lights’, 22 February) conflates what devolution has come to mean, in UK terms, with…
