coronavirus

Will making face masks compulsory help us get back to normal?

14 July 2020 4:00 pm

The government will announce today that from 24 July face coverings will be mandatory in shops and supermarkets. Those who…

Coronavirus has exposed the EU’s greatest flaw

12 July 2020 4:00 pm

Politics begins and ends with sovereignty: the duty and right to make the legitimate final decision. We have seen this…

When is a democracy not a democracy?

11 July 2020 9:00 am

Displaying the pristine neutrality that has made her such a popular figure, Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis apparently tweeted the following last…

The Spanish approach to face masks

11 July 2020 9:00 am

We self-critical British should never forget that other nations are pretty crazy too. I write this from Andalusia, Spain; and…

The young are the most vulnerable to the Covid crash

11 July 2020 9:00 am

Coronavirus is deadlier for the old than the young. But for the young, it is economically devastating. A third of…

We’re spending lockdown defending a family of mice

11 July 2020 9:00 am

 Austin My first Independence Day in the US for many years. Usually I’d be in Paris avoiding Texas heat. My…

How dangerous are cricket balls?

11 July 2020 9:00 am

The Prime Minister recently blamed the delay in the resumption of amateur cricket on the ball itself, calling it ‘a…

Portrait of the week: Sunak’s statement, shop closures and a hoo-ha over Boohoo

11 July 2020 9:00 am

Home Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced measures intended to stimulate the economy. Under a £111 million scheme,…

How strong was the scientific advice behind lockdown?

11 July 2020 9:00 am

How strong was the scientific advice behind the lockdown?

Keir Starmer needs to find his own Guilty Men

6 July 2020 5:49 pm

This is a week of bittersweet anniversaries for the Labour party. It is now 72 years since Clement Attlee’s government…

The pandemic’s invisible victims

4 July 2020 9:00 am

I sometimes pick up some food at Tesco for an 86-year-old pensioner who lives a few streets over. At the…

Culture is going underground: meet the rebel army

4 July 2020 9:00 am

Leaf Arbuthnot and Igor Toronyi-Lalic on the new cultural rebels

Dear Mary: Will my lockdown appearance be too off-putting for the office?

4 July 2020 9:00 am

Q. Just before Covid, we moved out of London with the intention of having a quiet life in the country.…

How did the UK’s pandemic preparations go so wrong?

4 July 2020 9:00 am

How was Britain so ill-prepared for a pandemic?

Mission impossible: Boris’s attempt to rewire the British government

4 July 2020 9:00 am

Covid has revealed what is wrong with Whitehall

The bluff and bluster of Boris’s bland boy Brexiteers

4 July 2020 9:00 am

From the balcony where I take my daily exercise there is a view of the commercial centre of London that…

Portrait of the week: Boris does press-ups, pubs reopen and Leicester locks down

4 July 2020 9:00 am

Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said he was ‘as fit as a butcher’s dog’ and did press-ups to prove…

If Boris wants to channel Roosevelt, he should end lockdown

4 July 2020 9:00 am

If Boris wants to channel Roosevelt, he should end lockdown

Leicester has a history of lockdowns

4 July 2020 9:00 am

Leicester lockdowns Leicester was forced to impose the first local lockdown, in response to a reported surge in cases of…

Does Boris's 'new deal' offer anything new?

1 July 2020 1:34 am

Today Boris Johnson launched his ‘new deal’ for Britain – billed as an economic recovery plan to follow the Covid…

Should we be afraid of this new swine flu?

30 June 2020 10:13 pm

Imagine if a vaccine for Covid-19 was approved tomorrow, and that within weeks we had all been vaccinated. Would life…

How worried should we be about a second wave?

30 June 2020 2:05 am

Now that we are two months past the peak of the UK coronavirus epidemic, many fear the emergence of a…

Who watches the broadcast watchdog?

27 June 2020 9:00 am

At the beginning of April, I became so frustrated by the supine coverage of the government’s response to the coronavirus…

Political pandering won’t prevent Covid deaths

27 June 2020 9:00 am

When the media have gone large on the conclusions of an overpoweringly tedious report, one of the biggest favours a…

Portrait of the week: Lockdown eases, debt rises and three killed in Reading

27 June 2020 9:00 am

Home Pubs in England would be allowed to reopen for table service from 4 July, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister,…