coronavirus
The ethics of lockdown
Is the harm it causes justified?
Portrait of the Week
Home The government imposed a lockdown on England to last until 2 December. On television, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister,…
A lockdown too far
The benefit of having a lockdown announced some days in advance is the ability to savour what is about to…
Barometer
The start of lockdown The earliest known use of ‘lockdown’ in its current sense was in a 1973 story in…
Backsliding on a lockdown end-date has begun already
Will England’s lockdown end on 2 December? Even before this morning’s media round there was good reason to suspect it…
Calculated risks
Classes of people at moderate risk from Covid-19. Addenda to current NHS guidelines. Those at risk from coronavirus now include…
A long winter
The ‘worst-case scenario’ for Covid
Portrait of the week
Home Wales, entering a 17-day ‘firebreak’, closed most shops by law but then tried to stop supermarkets selling ‘non-essential’ items…
What will post-pandemic politics look like?
A few days ago, I came across a group of Tory MPs in a House of Commons corridor looking rather…
Will Spain’s nation of rogues comply with the curfew?
A few years ago, when I was in the queue to catch a plane, a Spanish lady caught me watching…
The Trump campaign is doomed
Freddy Gray is optimistic about President Trump’s political prospects. The polls showing that Trump is headed for the ropes are…
Covid or no Covid, social distancing could be here to stay
Throughout this year, the biggest worry for healthcare planners has been what happens if a second wave of Covid-19 coincides…
Why is the Republican party symbol an elephant and the Democratic symbol a donkey?
Political animals Why is the Republican party symbol an elephant and the Democratic symbol a donkey? Both go back to…
Trump sealed the deal last night
First, let me pay brief homage to Kristen Welker, moderator of Thursday night’s debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.…
The US is coming out of COVID no worse than any European country
It has become a received wisdom in recent months that the US has failed where the EU had succeeded. On…
The paranoid style in left-wing politics
Did Donald Trump fake his battle with coronavirus to boost his standing in the polls? No, obviously not. He spent…
Riding the wave
Students who catch Covid may be saving lives by building up immunity
Covid has killed off our civil liberties
It started with smoking. The 1960s and 1970s saw little popular objection to legislation restricting advertisements by private companies purveying…
Barometer
Red light, green light The three tiers of Covid restrictions have been described as a ‘traffic light’ system. — The…
How new Covid restrictions are stalling the economy
The theory behind a V-shaped recovery relied on the assumption that the economy would open up almost as quickly as…
‘No fair basis’ for canceling presidential debate, says Scott Atlas
White House coronavirus task force member Dr Scott Atlas said during a Tuesday interview with The Spectator there was ‘no…
Donald Trump is a medieval king
What the hell are we all going to talk about when he’s gone? That’s the barely disguised fear of wonks and analysts,…
The curious case of the man who caught COVID twice
Does catching the SARS-CoV-2 virus give us immunity from further infection by the virus or can we catch it a…
How strict will the new Covid restrictions be?
I have a few points to make about the new three tier system to be announced today for restricting our…
Portrait of the week
Home Coronavirus was on the increase. At the beginning of the week, Sunday 4 October, total deaths (within 28 days…
