The Spectator

Today

28 May 2020

Yesterday

27 May 2020
The Spectator

Covid-19 update: Lockdown was not needed to tame Covid, says Norway

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad. News and analysis Boris Johnson will face questions from senior MPs on the Liaison Committee amid the Dominic Cummings fallout. The PM is also expected to launch the UK’s track-and-trace programme this evening.Some 8.4 million employees have been furloughed, an increase of 400,000 in one week.Local lockdowns could be used to suppress future outbreaks of Covid-19 in the UK.Two different households will be able to mix outdoors next month, according to the Telegraph.The Covid drug remdesivir will be made available on the NHS.

Covid-19 update: Lockdown was not needed to tame Covid, says Norway

Tuesday

26 May 2020
The Spectator

Covid-19 update: Deaths fall to six-week low – but excess deaths still rising

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad.News and analysis New ONS data shows the proportion of deaths involving Covid-19 continues to fall in all English regions, but the excess death toll has reached over 60,000. Details below.Tory MP Douglas Ross has resigned as a government minister over the Dominic Cummings row. Details below.Non-essential shops can reopen from 15 June. Barbecues and garden parties of up to ten people may also be allowed.One in four adults in the UK is not receiving their mental healthcare because of lockdown, according to Public Health England.

Covid-19 update: Deaths fall to six-week low – but excess deaths still rising

Friday

22 May 2020
The Spectator

Covid-19 update: UK debt jumps to 98 per cent of GDP

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad. News and analysis  The UK’s two metre social distancing rule could be relaxed according to medical director of Public Health England Yvonne Doyle, speaking at a science and technology committee hearing.The UK government borrowed £62.1 billion in April, sending net debt to a record 98 per cent of GDP. Details below.Foreigners and UK nationals will be fined £1,000 if they refuse to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival in Britain. They must share contact details with authorities and will then be subject to spot checks in homes by health officials and police.

Covid-19 update: UK debt jumps to 98 per cent of GDP

Thursday

21 May 2020
The Spectator

Letters: When is a sport not a sport?

Save the children Sir: Your leading article is correct that the government should have evaluated the detriment caused by shutting schools, against the risk posed by Covid-19 (‘Class divide’, 16 May). This is not a glib trade-off between protecting lives and allowing children to go to school: the predicament foisted on young people will affect their future for decades. Exams were abruptly cancelled in March. This has left many schools dealing with apathetic individuals. The disparity between disadvantaged and affluent students is widening: middle-class schoolchildren are twice as likely to receive online tuition, and only 8 per cent of teachers in low-income communities report more than three-quarters of work being submitted, compared with 50 per cent in the private sector.

Letters: When is a sport not a sport?

Wednesday

20 May 2020
The Spectator

Covid-19 update: Cancer deaths, A&E and the lockdown effect

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad. News and analysis  Slogan update. After ‘Stay alert’ comes: ‘Keep our distance, wash our hands, think of others and play our part. All together.’Delays to cancer surgery will lead to almost 5,000 deaths, according to the Institute of Cancer Research. Analysis from Fraser Nelson below.The UK has sold government bonds with a negative interest rate for the first time ever: £3.75 billion worth, maturing in July 2023 with an average yield of -0.003%.Cambridge University said it will switch to online lectures in the next academic year.

Covid-19 update: Cancer deaths, A&E and the lockdown effect

Tuesday

19 May 2020
The Spectator

Covid-19 update: How many furloughed jobs will come back?

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad. News and analysis  The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the UK rose to 2.1 million in April in the biggest jump since records began in 1971.One in three private sector workers now has some of their wages paid for by the government.The official number of UK coronavirus deaths is now more than 44,000. The number of care home deaths is down 31% on the previous week, according to ONS data.Primary school pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 may return to school from 1 June. However children from other year groups may no longer receive online teaching as staff will be spread out across smaller classes.

Covid-19 update: How many furloughed jobs will come back?

Monday

18 May 2020
The Spectator

Covid-19 update: Measuring the damage of lockdown school closures

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad. News and analysis Children from better-off families spend 30% more time on home learning than those from poorer families, according to new research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.Missing a third of a year of school could cut pupils’ lifetime earnings by 4%, a German study says. More below.More than 500,000 people have accessed a suicide prevention course over the past three weeks, according to a suicide prevention charity.Trains in England are running at increased frequency and stations have put in place crowd control measures.

Covid-19 update: Measuring the damage of lockdown school closures

Friday

15 May 2020
The Spectator

Covid-19 update: Boris Johnson declares war on obesity to tackle the virus

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad. News and analysis Boris Johnson has declared war on fat as an increasing body of research suggests a link between obesity and Covid-19 deaths. James Forsyth has the details below.Some 20% of Londoners are thought to have caught Covid-19 and now less than 24 people a day in the capital are being infected with the virus, a Cambridge model predicts. This chimes with testing data below.The model also suggests that one in five children and one in nine adults – 6.5 million in total – are understood to have contracted the virus.

Covid-19 update: Boris Johnson declares war on obesity to tackle the virus

Thursday

14 May 2020
The Spectator

Covid-19 update: Will antibody tests be a gamechanger?

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad. News and analysis  The UK has approved a new antibody test for detecting Covid-19. Details below.It could take ‘many months’ to restart NHS services, according to experts from three leading think tanks. The news comes as A&E attendance fell to its lowest level on record.A study from the University of Manchester has claimed that 29% of the UK population may have already had Covid-19 by the end of April.Plans for the NHS Covid-19 tracing app have been leaked after officials put the documents online by mistake. Details below.

Covid-19 update: Will antibody tests be a gamechanger?

Wednesday

13 May 2020
The Spectator

Covid-19 update: A £516 billion deficit?

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad. News and analysis A leaked Treasury report warns the UK could face a 1970s-style ‘sovereign debt crisis’ unless the Chancellor introduces new taxes, freezes public sector wages and ends the pensions triple lock. Details below.The UK economy contracted by 2% in Q1, the biggest drop since the financial crash.Self-employed workers can now apply for an income support grant of up to £7,500.Covid-19 hospital admissions are falling more slowly in the north of England than the rest of the country.The true number of care home deaths could be as high as 22,000, double the official figure, according to research from the LSE.

Covid-19 update: A £516 billion deficit?

Sunday

10 May 2020
The Spectator

Full Text: Prime Minister’s ‘roadmap’ to ease lockdown

Here is the full transcript of the Prime Minister's address to the nation: 'It is now almost two months since the people of this country began to put up with restrictions on their freedom – your freedom – of a kind that we have never seen before in peace or war. And you have shown the good sense to support those rules overwhelmingly. You have put up with all the hardships of that programme of social distancing. Because you understand that as things stand, and as the experience of every other country has shown, it’s the only way to defeat the coronavirus – the most vicious threat this country has faced in my lifetime. And though the death toll has been tragic, and the suffering immense. And though we grieve for all those we have lost.

Full Text: Prime Minister’s ‘roadmap’ to ease lockdown

Friday

8 May 2020
The Spectator

Covid-19 update: Is lockdown working?

The Spectator brings you the latest insight, news and research from the front line. Sign up here to receive this briefing daily by email, and stay abreast of developments both at home and abroad. News and analysis  Britain will remain in lockdown until June at the earliest, according to theTimes. Meanwhile, No. 10 has been dampening hopes of a significant easing by Boris Johnson on Sunday.Germany has seen its Covid-19 cases rise the most in a week, as it prepares to reopen hotels, restaurants and non-essential shops.A leaked Whitehall report warned three years ago of the serious impact of a pandemic on care homes. Matt Hancock has responded: ‘Everything that was recommended was done.’The NHS has started to build a second contact tracing app after concerns were raised over the first.

Covid-19 update: Is lockdown working?

Thursday

7 May 2020
The Spectator

Track and trace should not be our only exit strategy

The concept of the state tracking our every movement is anathema to this magazine and, we assume, to its liberal former editor now resident in Downing Street. Nevertheless, such is the impasse over coronavirus that it is right the government should attempt to exit lockdown via the application of a voluntary ‘track and trace’ on mobile phones, trials of which began on the Isle of Wight this week. Track and trace appears to have worked for Asia so, given what’s at stake, it’s reasonable to try it here. South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam — the countries which employed tracking and tracing from an early date — appear to have dealt with Covid-19 the most effectively, minimising the impact on their economics and societies. Meanwhile, those countries which have relied entirely on lockdown to flatten the curve — Italy, Spain, the US and Britain — have the highest death tolls.

Track and trace should not be our only exit strategy
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