The Spectator, Author at The Spectator

Wednesday

May 27, 2020

Covid-19 update: Lockdown was not needed to tame Covid, says Norway

From our UK edition

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad. News and analysis Boris Johnson will face questions from senior MPs on the Liaison Committee amid the Dominic Cummings fallout. The PM is also expected to launch the UK’s track-and-trace programme this evening.Some 8.4 million employees have been furloughed, an increase of 400,000 in one week.Local lockdowns could be used to suppress future outbreaks of Covid-19 in the UK.Two different households will be able to mix outdoors next month, according to the Telegraph.The Covid drug remdesivir will be made available on the NHS.

Tuesday

May 26, 2020

The Spectator

Covid-19 update: Deaths fall to six-week low – but excess deaths still rising

From our UK edition

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad. News and analysis New ONS data shows the proportion of deaths involving Covid-19 continues to fall in all English regions, but the excess death toll has reached over 60,000. Details below.Tory MP Douglas Ross has resigned as a government minister over the Dominic Cummings row. Details below.Non-essential shops can reopen from 15 June. Barbecues and garden parties of up to ten people may also be allowed.One in four adults in the UK is not receiving their mental healthcare because of lockdown, according to Public Health England.

The Spectator

The big debate: is lockdown wrong?

Is lockdown a gargantuan mistake? That's the view of a growing number of thinkers and critics, including The Spectator’s very own Toby Young, who sees the political class's shutting down of entire populations as the most catastrophic policy error in history. Not every free thinker agrees, however. We asked Matt Labash, a contributing editor and a skeptic of lockdown skepticism, to challenge Toby over email. Matt Labash: Toby, thanks for stepping into the squared circle and joining me for a Pandemania tussle as a gentleman pugilist, sage, and co-equal partner in the search for truth. And also, as a fellow amateur epidemiologist, which there is no longer any shame in saying, since the pros have bunged things up so spectacularly.

Friday

May 22, 2020

The Spectator

Covid-19 update: UK debt jumps to 98 per cent of GDP

From our UK edition

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad. News and analysis The UK’s two metre social distancing rule could be relaxed according to medical director of Public Health England Yvonne Doyle, speaking at a science and technology committee hearing.The UK government borrowed £62.1 billion in April, sending net debt to a record 98 per cent of GDP. Details below.Foreigners and UK nationals will be fined £1,000 if they refuse to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival in Britain. They must share contact details with authorities and will then be subject to spot checks in homes by health officials and police.

Thursday

May 21, 2020

The Spectator

Letters: When is a sport not a sport?

From our UK edition

Save the children Sir: Your leading article is correct that the government should have evaluated the detriment caused by shutting schools, against the risk posed by Covid-19 (‘Class divide’, 16 May). This is not a glib trade-off between protecting lives and allowing children to go to school: the predicament foisted on young people will affect their future for decades. Exams were abruptly cancelled in March. This has left many schools dealing with apathetic individuals. The disparity between disadvantaged and affluent students is widening: middle-class schoolchildren are twice as likely to receive online tuition, and only 8 per cent of teachers in low-income communities report more than three-quarters of work being submitted, compared with 50 per cent in the private sector.

The Spectator

Which football teams have welcomed the strangest fake crowds?

From our UK edition

Unusual crowd FC Seoul apologised after using sex dolls to try to create some atmosphere as games went ahead behind closed doors because of coronavirus. It is not the first time a football club has got into trouble over a fake crowd. In 1992 Arsenal covered up works at the north end of its Highbury stadium with a large mural of spectators — but was forced to repaint it after complaints that it did not contain enough women or ethnic minorities. The Italian Serie C side Triestina also experimented in 2010 with a fake crowd of 10,000 virtual fans printed on vinyl sheeting. Covid worldwide Cases and deaths from Covid-19 have been declining in Britain and across Europe. But what about the world as a whole?

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Unemployment up, bathers banned and Corbyn’s brother arrested

From our UK edition

Home The United Kingdom seemed reluctant to come out of its lockdown. ‘We are likely to face a severe recession, the likes of which we haven’t seen,’ said Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Unemployment rose by 856,500 in April to 2.1 million. More than two million claims had been made for the grant scheme for self-employed people. The government was estimated to be paying ten million of the UK’s 27.5 million private-sector workers. At quiet railway stations, wardens supposedly trained in crowd control stood around talking to each other. Police in England and Wales issued 14,444 fixed penalty notices for breach of the coronavirus regulations up to 11 May; one person was fined nine times.

The Spectator

It’s time for ministers to stop hiding behind unpublished ‘scientific advice’

From our UK edition

From the outset of the Covid-19 crisis, the government was determined that scientists would play a central and highly visible role. The Prime Minister set the tone in his first daily press briefing, when he addressed the nation flanked by the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser. The message was clear: this was a government that cherished, not rejected, experts. They were not going to be kept in a back room, but would be there to explain the reasoning behind all policy-making. But this new relationship between government and scientific establishment risks going sour. Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College advised the government that Covid-19, if left unconfronted, could take 500,000 lives: almost as many as are killed each year by all other causes put together.

The Spectator

2455: Shadow boxing solution

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad. News and analysis The UK has approved a new antibody test for detecting Covid-19. Details below.It could take ‘many months’ to restart NHS services, according to experts from three leading think tanks. The news comes as A&E attendance fell to its lowest level on record.A study from the University of Manchester has claimed that 29% of the UK population may have already had Covid-19 by the end of April.Plans for the NHS Covid-19 tracing app have been leaked after officials put the documents online by mistake. Details below.

The Spectator

Reopening schools must be our first priority

From our UK edition

It would be a tragedy if one of the legacies of Covid-19 — a disease which hardly affects children physically — was a widening of the already broad gap in educational attainment between rich and poor. But sadly, the damage is already well under way. Back in March, Britain was the European country most keen to keep its schools open in the face of the then-burgeoning number of Covid-19 cases. Now it is the other way around. In Denmark, primary schools have been open for a month. This week, children began to return to class in Germany, France and the Netherlands. Next week, schools will start to reopen in Belgium. Yet in Britain, the earliest date we have been given for reopening schools is 1 June, and then only for some children in primary schools.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Europe’s lockdowns ease, England stays alert and Broadway stays shut

From our UK edition

Home The government changed its slogan from ‘Stay home, protect the NHS, save lives’ to ‘Stay alert, control the virus, save lives’. Authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland refused to adopt it. The day after a 13-minute televised speech to the nation by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, the government published a 50-page Recovery Strategy. A 14-day quarantine would bind anyone entering the country (with exceptions, such as people from France). Everyone should continue to work from home if possible, but workplaces ‘should be open’, apart from those required to be closed.

The Spectator

What would a perfectly socially-distanced UK look like?

From our UK edition

Safety first The government was criticised for its new coronavirus slogan, ‘Stay alert’. What are the most common safety slogans in use in workplaces?— ‘Safety is our number one priority’— ‘Safety is no accident’— ‘Take five and stay alive’— ‘The key to safety is in your hands’— ‘No safety, know pain’The word ‘alert’ doesn’t appear until number ten: ‘Stay alert, don’t get hurt’.Source: safetyrisk.

The Spectator

Letters: It’s not so easy to boycott Chinese goods

From our UK edition

Jobs for all Sir: Charles Bazlington championed Universal Basic Income in last week’s magazine (Letters, 9 May). It is welcome to see innovative ideas being discussed at a time of unprecedented economic crisis. Might I suggest that if we wish to empower citizens, not just pay them, we instead look to provide employment via a National Job Guarantee? A guaranteed job at the living wage backed by the state and administered by national and local government as well as the charity and private sectors. This crisis has proved that people need not only money but purpose, camaraderie with colleagues, and the pride of a ‘job done well’; they want to provide for their families and contribute to society. We have plenty of work that needs doing.

The Spectator

2454: 17 Across Solution

From our UK edition

The thirteen unclued lights are all breads, hence the puzzle’s real title at 17A. First prize Nicholas Grogan, Purley, SurreyRunners-up Clare Reynolds, London SE24; Mrs E.

Wednesday

May 13, 2020

The Spectator

Covid-19 update: A £516 billion deficit?

From our UK edition

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad. News and analysis A leaked Treasury report warns the UK could face a 1970s-style ‘sovereign debt crisis’ unless the Chancellor introduces new taxes, freezes public sector wages and ends the pensions triple lock. Details below.The UK economy contracted by 2% in Q1, the biggest drop since the financial crash.Self-employed workers can now apply for an income support grant of up to £7,500.Covid-19 hospital admissions are falling more slowly in the north of England than the rest of the country.