coronavirus
‘Politics exacts a very high price’: an interview with Michael Gove
Michael Gove on levelling up, Plan B and the price of politics
The PowerPoint plot against Joe Biden
If the revolution won’t be televised, the counter-revolution will at least be on PowerPoint. A series of 36 corporate-style PowerPoint…
Lockdown, protests, parties and Matt Hancock’s kiss
January The United Kingdom found itself in possession of a trade agreement with the EU. Coronavirus restrictions were tightened. The…
Omicron is now Britain’s dominant Covid strain
If you test positive for Covid now in Britain, the odds are that it’s Omicron: it’s now the dominant strain…
Boris is in deep trouble
This evening feels eerily familiar to anyone who remembers the meaningful votes of Theresa May’s premiership. The Tory rebellion on…
The ethics of the Omicron travel ban
The Omicron variant had not even been named when the government’s reflexes sprung into almost involuntary reaction last month, and…
Vaccine passports may prove a pointless distraction from Omicron
Sajid Javid ditched vaccine passports when he became Health Secretary but he now has to bring them in again, albeit…
Should we be scared of the Omicron variant?
Why is the government so scared of the Omicron variant? So far, most of the evidence we have for transmissibility…
Punishing the unvaccinated threatens everyone's liberty
How should we treat the unvaccinated? Should we stop them from participating in normal life? Castigate them in the media?…
Boris takes his colleagues for fools
Is Boris Johnson really deploying a ‘diversionary tactic’ in announcing vaccine passports on the day he has had to perform…
What’s the evidence for England’s vaccine passports?
The Prime Minister has just announced Plan B. Working from home has been all but mandated and large venues —…
Will the public take Plan B seriously?
After holding strong for two weeks, fears over the Omicron variant look set to change the government’s course on Covid…
Boris throws his staff under the bus
What possible lines of defence could the Prime Minister come up with after the leaking of footage showing his Downing…
Watch: No. 10 staff joking about Downing Street Christmas party
Downing Street have spent the week trying to play down reports of a secret No. 10 party last Christmas when the rest of…
Omicron: cause for hope?
It will be weeks before we know just how worried we should be about Omicron — but the first indications seem…
Unless Omicron changes everything, Covid is on the way out
There are good reasons to be concerned about the Omicron variant. For starters, this strain has 50 mutations, twice as…
Boris's booster bet
Boris Johnson is relying heavily on the booster programme to protect Britain from any additional threat posed by the Omicron…
The economic impact of the latest Covid restrictions
We don’t yet know whether the Omicron variant will drastically accelerate the spread of coronavirus, or whether it will circumvent…
The tyranny of Boris Johnson’s mask mandate
Today the government has said that for the next three weeks it will be mandatory to wear masks in shops…
Scotland's 70-page dossier finds no evidence for vaccine passports
Nicola Sturgeon wants to extend vaccine passports in Scotland, and today her government released a 70-page document purporting to show…
The vaccine cheer is gone
I am 45, which means I’ve now had my third Covid vaccine. The experience of getting that injection crystallises a…
Eighteen months of inflation is not 'transitory'
The big central banks have been insisting for months now that the rise in inflation is temporary, and will fade…
Portrait of the week: Queen stays home, Boris rubbishes recycling and pay freeze thaws
Home The Queen will not attend the COP26 meeting in Glasgow next week; she had resumed light duties after having…
Why lockdown sceptics like me lost the argument
I’m optimistic that the government won’t implement ‘Plan B’, let alone impose another lockdown — but not because sceptics like…
Why did we decide that Covid was over?
Look, I don’t know much epidemiology. Can’t pretend to. So what follows is, necessarily, a personal finger to the wind.…
