covid
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…
Was Covid beginning to peak before the second lockdown?
‘I don’t think that word means what you think it means,’ says the Spaniard Inigo Montoya in the film The…
Low life
At dawn, starving, I drove to a commercial laboratory in the town centre where five phials of blood were taken…
Landmark Danish study shows face masks have no significant effect
Do face masks work? Earlier this year, the UK government decided that masks could play a significant role in stopping…
An ego the size of Botswana
It’s touch and go whether the theatre will survive this latest assault. Some venues have pushed back their entire programme…
Cream of the crop
Theatres can open if they want to. That’s the current position. The only factor keeping a playhouse dark is a…
Dear Mary
Q. I would welcome your advice on a tricky family matter. For my 70th birthday earlier this year my brother…
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…
Solitary drinking
Thanks to a combination of night-time curfews, social-distancing rules, pubs closing, restaurants failing, the ‘rule of six’ and compulsory mask-wearing,…
Portrait of the Week
Home After ten days spent trying to persuade Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, to accede to the city…
Letters
State of the Union Sir: Writing in a week that an opinion poll shows 58 per cent support for independence…
Diary
Here’s a tip. When the Foreign Office advises against going somewhere, hop on the next plane. The mandarins have advised…
The madness of crowds
To beat the virus, the government is asking us to keep to simple hands-face-space guidelines. When these are not followed,…
Fuming
London’s war on motorists isn’t helping anybody
Dear Mary
Q. A year ago we sent out 150 save-the-date notices for our wedding this December. We are still going ahead,…
The Covid challenge
The Covid problem lies as much in the delayed action of the virus as in the virus itself. Since symptoms…
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…
Diary
The weird thing about Donald Trump’s handling of Covid-19, alongside all the other weird things, is that he has always…
A conspiracy against art
Southwark Playhouse has revived an American show, The Last Five Years, whose run was cancelled in March. In advance, I…
Barometer
Information overload The government’s plan to put ‘Covid wardens’ on the streets to enforce the new rule against more than…
Bag drop
How I gave up an unnecessary habit
Letters
Referendum risk Sir: James Forsyth’s excellent analysis (‘To save the Union, negotiate independence’, 5 September) has one flaw: it is…
Certainty is overrated
I have decided to divorce my wife after 31 years on scientific grounds. Though perfectly happy, on reassessing my original…
Barometer
Pink and twisted Bernard Matthews, which stopped making Turkey Twizzlers in 2005 after criticism about unhealthy school dinners from Jamie…
