Ebola
Wild life
Africa ‘Ah, Africa,’ the French scientist sighed contentedly. This was 1995 and all around us was an Ebola epidemic…
Off the bat
Why are they responsible for so many of our recent viruses?
Diary
After I took the editor’s job at Today on Radio 4 nearly three years ago I had to answer to…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, having continued talks through the night in Brussels, announced that he had achieved a ‘special status’ for…
Portrait of the week
Home Two groups were launched, one in favour of remaining in the European Union and the other in favour of…
Barometer
Plagued by stigma The World Health Organisation told doctors to stop naming diseases after people, places and animals so as…
Long life
It is hard to know how a tragedy is going to move a person who is not directly affected by…
Letters
In defence of Oxfam Sir: Mary Wakefield rightly praises Médecins sans Frontières but makes many misinformed claims about Oxfam and…
Do I care about Liberia? Do you? Does Oxfam?
It’s strange how quickly we all forgot about Ebola. Speak for yourself, you might say — and I will. Until…
Ebola shakes
By some quirk of fate, just as news reached the papers that the Scottish nurse who had contracted Ebola while…
Filling in the blanks
‘So — take heart,’ said Alan Bennett, sending us out from his play, Cocktail Sticks, on a cheery note. The…
Barometer
Yeah, Bob, they know The answer to the rhetorical question posed by the Band Aid single, ‘Do they know it’s…
Portrait of the week
Home The last British combat troops turned over Camp Bastion in Helmand to Afghan forces and withdrew from Afghanistan after…
Barometer
What’s special about Rochester What is special about Rochester and Strood? — Rochester has the second oldest cathedral and school…
Portrait of the week
Home A hundred firemen could not prevent wooden cooling towers at Didcot B gas-fuelled power station in Oxfordshire from burning…
Ebola
It should perhaps be called Yambuku fever, since that was the village in Zaire (as it was then, now the…
Portrait of the week
Home Checks began at British airports for passengers who might have come from west Africa with Ebola fever (even though…
We should worry about Ebola in Africa, not here
Got Ebola yet? Early symptoms are very difficult to distinguish from either winter flu or, indeed, a particularly bad hangover.…
Long life
I don’t think I can remember a time when there have been so many scares about. They come at us…
How to beat Ebola
There is something depressing about the fact that it has taken a sick Spanish nurse to put Ebola back on…
Portrait of the week
Home Alan Henning, 47, a British volunteer aid worker taken captive in Syria by Islamic State, was murdered, and footage…
Barometer
How to deal with a troll In Scandinavian mythology, trolls were shady creatures who lived below ground and varied in…
What’s an army good for?
In the case of America, the answer is now practically everything – except perhaps winning wars
Portrait of the week
Home The Commons, having been specially recalled, passed, by 524 votes to 43, a motion supporting ‘the use of UK…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, visited New York for talks at the United Nations; he said Britain supported the…
