Viewers of a solidly unflashy American TV business show might have thought they’d tuned in to the wrong channel last Friday. With a straight face, the anchor reported that bookmakers were offering odds of 100-1 that Meghan Markle would be elected US President in 2024. Perhaps the item was intended as light relief amid the … Read more
When challenged on the decisions that they have taken in the past few months, ministers invariably answer: ‘All our decisions are based on the science’. That makes it sound as though the decisions are based on black and white facts, but they are not. For our scientists are working in a fast-changing environment, where at … Read more
Covid-19 is a plague affecting millions of people. In the UK, everyone knows or knows of someone who has died and our lives have dramatically changed for the foreseeable future. This dreadful crisis has brought out the best in the British – while Americans angrily demonstrate for their right to get infected because many value … Read more
This evening, like every Thursday since coronavirus blighted the land, people will gather in the streets, on their doorsteps, in their gardens, to pay tribute to the brave workers of the NHS. We love our NHS. We lionise our NHS. We clap, and ring bells and bang pots and let off fireworks for the NHS … Read more
When this pandemic emerged, Government ministers were understandably fearful that the NHS could be overwhelmed by the sheer number of infected patients. But in the weeks since the Prime Minister made his first sombre statement to the nation on the threat posed by coronavirus, this rational concern has morphed into an all-consuming tunnel vision about … Read more
First of all: how are you both? I know no one ever asks, so I thought it best just to check. After all, it must be so hard for you, stuck in Los Angeles in rented accommodation with only Ellen DeGeneres and Beyonce for company. We all know how stressful moving house can be, and … Read more