coronavirus
Cuomo’s COVID carnage
Have we reached peak Cuomo? I think that the climacteric came when the media was aflutter with rumors that the…
How to save our nightlife after coronavirus
The one certainty about crisis is that it makes bad situations worse. Anyone working in restaurants, pubs, cafes and clubs…
Has coronavirus killed the Democrats’ healthcare referendum?
Late last December, Democrats were heading into the homestretch of their presidential primary optimistic that although they faced an internal…
How Number 10 should illustrate its Covid alert formula
Following the Prime Minister’s address last night, Twitter was ablaze with mockery of the equation the government will use to…
How government can learn from disasters
Soon enough, Congress will hold hearings to investigate the federal response to the Wuhan virus pandemic. It is almost a…
Two big gaps in Boris Johnson's lockdown statement
There were three messages in Boris Johnson’s address to the nation, and quite a lot of important gaps. The messages…
The R-number – and the danger of false certainty
Not much about Boris Johnson’s Sunday night television address was clear. The one definite new measure – one which will…
New York has mismanaged COVID-19 from top to bottom
Andrew Cuomo is having the time of his life. His approval ratings are through the roof and he’s being talked…
In the Covid era, age isn’t just a number
When I told my seven-year-old granddaughter, over Zoom, how much I missed being with her, I added: ‘Maybe it won’t…
Hugging China hasn’t done us any favours
Like nearly everything named a ‘scandal’, ‘affair’ or given the post-fix ‘gate’, almost nobody now remembers the Dalai Lama affair.…
Even the owl in my garden is self-isolating
My tawny owl has been self-isolating. I say mine but in truth she chose the nest box in my neighbour’s…
Cicero would have been quick to end the lockdown
The Prime Minister recently quoted Cicero’s famous dictum salus populi suprema lex esto, translating it as ‘Let the health (salus)…
Track and trace should not be our only exit strategy
The concept of the state tracking our every movement is anathema to this magazine and, we assume, to its liberal…
Professor Lockdown’s spell has been broken
I originally had Neil Ferguson down as a kind of Henry Kissinger figure. The professor of mathematical biology at Imperial…
Lockdown can be overwhelming for those with autism
Autism and lockdown are a challenging mix
We have had enough warnings about China
Mathias Döpfner is that still rare thing — an outspoken German. I have known him slightly for many years and…
How many books are in the average home?
Admitting defeat 8 May is celebrated as VE Day, but it is also a date which marks a significant English…
Portrait of the week: Neil Ferguson quits, Rory Stewart drops out and Boris names his baby
Home The government put its mind to the puzzle of how to get people back to work. Draft advice was…
We know everything – and nothing – about Covid
There’s no such thing as ‘the science’ – but facts are emerging from the Covid fog
Lockdown used to be the norm for new mothers
I laughed when my Spanish midwife mentioned in passing that in Latin American countries they have a custom for new…
This pandemic has put politics on fast-forward
‘The normal grease of politics is not there,’ bemoans one sociable cabinet minister. Certainly, the whispered conversations in corridors that…
Writing obituaries can be strangely life-affirming
There’s nothing morbid about writing obituaries
Fake news is spreading faster than the virus
The uncontainable spread of fake coronavirus news
Ten reasons to end the lockdown now
Writing in this magazine a month ago, I applauded the government’s stated aim of trying to follow the science in…
Boris Johnson should be wary of comparisons with Churchill
Despite his carefully-crafted bumbling image, Boris Johnson is anything but daft. When vying to replace the apparently rootless Tory moderniser…
