Charles Moore Charles Moore

Good news for the Jewish Chronicle

Sir Robbie Gibb (Getty Images)

During the second world war, the collection of the National Gallery had to be hidden in a mountain in Wales to prevent bomb damage. Its director, Kenneth Clark, eventually realised, however, that this was bad for morale, and so made a single but striking exception. Starting with Rembrandt’s ‘Portrait of Margaretha Trip’, which the gallery had just acquired, he ensured that each month one famous painting would be on display in an alcove at the top of the main staircase. ‘Picture of the Month’ proved tremendously popular, almost a pilgrimage site. In the time of Covid-19, the gallery is closed once more, but now the danger is not to paintings but to people. Obviously this has been partly remedied by the virtual tours offered by the gallery (and by many other collections), but wouldn’t it be nice to find a way of achieving some direct human contact? How about selling lottery tickets in which the winners — up to, say, six people who do not have to distance from one another — would be given a guided tour of the gallery by its learned director, Gabriele Finaldi? This could be live-streamed, so that watching millions could enjoy it. It would be a highbrow version of Camelot’s old cry: ‘It could be you.’

The coronavirus came to Britain a little later than to many comparable European countries. We are emerging from the worst of it correspondingly later. I am told that ministers and officials do not yet have a systematic way of studying the successes and failures of those chronologically ahead of us. Surely there should be one. How is Denmark’s school opening going? Is the low-key Swedish approach to the virus working, or New Zealand’s sudden reopening? Is Italy, from whose disaster we tried to learn on the way in, making the right moves to head out? Which states in the USA are doing the right thing?

It was extremely odd that the owners of the Jewish Chronicle reacted to the virus by announcing the liquidation of the paper.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in