How generous is Rishi’s furlough extension?
12 min listen
Today the Chancellor announced that the furlough scheme will be extended until October. Along with a raft of other tweaks, just how generous is this extension?
Katy Balls
Katy Balls is The Spectator’s former political editor.
Tuesday
Monday
Boris Johnson says businesses need to become ‘Covid-secure’
After Boris Johnson was accused by opposition leaders of providing mixed messages over his roadmap for easing lockdown, the Prime Minister attempted for the third time in 24 hours to explain what the new government guidelines mean in practice. Johnson used the daily press conference – alongside chief medical officer Chris Whitty and chief scientific
Keir Starmer’s canny coronavirus critique
13 min listen
Following 24 hours of confusion over the government’s advice on the next phase of lockdown, Keir Starmer is making his debut as Labour leader with a statement to be broadcast on the BBC. On the podcast, Katy Balls and James Forsyth analyse his approach of constructive criticism.
Sunday
Boris sets out the shape of an exit strategy
18 min listen
It’s been six weeks since the Prime Minister first sat down to give the statement to the British public that began lockdown. Today, as James Forsyth first reported in The Spectator two weeks ago, Boris Johnson announced that the lockdown isn’t over yet. From Wednesday onwards, the one form of exercise a day rule will be removed
Boris Johnson sets out coronavirus roadmap for easing lockdown
Boris Johnson used his address to the nation on Sunday night to confirm that there will be no immediate end to lockdown. The Prime Minister described coronavirus as the ‘most vicious threat this country has faced’ in his lifetime and praised the public for adhering to social distancing – describing such measures as the only
Saturday
Tory nerves ahead of the Prime Minister’s lockdown address
When Boris Johnson addresses the nation on Sunday night to unveil his roadmap for easing lockdown in the coming weeks and months, it isn’t just the public he needs to bring with him – he also needs to convince his parliamentary party. Over the past week there has been a shift in mood in the
Friday
The government’s black-box approach to lockdown
17 min listen
What is Boris Johnson going to say in his speech on Sunday? Wales’s first minister Mark Drakeford gave us a clue this morning when he announced that the Welsh lockdown will continue for at least another three weeks. Meanwhile, No. 10 has been trying to dampen speculation that the PM will announce substantial relaxations to the lockdown.
Thursday
Why is the ‘R’ number going back up?
11 min listen
In his evidence given to MPs today, Professor John Edmonds, one of the government’s scientists on Sage, said he thought that the ‘R’ number had gone up in recent days. So why has this happened, despite the last three weeks of lockdown?
Wednesday
Keir Starmer made life difficult for Boris Johnson at PMQs
17 min listen
It’s the first head to head between Boris Johnson and the new Leader of the Opposition. Unlike more normal times, Boris couldn’t rely on a large parliamentary presence of Tory MPs to booster him from the green benches. Instead, as James Forsyth explains on the podcast with Katy Balls and John Connolly, Keir Starmer actually
Is it ‘speculation’ to say the UK has the most deaths in Europe?
It’s a grim news week for the government with Dominic Raab announcing in Tuesday’s press conference that the UK coronavirus death toll is now at 29,427 (ONS figures suggest the number of deaths is as high as 32,313). This means that according to official figures from each country, the UK has overtaken Italy in fatalities and currently has the highest
Why Neil Ferguson’s position was untenable
16 min listen
The leading epidemiologist from Imperial College London, who has been influential in the government’s decision to impose a lockdown, has resigned. The Telegraph broke the story on Tuesday evening that Neil Ferguson had been visited at least twice by his lover. On the podcast, Cindy Yu discusses with James Forsyth and Katy Balls whether he
Tuesday
Is the UK really the worst hit country in Europe?
11 min listen
The British coronavirus death toll exceeds 30,000, which is the worst in Europe. But is it too soon to tell whether the UK has really been the worst hit on the continent?
Monday
How the government plans to respond to ‘vaccine nationalism’
Is the only route back to normality through a coronavirus vaccine? That’s what the Prime Minister will suggest today when he addresses the virtual Coronavirus Global Response International Pledging Conference. With the conference aimed at driving forward a collective global effort for a vaccine, Boris Johnson will say only a mass-produced vaccine will truly defeat
Could a return to normality come before a vaccine?
18 min listen
The Prime Minister will say today that ‘the route back to full normality requires a vaccine’. But given that most estimates put this at a year or two away (if possible at all), does that mean we will be under lockdown until then?
Saturday
Is a Brexit extension inevitable?
16 min listen
Friday
How Matt Hancock hit his target
17 min listen
Matt Hancock’s good news day
After weeks of speculation over whether Matt Hancock would meet his target of 100,000 daily tests by the end of the month, the Health Secretary today had good news. He told viewers that not only had the target been met – it had been done with over 20,000 tests to spare: 122,346 tests in total were
Why Covid cuts are off the cards
How will the UK recover after lockdown? Although social distancing is expected to continue for months, talk has turned to how the government will deal with its coronavirus debts. The Treasury is seeking to raise £180 billion over the next three months to meet its pledges – putting the UK on course to see its budget deficit rise
Thursday
How the ‘R’ number dictates Boris’s exit strategy
11 min listen
In the Prime Minister’s first press conference since coming back to work, it was all about the ‘R’ number. On the podcast, Cindy, James, and Katy discuss just what this number means for our way out of the lockdown.
The way out: what is the Prime Minister’s exit strategy?
37 min listen
James Forsyth writes in this week’s cover piece that the government ‘is going to go South Korean on the virus’. In other words, test, track, and trace. But as James points out, this raises the obvious question of why we weren’t doing this already. On the podcast, Cindy Yu talks to James and the Economist‘s Adrian