Sunak was right to tie the banks into his rescue loan scheme
Was the Chancellor wrong to guarantee only 80 per cent, rather than 100, of ‘coronavirus business interruption loans’ to keep…
2455: Shadow boxing
The unclued lights (two of two words and one hyphened), individually or as three pairs are of a kind. The…
Real life
Without making any efforts in that direction, I now know all about a certain telecom firm’s future business plans. My…
Killing for a cup of coffee
In the winter of 1939, at the San Francisco Golden Gate trade fair, an advertorial film called Behind the Cup…
High life
Gstaad When indolence becomes intolerable, remembrances of things past become a lifesaver. Charles Moore’s SpectatorNotes also helps. His recent…
Puzzle no. 602
Nepomniachtchi (lachesisQ)–Andriasian (Zaven_ChessMood), Abu Dhabi Super Blitz, April 2020. White is in danger here. Which move did he play to…
Kinetic suitcases
While locked-down galleries compete to keep their artists in the public eye — or ear — by uploading interview podcasts,…
Hovering amid the din
‘I am extraordinarily patient — provided I get my own way in the end’. That’s a disposition fit for a…
Cavalier approach
This April was indeed the cruellest month, at least for those of us banged up in cities. From the country…
Bridge
I’m aware that this column is in danger of turning into the Alex Hydes fanzine, but after writing about his…
Diary
When the post office and stores closed in our village on Exmoor, my youngest stared out of the car window…
Dear Mary
Q. I am being driven to distraction by a touchy relation who has responded to the lockdown by WhatsApping me…
Call that care?
As the NHS was preparing for the Covid onslaught, thousands of hospital patients were discharged to care homes in an…
Clapping for Caroline
One of the nice things about having a column in The Spectator is that I get a chance to reply…
With an order of cloth the plague arrived
Locked contentedly into the rhythms of farming life and digging for lead on its Derbyshire Peak District slopes, the village…
A tinpot Caesar
Mussolini dreamed of a new Roman empire and dominion over the Mediterranean. Two decades later he was hanging by his feet in a public square, as Ian Thomson relates
If this is a war, let’s fight it like one
Under the cloud of conformity that has settled over the land as a replacement for air pollution, heretics who doubt…
Letters
End-of-life plans Sir: Charles Moore writes about his neighbour with poor lung function being telephoned about a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’…
Lockdown productivity? Let it go
On the day our A-level exams began some wit wrote on the blackboard: ‘I wasted time, and now doth time…
Things You Can’t Do Under Lockdown: The answers
1. Drive 2 a Holly Day Cottage 2. Shake hands with a Strain Jar 3. Throw a Party 4. V…
