The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

Who was the first to wear a face mask?

From our UK edition

Mask crusader Who first wore a medical face mask? — The beaked outfits worn by plague doctors aside, the first doctor to wear a mask was the French abdominal surgeon Paul Berger in 1897. His mask, made from six layers of gauze, was inspired by the work of German microbiologist Carl Flugge, who had revealed what a good breeding ground saliva is for bacteria. Berger delivered a paper on masks to the Surgical Society of Paris in 1899, after which they were adopted in other countries. Penalty points How many penalties are scored in the European Football Championship and World Cup? — The overall scoring rate is 75%. In shootouts to decide the outcome of drawn matches, the first player to take a penalty has scored 80% of the time.

Thursday

The Spectator

It’s time to repair the damage done to the Covid generation’s education

From our UK edition

Aswitch of personnel at the Department of Health this week has brought a welcome change in the government’s tone. No longer, it seems, are ministers looking for reasons to delay the final stage of lifting lockdown restrictions. After 16 months of curtailments on liberty, 19 July is inked in as the day when society and the economy will finally throw off the shackles of Covid restrictions. The vaccines mean that the virus has been downgraded to the status of flu and pneumonia: nasty bugs, sometimes fatal, but not enough to warrant locking down society with all the immense collateral damage that entails. Yet as pubs, theatres and concert halls are allowed to fill again, it is important to remember that recovering from the pandemic is about more than just reopening society.

The Spectator

How many people are self-isolating when they’re told to?

From our UK edition

Isolated cases Large numbers of people are still being ordered to self-isolate in spite of having been vaccinated — 137,560 people were identified as close contacts of positive Covid cases through the Test and Trace system between 10 and 16 June. How well have they been adhering to the rules? — 79% say they have fully conformed. — 80% claimed they had had no contact with non-household members. — Of the 21% who didn’t adhere to the rules, 90% said they had left home during the period in which they were supposed to be isolating and 21% said they had had visitors to their home. — 41% said that isolating had had a negative effect on their wellbeing and mental health. — 28% reported that they had lost income.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Hancock out, Javid in and MoD papers found at a bus stop

From our UK edition

Home A lively game of hunt the issue followed the resignation of Matt Hancock as Secretary of State for Health after the Sun published a photograph of him kissing an aide, Gina Coladangelo, in May, in contravention of the law at the time on meeting indoors. The Prime Minister had tried to declare the matter ‘closed’ when Mr Hancock apologised, but some Tory MPs and many citizens were scandalised that the man in whose name coronavirus restrictions were made law (as statutory instruments) should exempt himself from their strictures. Mr and Mrs Hancock parted company. Questions were raised over how the security camera images reached the Sun, and how Ms Coladangelo had come to be appointed a non-executive director of the Department of Health.

The Spectator

Letters: We can’t build our way out of the housing crisis

From our UK edition

Excess demand Sir: Liam Halligan (‘The house mafia’, 26 June) treats us to an exposé of the shoddy products of the mass housebuilders. In the course of his article, however, he accepts as given that the solution to the housing crisis is to build more houses. The problem, however, is not one of deficient supply; it is a problem of excess demand, driven by ultra-low interest rates, kept so low for so long that the result has been an out-of-control housing boom. The young are being prevented from buying a house, not because housebuilders hoard land and refuse to build, but because buyers with access to eye-watering amounts of borrowed money have forced prices so high that they are now out of reach of most.

The Spectator

2513: Golden anniversary

From our UK edition

1A, on 23 17, 41 1D 8 in this 31 was 21D. This anniversary announcement consists of eleven words and includes an apostrophe. Each group of coloured squares reveals a name of one of the team, past or present. One blue square does double duty as it overlaps a green square too. Doc compiled the grid and three clues. Pabulum, Lavatch, Mr Magoo and Fieldfare shared the remainder between them. Across 9 Caesar’s journey through Iceni territory (4) 11 Undecided where to paraglide? (10, four words) 12 Swats young bee eludes (4) 14 Feel fond of fighting terrible Tom (6, two words) 16 Cartoon canine is present joy ultimately (5) 20 Men, indeed disciples, saying prayers (7) 21 US mountain or alp blessed by Persian poet?

The Spectator

2510: Prom session – solution

From our UK edition

Twelve symmetrically disposed unclued entries comprise three pairs of Spoonerisms (an anagram of the title): POURING RAIN/ROARING PAIN, FRYING PAN/PRYING FAN and COTTON REEL/ROTTEN KEEL.

Thursday

The Spectator

The virus threat has changed. Now Test and Trace must too

From our UK edition

Under what circumstances can a government restrict the liberty of the people? An example was given last year: in a public health emergency, to contain a pandemic which threatens to overrun the health service. Opinions may differ on how close we came to this in March 2020, but the question remains relevant now. Is there any realistic threat, today, of the NHS being overwhelmed? And if not, why is Test and Trace still pinging and confining thousands of people every day? When the Test and Trace system was introduced in May last year, it was supposed to prevent another lockdown.

The Spectator

Letters: Covid wouldn’t be the first virus to leak from a lab

From our UK edition

The good doctors Sir: Not all GPs are currently ‘Dr No’ (12 June). I phoned my surgery at 9.30 the other day, expecting to be told the doctor would phone me back in three days’ time, only to be given a face-to-face appointment for 11.30. Everything seemed normal there, apart from the face masks and open windows, and the doctor gave me nearly half an hour of her time. On another occasion when I requested an urgent consultation, I was told to go straight round, and the GP gave me 40 minutes. During the pandemic I have had one biopsy, two brain scans, two full-body scans, one chest scan, one heart scan, two eye scans and five dilation eye examinations, two x-rays, 16 blood tests, two urine tests, one ear syringe, and seen six consultants face-to-face.

The Spectator

How many countries have royal yachts?

From our UK edition

Royal waves Does any other country have a royal yacht? — The Queen of Denmark uses HDMY Dannebrog, a 260ft vessel built in 1932 to replace a paddle steamer of the same name. — The Dutch royal family own a 50ft 1950s yacht, De Groene Draeck, used only locally. — King Harald V of Norway has the use of HNoMY Norge, a 264ft vessel originally built for aircraft manufacturer Thomas Sopwith in 1937 and bought by the Norwegian people for their royal family after the second world war. It was restored following a serious fire in 1985. — King Mohammed VI of Morocco owns El Boughaz I, a 133ft yacht built for a private American owner in 1930 and originally called the Black Douglas. Covid death counts Is the UK still near the top of chart for Covid deaths?

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: A bombshell by-election, Scotland bans Mancunians and China staffs its space station

From our UK edition

Home The government contemplated its promised Planning Bill, blamed for contributing to the astonishing victory for the Liberal Democrat Sarah Green in the Chesham and Amersham by-election. She had gained 21,517 votes to transform the former Conservative majority of 16,223 into one of 8,028. Labour did worse than in any by-election before, securing only 622 votes, 1.6 per cent of the total. John Bercow, the former Speaker, joined the Labour party. Clayton Dubilier & Rice, an American private equity company, offered to buy Morrisons, the supermarket chain, for £5.5 billion. White working-class pupils in England have been failed by decades of neglect, the Education Select Committee found in a report.

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Freedom off, GB News on and the Queen’s tea with Biden

From our UK edition

Home The lifting of coronavirus restrictions was delayed from 21 June until 19 July, probably. The motive was to avoid a ‘significant resurgence’ in hospital admissions from the more contagious Delta variant of the virus. Public Health England declared that the Pfizer vaccine was 96 per cent effective in preventing hospitalisation, and the AstraZeneca vaccine was 92 per cent effective. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, appealed to the advantage of administering more vaccinations in the extra four weeks. Vaccinations would be made compulsory for care home staff working with older people in England. From 21 June, guests at a wedding would no longer be limited to 30, but there must be no indoor dancing; similar rules would apply to funeral wakes.

The Spectator

The real value of the Australia trade deal

From our UK edition

If Britain had been unable to agree a trade deal with Australia, then Brexit really would have been pointless. The country is one of our greatest allies and we have no rational reason to fear its beef, its sugar or its people. A free trade deal, aligned with visa-free travel, ought to have been the easiest deal to do. A deal is now done, phasing in these freedoms over 15 years. But even this sluggish pace is too fast for the protectionists who are popping up. Some have predicted that our beef farmers will be ruined and the countryside laid to waste as our markets are opened to competition. Many of the claims revolve around the fact that just under half of the beef produced in Australia comes from animals treated with growth hormones — a practice banned within the EU.

The Spectator

Letters: The case for an NHS card

From our UK edition

A new prescription Sir: It is maddening to see the British people being refused face-to-face GP appointments and subjected to a form of health rationing that should have ended decades ago (‘Dr No’, 12 June). In Australia a Labour government solved the problem in 1975 by separating payment for healthcare from provision of healthcare. The government gave everyone a Medicare card that could be presented to any accredited healthcare provider. The provider would be paid at a set rate per procedure and send the bill to the government. The result is a truly responsive healthcare system where the patient comes first, is treated with respect and courted by a competitive and creative ecosystem of public, private and third-sector providers. Supply meets demand, unlike in the UK.

The Spectator

Has Covid turned us into a nation of cyclists?

From our UK edition

On this day Would 19 July make a suitable ‘freedom day’ (assuming Covid restrictions are lifted even then)? There is an ominous warning from history. In 1919, 19 July was designated ‘Peace Day’, on which victory in the Great War would be celebrated with parades and banquets, three weeks after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. In London 20,000 service men and women marched on a seven-mile route past the temporary Cenotaph. Many demobbed servicemen felt aggrieved, however, that so much money was being spent on celebrations when many of them were out of work and still without the housing they had been promised.

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters: In defence of the National Trust

From our UK edition

Trust us Sir: I refute Charles Moore’s assertions (‘Broken Trust’, 5 June) that the National Trust frowns on local expertise, ignores its members and is prone to ideological zealotry. National Trust houses are historic treasures of national importance and we are very proud to care for them. Before the pandemic, the Trust was spending three times more on its houses than on coast and countryside. Covid has caused regrettable staff reductions, but we still have more curatorial posts than we did several years ago. This is hardly an organisation ‘attacking the very idea of country houses’. The report looking at links with slavery and colonialism was not driven by ideology, our intention was simply to acknowledge factually these aspects of history.