News and Opinion

A leading vaccinologist says it is ‘very difficult to predict’ when a coronavirus vaccine will be ready for the wider population. https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1251791687573176320?s=20 Sarah Gilbert from the University of Oxford appeared on the Andrew Marr show to explain the process of immunising against coronavirus. With the pandemic responsible for 15,464 confirmed deaths in the UK, as […]

Michael Gove has issued a staunch defence of the government’s response to coronavirus. The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster was questioned by Sophy Ridge on the many perceived failures of government, following the publication of a damning report by the Times which accuses prime minister Boris Johnson of skipping five COBRA meetings as the […]

A new devastating report exposes how the government originally dismissed concerns about the coronavirus, and Boris Johnson failed to take action until it was too late. The Sunday Times report demonstrates Boris Johnson’s failure to take Covid-19 seriously until the end of February, and points out that when China first alerted the World Health Organisation […]

Author NIALL GRIFFITHS continues his occasional series of adventures across the continent, remembering the guardian angel who kept him out of trouble on a trip to Croatia We should all have our own personal Nened to appear at our shoulders in times of need, like the spectral ‘Third Man’ who would materialise at the peripherals […]

Michael Gove has confirmed that Boris Johnson missed five Cobra meetings about coronavirus, but insisted this was because the prime minister was not required. Asked about the Sunday Times report on the government’s handling of coronavirus, Gove told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge: ‘There are meetings across government, some which are chaired by the health secretary, […]

There is an undeniable pressure not to undermine the government’s response to the coronavirus. But LIZ GERARD argues we have a duty to question it. We are not at war. We cannot defeat the ‘enemy’ with grit or determination or by ‘fighting’ (and certainly not on the beaches). Walls do not have ears. This invader […]

Workers at an NHS trust have been told not to tweet about coronavirus matters including the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing. Staff at the mental health trust for Norfolk and Suffolk were issued with guidance for recommended use of social media on Friday evening urged them to avoid commenting on the topics […]

The Liberal Democrats have called for a £29-a-day ‘frontline service reward’ for those helping to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, just like the bonus paid to military personnel on active duty. The frontline service reward would be for the duration of the lockdown, the party said, adding that all key workers should also receive a coronavirus […]

Germany has been held up as an example of where Europe got the response to tackling the coronavirus right, despite having a bigger population than the United Kingdom. The European country has declared its coronavirus outbreak under control, as it prepares to take its first steps out of lockdown next week, with a partial reopening […]

The government has announced ‘a very large consignment’ of personal protective equipment (PPE) – including 400,000 gowns – is due to arrive in the UK from Turkey on Sunday. Communities secretary Robert Jenrick announced the consignment of 84 tonnes of PPE at a Downing Street briefing on Saturday afternoon. He said this shipment included 400,000 […]

Longtime Londoner WILL SELF on finding ghosts from the past in the locked-down capital Set in 1888, but published in 1890, in serial form in Lippincott’s Magazine, The Sign of Four is Arthur Conan Doyle’s second novel featuring Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective and intravenous drug addict. The plot has numerous convolutions – but the horse-drawn […]

Ministers are said to be split over whether to lift the coronavirus lockdown at the start of May or to wait until the summer. A number of ministers in cabinet are said to be frustrated the opportunity to debate the matter has been put on hold, with two strategies being considered at the top of […]

There is currently no evidence to support the belief that people who have recovered from coronavirus then have immunity, the World Health Organisation has said. Senior WHO epidemiologists warned despite the hopes governments across the world have piled on antibody tests, there is no proof those who have been infected cannot be infected again. Speaking […]

ALLIS MOSS tells the fascinating story of the offshore hideaway where the Yugoslav leader entertained celebrities and statesmen alike. Josip Broz Tito drives a cart on Brioni, 1969. His passengers are actress Sophia Loren, front left, and her husband, film producer Carlo Ponti and Tito’s wife Jovanka Broz. Picture: Getty Images – Credit: Bettmann Archive […]

Government ministers have been accused of losing control in the last few weeks. EMILIE ANCELIN says that Boris Johnson and his cabinet would benefit from looking to French president Emmanuel Macron for some tips in how to regain authority. Three weeks after putting the whole of France into lockdown, Emmanuel Macron gave his third address […]

Tory backbenchers and former ministers has said the government needs to provide ‘strategic clarity’ over the coronavirus lockdown, with Iain Duncan Smith claiming ministers are treating the public ‘like children’. Former Tory leader Duncan Smith told The Times: ‘The government is going to have to accept and admit we are coming out of lockdown. ‘We […]

MICHAEL WHITE asks will we all rise again after the Covid-19 pandemic? Even well-read atheists know that Easter’s message of resurrection and redemption is at the heart of Christian faith and must be hoping that the Boris Johnson who emerged soberly from his near-death experience at St Thomas’ Hospital is a better man than the […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY examines the life of Simone de Beauvoir, author of The Second Sex. Maybe it was a feeling of release after so long under a repressive regime, a sense of shackles coming off, but the years after the liberation of France were prolific ones for Simone de Beauvoir. Her novel Le Sang des autres […]

A leading Liberal Democrat politician is calling for the deadline for applications for the EU settlement scheme to be extended after figures showed the number dropped by 100,000 in March. Home secretary Priti Patel set a deadline date of June 2021 for EU citizens living in the UK to apply for settled status to remain […]

London mayor Sadiq Khan has taken aim at the government’s decision not to extend the Brexit transition period, branding it as ‘putting dogma ahead of the national interest’. The mayor told listeners on the James O’Brien radio show that Number 10 was putting ideology ahead of practicality at a time of national emergency. He said: […]

The UK volunteers helping with a potential coronavirus vaccine could receive their first dose within a week, researchers say. Experts at the University of Oxford are working hard to develop a vaccine that could prevent people from getting Covid-19. They hope to have a candidate ready for clinical trials soon, and as part of their […]

PETER TRUDGILL on the names of English counties and US states. It makes perfectly good sense that the names of many of the counties of England should have their origins in the dominant language of the country, English. Rather obviously, Norfolk was originally two English words, north folk, and similarly Suffolk derives from south folk. […]

Britain will face ‘further waves’ of coronavirus because the government was ‘too slow’ to act, a leading physician has warned. Professor Anthony Costello, of University College London’s Institute for Global Health, told a committee of MPs that the ‘harsh reality’ is that ‘we were too slow with a number of things’. ‘If we’re going to […]

A Tory councillor has been suspended from the party after allegedly creating a hot cross bun decorated with a ‘Nazi swastika’. The Snapchat photograph which the Tory councillor claims was photoshopped. Photograph: Twitter. – Credit: Archant Lee Mason, former Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, was suspended from the Conservatives after posting a Snapchat image of a […]

Anti-Brexit campaigners Led By Donkeys and lobbying body The Doctors’ Association have turned their attention to the government’s response to the coronavirus, projecting a desperate message from NHS workers on to the Houses of Parliament. Frontline staff – from a final year medical student to senior doctors – have pleaded in the footage for Boris […]

A specialist in palliative care has accused the government of throwing care home residents ‘under the bus’ over the coronavirus. The panel on a previous episode of BBC Question Time practice social distancing. Photograph: BBC. – Credit: Archant Care homes have been the subject of much debate over the last few days after managers revealed […]

The virus crisis has accelerated the tech revolution to breakneck speed, says JAMES BALL. We need to be careful we are not hurtling towards dystopia.

Pro-EU group March for Change has launched a petition calling for an inquiry in the government’s handling of the coronavirus. Group director Mike Galsworthy reacted to claims that Number 10 was aware the country was ill-prepared for an epidemic as far back as 2016 by launching the online petition yesterday. In it, Galsworthy has called […]