Politics

Earlier this month Boris Johnson was in hospital fighting for his life, this morning he was there for the arrival of new life: his partner Carrie Symonds gave birth to a healthy baby boy this morning. David Cameron took paternity leave when his daughter Florence was born in 2010 and Tony Blair took a ‘paternity holiday’ when his son Leo arrived in 2000. But the timing of this birth, in the middle of a national crisis, undoubtedly complicates the question of Prime Ministerial paternity leave. This is particularly the case given that Boris Johnson’s rapid return to Downing Street post-hospitalisation was driven, in part, by frustration that things weren’t happening

Those ministers hoping Boris Johnson’s return to work will herald an imminent easing of lockdown measures face an uphill struggle. With the Prime Minister meeting colleagues this week to solicit advice before deciding which restrictions can be eased, news from Germany is likely to bolster those arguing for a more cautious approach. Only a week after its easing began with the reopening of shops and schools, Germany may have to re-tighten its lockdown because the virus is spreading too fast. The country’s virus reproduction rate – measuring how many the average person with Covid-19 infects – has increased to 1.0. Any value above 1.0 is seen as leading to an

For those of you not following the minutiae of the Liberal Democrat party at the moment, which I imagine is almost all of you, Ed Davey is leading many members of his brigade, MPs and councillors, to fast for Ramadan. Your first question here should be: why exactly? Has Ed Davey and many other Lib Dems converted to Islam? Well, no. They appear to be doing it as some sort of solidarity gesture with British Muslims. In the tweets and videos on the subject, they keep referring to ‘showing Muslims they aren’t alone’ in what they are doing. This is a bad idea for a lot of reasons and instructive

Dominic Raab: Vaccine ‘not likely’ this year The Foreign Secretary was in charge of the government’s media round this morning. Yesterday, hospital figures showed the UK’s official death toll for those displaying symptoms of Covid-19 had now passed 20,000. Acknowledging this ‘grim milestone’, Dominic Raab told Sophy Ridge that the government was ‘driving forward’ in its efforts to combat the virus, but said that previous hopes for a vaccine being ready as early as the autumn were misplaced: DR: We’re looking at the possibility of a vaccine. That’s not likely to come to fruition this year, but it could be important if we get multiple waves of coronavirus globally down

Yep, the end is in sight, courtesy of other countries organising the practicalities for the return to some sort of normal life – shopping and schooling, as in Germany. That means Britain will, like it or not, be playing catchup sooner rather than later. And when this oddly dreamlike existence is over, it’s going to feel like that bit of the Sleeping Beauty when the court wakes up after its hundred year sleep, yawning and blinking and eyeing each other rather shyly. It’s partly the warm weather; being obliged to stay away from work when it’s sunny, with quite a lot of your wages paid by the government (if like