covid
Fast and furious: America Fantastica, by Tim O’Brien, reviewed
As the avalanche of lies issuing from the White House morphs into the pandemic, Covid becomes in an engine of justice in this rollicking satire on Trumpworld
Why was an erroneous graph used to justify the second lockdown?
Two stories are emerging from the Covid Inquiry: one that it wants to tell and one that it does not.…
Double trouble
Naomi Klein had got used to being confused with Naomi Wolf. Then Covid hit and it was no longer a joke
Real life
‘Achoo!’ was the first thing the girl sitting next to me on the plane said as I took my seat…
Pouria Hadjibagheri and the UK’s abandoned open data revolution
With a new year comes the New Year’s Honours and I’m struck to see an MBE given to Pouria Hadjibagheri. He’s the…
Britain needs more honesty about unemployment
Is low unemployment causing us more problems than we realise? The suggestion might seem absurd, offensive even. It’s reminiscent of…
Low life
Our neighbour Michael is a keen and knowledgable attender of vides-greniers, the equivalent of our car-boot sales. His focus is…
Vaccines disguised the errors of our lockdown policy
Liz Truss’s statement that she would never authorise another lockdown and The Spectator’s interview with Rishi Sunak have triggered a…
What Rishi Sunak gets wrong about lockdown
Rishi Sunak presents an alarming picture of what happened during lockdown in last week’s Spectator interview – one echoed by…
We’re at pandemic levels of death. Why is no one talking about it?
At the peak of the lockdowns, thousands were dying every week. Newspaper front pages demanded action. But in the latest…
Farewell, St Anthony Fauci
So farewell, Anthony Fauci, the unfortunate face of America’s pandemic response. Well, not so unfortunate – the doctor is stepping…
Tony Blair’s Covid grift
Have we yet seen the end of Covid restrictions? It is tempting to think so. For many people, Covid and…
Has the lab leak theory really been disproved?
The BBC carried a story this week with the headline ‘Covid origin studies say evidence points to Wuhan market’. Bizarrely…
China’s increasingly authoritarian Covid pass
A Chinese health app, developed to enforce the Communist party’s draconian Covid-19 restrictions, is being repurposed to tighten political control…
Is there a new Covid wave – and do we need to worry?
Is Covid back on the rise? The ONS survey shows increasing prevalence in England and Northern Ireland, with ‘uncertain’ results…
On the offensive
Just how edgy and dangerous is Ricky Gervais? There is no one more edgy and dangerous, we learn from no…
Welcome to the age of post-Covid nihilism
Washington, DC Amid the recent orgy of violence across America, it was the carjackings that finally got me. Lost amid all…
What Boris needs to do to survive
Most people date the beginning of Boris Johnson’s current woes to the start of the partygate scandal, and especially to…
The World Health Organisation has lost all credibility
Let’s be honest: is there anyone out there who has faith in the ability of the World Health Organisation (WHO)…
New York has become the city that never eats
Is there anything more extraordinary than dining in New York City? Whetheryou’re sitting down for the Michelin star experience of…
Could we be heading for a second Covid recession?
The political story for the moment is the cost of living crisis. But by the end of the year could…
Should we worry about the BA.2 Omicron variant?
When the Omicron variant (now categorised as BA.1) swept across the world at the end of last year it was…
Real life
The lodger looked at me blankly and pronounced wearily, as though intoning something he was tired of parroting, that I…
Will we ever recover?
Jay Elwes 2 April 2022 9:00 am
Modern British history can be divided into two parts: before Covid and after. That is the central pillar of this…