Politics

What we’ve seen is a progression where — after the remarkable efforts which got the rates right down across the country — we first saw very small outbreaks, then we’ve seen more localised outbreaks which have got larger over time, particularly in the cities. Now what we’re seeing is a rate of increase across the great majority of the country.  It’s going at different rates, but it is now increasing. And what we found is anywhere that was falling is now beginning to rise and then the rate of that rise continues in an upward direction.  This is not someone else’s problem, this is all of our a problem.  This graph

Dear Prime Minister, Chancellor, CMOs and Chief Scientific Adviser We are writing with the intention of providing constructive input into the choices with respect to the Covid-19 policy response. We also have several concerns regarding aspects of the existing policy choices that we wish to draw attention to. In summary, our view is that the existing policy path is inconsistent with the known risk-profile of Covid-19 and should be reconsidered. The unstated objective currently appears to be one of suppression of the virus, until such a time that a vaccine can be deployed. This objective is increasingly unfeasible (notwithstanding our more specific concerns regarding existing policies) and is leading to

The main Tory attack on Starmer since he became leader of the Labour party is that he is ‘too much of a lawyer’; dull and metropolitan. The problem with this line is that it complements the narrative Starmer is trying to build himself, namely that he is competent while Boris is not. As such, it is worse than ineffective as a strategy — it is actually counterproductive. What is strangest about the continued use of the lawyer strategy is that there is an alternative attack on Starmer staring the Tories in the face, one they have not yet touched. When Sir Keir ran to be Jeremy Corbyn’s successor, he rolled

Health Secretary Matt Hancock was one of the two big political guests of the day on the Andrew Marr show. The government is preparing to introduce a new system of fines and restrictions to combat a winter wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Andrew Marr asked about the government’s strategy if the rate of re-infection did not come down over future weeks and months: MH: We face a choice… If everybody follows the rules, then we can avoid further national lockdowns, but we of course have to be prepared to take further action if that’s what’s necessary. AM: So we might be facing a further national lockdown if people don’t obey

Will the current cycle – lockdown; open up; eat out; restrictions; lockdown – go on forever? In their handling of coronavirus, Boris Johnson and his colleagues have become increasingly media-responsive, fear-bound, model-sensitive, sound-byte producing, u-turn prone and, quite frankly, embarrassing to all who believed the UK to be a beacon of rational thought. Has the Government lost the plot? We are not sure if it ever had one. This week at its annual meeting, the British Medical Association lamented the Government’s lack of grip on the public health during the current pandemic and proposed a ‘near-elimination’ strategy. Put simply, this involves what the BMA called ‘sacrifice in the short-term to

Could Boris do a Harold Wilson? Over the years there has been much speculation about the sudden resignation of Wilson as prime minister less than a year after he had settled, apparently for good, the momentous question of Britain’s future in Europe via the 1975 referendum. Was he forced out by MI5? Had he already got wind of his early-onset Alzheimer’s? Was there some other hidden personal scandal that would have emerged had he not stood down? The truth was rather more bland: it seems more likely that Wilson had just lost his appetite for the grind of the job. In a resignation minute circulated to all cabinet ministers he