coronavirus
Actress’s Notebook
To say that the past nine months have been tough is like saying a hurricane felt like a spring shower.…
Letter from Hawaii
In a normal week, I would jam with local musicians, but that stopped in March and we musicians miss the…
Will Macron start an EU Covid chain reaction?
The Elysée palace has just confirmed that French President Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for Covid-19, after developing symptoms this…
Trump was right about the vaccine release
Donald Trump said during the second and final presidential debate on October 22 that he was optimistic a vaccine would…
Diary
‘Stopping the diary/’ wrote Philip Larkin, ‘Was a stun to memory,/ Was a blank starting.’ I never really understood those…
A shot of optimism
At the beginning of the Covid crisis, some expressed the hope that a pandemic might at least bring a divided…
A morning in a diner with Michigan’s COVID rebels
Portage, Michigan The short notice taped to the door is addressed ‘to all government officials’. It gives them a warning:…
Every business is essential
Governors across the country are deploying their unilateral power to institute draconian measures which close small businesses, mostly those in…
The COVID response shows the left is losing its way
Last month, British Columbia announced that those who don’t wear masks indoors can now be fined $230. ‘To me, it’s…
Strange
‘Forget coronavirus,’ said my husband, ‘the word of the year is strange.’ The strange thing is he’s right. This wasn’t…
Goodbye to all that
On Saturday night we sat around the kitchen table, my family and I, and had a takeaway from the Turkish…
China needs to make reparations
It is time we started to talk about reparations. I am not of course referring to the demands made by…
Can Boris win round his rebel MPs?
The beginning of the end for Theresa May was when she tried to see if she could pass her Brexit…
Portrait of the Week
Home The Commons voted by 291 votes to 78 for new coronavirus regulations putting 55 million people in England into…
High and dry
Does it matter that Debenhams and the Arcadia group have gone under this week, taking 25,000 jobs with them and…
Ticket to ride
The many dangers of ‘immunity passports’
Barometer
Dangerous games Sage scientists advised against playing board games at Christmas. Some games to consider if you are feeling subversive:Pandemic…
What does the different Covid data tell us?
In spite of the approval of one vaccine and the likely approval of at least two others, the government seems…
Russians are wary of Putin’s vaccine
Never one to let a bandwagon pass by, Vladimir Putin launched his own national vaccine programme the moment Britain said…
They think they’re better than you
Nancy Pelosi’s salon visit. Bill de Blasio’s gym session. Gavin Newsom’s French Laundry soirée. Cockburn can’t even keep up with…
Did Brexit lead to the UK’s vaccine success?
Today the United Kingdom became the first country in the West to clinically authorise a vaccine protecting against Covid-19, after…
Why I can no longer police the coronavirus restrictions
Earlier this month I resigned as a Special Constable, after serving for ten years as a volunteer officer in three…
Diary
I’m often asked when I’ll write a pandemic novel. I’m not sure I’d ever be tempted, though the backdrop of…
We need a dose of vaccine realism
One of my geniuses as both a commentator and a character is to confront what for most normal people amounts…
Portrait of the week
Home The AstraZeneca vaccine developed by the University of Oxford was found to be 70 per cent effective — 90…
