Pandemic notes
The contraction of globalisation The thought of globalisation as an inherent good of modern life is fracturing. That is not…
Labour’s surprise advantage
First impressions matter in politics. Once the public have made their mind up about a politician, they rarely change it.…
The ‘other’ other half
Conservative estimates place the number of those in America with more than one spouse as up to 100,000, but the…
With added spice
In Competition No. 3142 you were invited to supply a review on TripAdvisor that has been spiced up with a…
Portrait of the week
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, contracted the coronavirus disease Covid-19, as did Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary. The Prince…
The forsaken mermaid
Lamorna Ash came to the fishing port of Newlyn in south-west Cornwall to write a memoir. This is not unusual.…
Needs must
It must be infuriating for those who see the Prime Minister as a prisoner of a rigid elitist mindset that…
Lockdown’s a treat for curtain-twitchers
Welcome, then, to a country in which the police send drones to humiliate people taking a walk and dried pasta…
The Spectator’s Notes
‘I am a columnist for the Daily Telegraph,’ I began a text message to an NHS executive last week. Due…
Reading, thinking, drinking
Spring sense, caressing sunshine: last week, London enjoyed village cricket weather. Even in normal circumstances, the season would not have…
At home
My husband has special ‘throwing socks’. They are a rolled-up pair of woolly hiking socks. He does not hike. He…
The rocketing success of Zoom
Next time there is a highly deserved round of public applause for NHS workers, do add one additional clap for…
The turf
Asked, after his Imperial Aura’s impressive win in the Northern Trust Novices’ Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, if he…
Bridge
I’m finding it harder than I thought to concentrate while playing bridge online. And not just because my two children…
2451: Cretinous
Unclued lights are anagrams of ten of a kind. Elsewhere, ignore an accent. Across 9 A model cure fixed skin…
Dear Mary
Q. Mary, what percentage of cleaners’ normal wages should we pay them when they can’t come in for the foreseeable…
We’re anything but safe
Comically, Chinese Communist party officials have speculated that Covid-19 was planted by the US army. Yet a respectable conspiracy theorist…
Healthy debate
One of the paradoxes of the coronavirus crisis is that the need for public scrutiny of government policy has never…
Barometer
People power Boris Johnson said that the reaction to the coronavirus crisis showed ‘There really is such a thing as…
Real life
The spaniel curled up in her basket with one of my shoes, one of his socks and a packet of…
All about Eve
On a winter’s night an artist of moderately exalted reputation and in lateish middle age journeys across London, away from…
