Society

Thursday

Lucy Vickery

Spectator competition winners: Love in the Time of Covid-19

In Competition No. 3143, a nod to García Márquez’s 1985 novel, you were invited to submit a short story entitled ‘Love in the Time of Covid-19’ in the magical realist style. Magic realism has been contaminated somewhat by overuse and is in any case not to everyone’s taste. But if done well it can be wondrous and transporting, and it lends itself well to trauma narratives. As the late poet and translator Alastair Reid wrote of Márquez: ‘What … [he] is showing us all the time is the humanising power of the imagination. In all his writing, the imagination is no mere whimsy, nor a Latin-American eccentricity: it is a

The Spectator

2449: stateless solution

The unclued lights, when preceded by a US state, form MISSISSIPPI 11, CALIFORNIA 22, VIRGINIA 27, HAWAII 37, RHODE ISLAND 40, OREGON 10, KENTUCKY 14 and INDIANA 7D. First prize David Simmonds, Crayford, DartfordRunners-up Fran Morrison, London SW15; Andrew Herbert, Brooke, Norfolk

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

At least some of the Chancellor’s promises are actually working

The phrase ‘sharing economy’ was coined a decade or so ago to describe collaborative new business models made possible by the internet, from Airbnb and Uber to crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending and skill bartering sites. It was about ways of monetising assets, circulating capital and earning casual livings that boosted economic activity after the ‘great recession’ and it will be a hive of creativity in the next recovery — even though its partner is the ‘gig economy’ whose insecurity has left so many people in hardship now. But I want to propose a more urgent purpose for the same phrase: to describe how every business should share the impact of the

Susan Hill Susan Hill

The online museums you’ll never want to leave

‘We don’t talk about the war.’ Yet those of my generation and older reference it daily. The coronavirus is an unseen enemy but for every-one not in military service, so were our past enemies — Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia — invisible mainly because the mainland was never physically invaded by any of them, so the only sightings were on the newsreels. All we can see of the virus is that horrible furry ball with round-ended spikes sticking out of it, which is what it looks like under a microscope, but this is still a war, the same as any other. We were not actually quarantined then but travel was both

Sam Leith Sam Leith

Coronavirus has made amateur mathematicians of us all

‘What is the point of learning maths? When do you ever actually need it? How does it ever affect your life?’ That’s the frequent complaint of my school-age children, labouring over their times tables and number bonds. It was my complaint as I struggled to tell median from mean, or sine from cosine. Well. Now we have a nation and a world bewitched and terrified in equal measure by a ground-level demonstration of what an exponential function does. Our entire society is being shaped for a generation by that elegant, predictable, horrifyingly steepening curve. One shred of comfort in this catastrophe is the thought that no journalist will ever again

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

If anything is ‘essential’ right now, it’s cigarettes

The owners of my local grocery shop, a mile or so from my house, very kindly sell me cigarettes in blocks of 200 at a time — and they have also delivered them to my house during this lockdown. This is useful for several reasons. Most importantly it aids my self-isolation programme. But it also minimises the risk of me being caught in the shop by a lurking Matt Hancock or perhaps a chief constable of the police, anxious to punish people who may be purchasing goods which they do not consider ‘essential’. If anything is essential during this time of compulsory boredom, it is cigarettes and alcohol. I have

William Cook

I’m walking round Britain – in my back garden

What’s the best way to keep in shape during the lockdown? That’s the First World problem I’ve been using to distract me during these strange, distressing times. My wife and teenage children are doing online workouts, but that looks far too tiring. Instead, I’m walking round Britain — in my back garden. I got the idea from a walking trail called Walk the Planets, in Ruislip Woods, not far from where I live. It’s a round trip of about two miles, which doubles as a tour of the solar system. At a scale of five billion to one, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are barely a hundred yards apart (on

Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland

My Japanese toilet has made me a lockdown hero

Compared with every other household chore, progress in bum-wiping has been glacially slow. It’s only in living memory that schools and institutions stopped using something called Izal, a box of medicated toilet wipes similar in texture to greaseproof paper, and thus spectacularly ill-suited to its purpose. It was characteristic of the Britain of my childhood, where things were made gratuitously unpleasant on purpose, since to do anything nice was seen as effeminate. The Muslim world is far ahead of us here. In most Islamic countries a toilet cubicle comes with a bum gun — a kind of handheld spray. Yet in the supposedly enlightened Anglophone world we think dry paper

John Connolly John Connolly

‘It’s my job to challenge the government’: Andy Burnham interviewed

Less than three weeks after Andy Burnham was elected mayor of Greater Manchester three years ago, the city was hit by the terrorist attack that claimed 22 lives at an Ariana Grande concert. Now Burnham is facing a very different sort of crisis as corona-virus sweeps through the north-west. Manchester is about two weeks behind London in the epidemic curve. We had first met in his office to talk about the city and its politics. But that was at the start of last month — my questions, and his answers, were quickly overtaken by events. When we speak again, this time over Skype, much has changed. He has swapped the

Toby Young Toby Young

Britain needs Boris, the extraordinary man I’ve known for 35 years

As I write, Boris Johnson is in intensive care at St Thomas’ Hospital, battling with coronavirus. For someone with such an unwavering belief in his own destiny, this must be profoundly difficult. He is a man who’s beaten the odds over and over: to become mayor of London in a Labour city, to lead the Leave campaign to victory in the teeth of overwhelming opposition, to become prime minister in spite of all his personal baggage, and then to win the largest Conservative majority since 1987. Here is a man who cannot stare into the jaws of defeat without grabbing hold of victory with both hands. Yet the odds of

Aidan Hartley

Our exile in NW1

Laikipia The sweetest sound to me now is the dawn chorus of birdsong at home on the farm. I lay awake in bed and listened, as a light rain fell on the coconut thatch above me. When I walked out into the garden the three dogs burst out of the house to go off exploring. While I made coffee in the kitchen, our cats Omar and Bernini rubbed against my legs until I fed them and then in walked Long John Silver the orphaned calf, looking for a bowl of milk. I headed out to the crush where the herds were coming in to be dipped. Cattle were mooing, the

Professor Paul Dolan

What is the true cost of the coronavirus lockdown?

Covid-19 is a public health crisis. At least, this is what the doctors, epidemiologists and clinicians who command the air waves are telling us. They’re right, of course. But it isn’t only that: it’s an economic and social crisis too – and yet social scientists have hardly been heard from. They don’t seem to be influencing policy that much either. When the UK government says its decisions are guided by the science, they appear to be referring only to the science of transmission of the virus and its direct consequences for health. And even health is narrowly defined here: as mortality risks in the next few months. The only graphs

Wednesday

John Connolly John Connolly

Has the UK ignored its own expert advice on facemasks?

The use of facemasks in the fight against coronavirus has become a contentious topic in recent weeks, as different countries have debated how much difference they make when worn by the general public. After flirting with the idea of recommending the widespread use of masks, the WHO this week stuck with its guidance, which says that only healthcare workers, people who are sick and showing symptoms, and people caring for the potentially infected should wear masks. The UK has taken a more hard-line approach. Since the beginning of the outbreak, it has said that even sick people showing symptoms shouldn’t wear masks at home, as they are most effective when

Professor Karol Sikora

How to find a safe way out of the coronavirus lockdown

We are in a big mess, there is no doubt. We’re battling a deadly virus, the Prime Minister is in hospital and the country is in lockdown. A less optimistic person could argue that all is lost. The constant howling from our media does little to help – portraying death and destruction nightly on our screens is just too harrowing for many to watch. Reporting daily numbers is necessary, but there should be a much greater focus on trends as any schoolboy mathematician will tell you. New infections are levelling off. It is clear that we are at the plateau phase of incidence with the numbers bouncing around a bit.

Brendan Sharp

The tragedy waiting to happen in our care homes

My grandmother, who has suffered from a major stroke, is bed ridden and barely compos mentis. She no longer has the cognitive ability to enjoy the relative intimacy of video calls on WhatsApp from well-wishers, or the simple pleasure of a Skype call with close family and friends. During this period of social distancing, her loneliness – now that visitors are not permitted in the home to prevent infection – is heart-breaking. A comforting hug or kiss on the cheek, in the brief windows when she is awake, is out of the question. Even a carer tucking her in at night could be fatal. Naturally, those with vulnerable relatives like

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

A note to fellow lockdown lethargics

Strange times, these. Dull and unsettling in equal measure. Much of life feels as though it is stuck in some interminable holding pattern, waiting for permission to land and move on. The days drag, even for those of us accustomed to working from home. But the city is a dreary place, for now, stripped of most of its conveniences and opportunities.  Worse still, there are professional problems. This is a game in which you’re always supposed to have a view and the hotter it is the better. Incentives favour certainty; if in doubt double down on your lack of doubt. Bets should not be hedged; everything is a triumph or

Oliver Johnson

How to read coronavirus graphs

Dominic Cummings placed a job advert back in January calling for data scientists, statisticians and modellers. Since then, the coronavirus epidemic has made all of us ‘weirdos and misfits’ in our growing obsession with data. Everyone now has opinions on the latest coronavirus statistics, whether it’s South Korean test numbers, German fatality rates or Italian regional differences. The latest data visualisations get shared widely across the internet. But how should we make sense of them? To a professional mathematician like me who gives lectures about probability and uncertainty, the rise of the epidemic modellers is somewhat bewildering. Compared to the problems I normally work on, modelling the epidemic is both incredibly

Dr Seth Berkley

We need a ‘Big Science’ approach for developing corona vaccines

As more and more countries expand their testing for Covid-19, from testing for diagnosis and frontline medical staff to the worried well, the surge in demand for test kits has led to global shortages that have left some countries racing to secure supplies. If the world doesn’t get organised, the same will be true of Covid-19 vaccines. More than 62 candidate vaccines are currently in development, but without global coordination, there is a danger that we could end up facing immediate shortages and a vaccine that is merely the first to be approved, rather than the most effective or safest. We need to set aside nationalistic and financial interests when

Sunday

Peter Hunt

A rare speech from an isolated Queen

Once upon a time, a speech by the Queen had the capacity to surprise. Only a handful of her trusted advisors would have been privy to its content prior to its delivery. Elizabeth, a Head of State who has thrived for decades by remaining above the political fray, didn’t use to indulge in extensive pre-briefing. Such tactics were the preserve of those who relied on the ballot box – not an accident of birth, for their position. This status quo is yet another victim of Covid-19. As we settled down to watch the monarch momentarily delay an episode of the Antiques Roadshow, we had a sense of what she would

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Footballers’ response to coronavirus: self-delusion or cheek?

Last week I was put on furlough from my job, which was – in a way – quite exciting, invoking images of sturdy sailors on shore leave (my grandfather, who was a sailor, had his own approach to this; jump ship from a vessel in port if he fancied a change). Anyway, the largest bit of my present work is to review art exhibitions and since there aren’t any exhibitions to review, and there’s a limit to the number of times you can exhort people to have a look at the Hermitage online, I could kind of see the point. But now I’m thinking that I was actually dreadfully short