Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
From our UK edition
Sweden has been the world’s Covid-19 outlier, pursuing social distancing but rejecting mandatory lockdown. Schools, bars and restaurants are open – albeit with strong voluntary social distancing compliance and streets that often look almost as empty as Britain’s. Has this been enough? Sweden’s public health agency has now published a study of its R number,
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The Prime Minister will say today that ‘the route back to full normality requires a vaccine’. But given that most estimates put this at a year or two away (if possible at all), does that mean we will be under lockdown until then?
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17 min listen
From our UK edition
A pandemic will claim lives in two ways: directly, through those it infects, and indirectly as others who need healthcare either do not seek it or are denied it. Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, has always made this argument – which is partly why, for so long, he was not seeking a lockdown. The
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15 min listen
The Prime Minister has kicked off his return to Downing Street with a speech to the nation, setting out the next steps in the battle against coronavirus.
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With James Turner, CEO of the Sutton Trust, and Fraser Nelson. Presented by Katy Balls.
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40 min listen
This week, the Spectator commemorates its 10,000th edition. On the podcast, Cindy Yu speaks to David Butterfield and Fraser Nelson about the magazine’s two centuries of history, finding out about how the publication started, discussing whether it is still the same now as it was originally intended, and hearing about what David calls its ‘industrial
From our UK edition
Sometimes The Spectator goes to press very shortly after election results have been announced. In those instances, Morten Morland, our cover artist, draws versions to cover for any outcome. These have since been framed and hung at Old Queen Street in the lavatories. For our 10,000th issue, we’re sharing some of them. The last UK general
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24 min listen
The NHS has been transformed to deal with the coronavirus threat, and it’s thus far holding up, despite fears over capacity. But what has been the effect on the rest of the health service, and its usual patients? Fraser Nelson speaks to Alastair McLellan, Editor of the Health Service Journal.
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15 min listen
Behind the scenes, the Cabinet is split on whether or not to lift the lockdown. The hawks such as Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, and Alok Sharma, are concerned about the economic and human costs of a sustained lockdown; the doves, such as Matt Hancock, worry that lifting the lockdown too soon risks a second wave.
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18 min listen
On the Andrew Marr Show today, Sir Jeremy Farrar, a senior scientific advisor on the government’s scientific advisory group Sage, warned that the UK is on track to become one of the worst hit countries in Europe by coronavirus. So has the British government been too slow in its response?
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16 min listen
The government is trying to find out the human cost of the coronavirus lockdown, with one model seen by ministers estimating 150,000 ‘avoidable deaths’. So could the cure to the pandemic be worse than the disease itself?
From our UK edition
While coronavirus ravages the world, a political battle is also being waged with China resisting suggestions that it’s to blame. I have just spoken about this with Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, in a conference call with journalists from eight other European countries. I tried to gauge the mood in the White House
From our UK edition
12 min listen
One of the biggest decisions in the government’s approach to tackling coronavirus is when and how to lift the lockdown. But this is also one of the most divisive issues within Cabinet. With the Prime Minister not yet out of hospital, this will be one of the things that Dominic Raab can’t decide in his
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12 min listen
Boris Johnson was moved to intensive care on Monday night as his condition worsened. What do we know of the situation, and where does government go from here?
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16 min listen
With Boris Johnson currently hospitalised with no sign of release any time soon, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is the ‘designated survivor’. But at today’s press conference, he admitted he hadn’t spoken to Boris Johnson since Saturday. So who is running the government?
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12 min listen
Tonight, the Prime Minister is admitted to hospital for tests; the Queen gives a statement to the nation; and Catherine Calderwood steps down as Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer after having been found to flout her own social distancing rules.
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16 min listen
Unlike the UK and most of Europe, Sweden hasn’t locked down its population. What explains its difference in approach? Plus, what does the government’s coronavirus exit strategy look like?
From our UK edition
17 min listen
From our UK edition
There are now signs of the growth in UK Covid cases slowing, according to Professor Neil Ferguson, who is emerging as the de facto chief strategist of the government response to the crisis. No government data has been issued to confirm this trend but Ferguson has access to other real-time data through SAGE, the medical emergency committee. He
