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The world is in the grip of a lethal virus for which no vaccine or reliable treatment exists. In this country (along with countless others), the population is being held in a form of collective house arrest. In such circumstances, how miserable should we be? Or, to be more precise, how much more miserable than … Read more
Beyonce’s mother Tina Lawson takes a walk down memory lane as she shares glammed up throwback and precious baby photo By Sameer Suri For Dailymail.com Published: 22:36 BST, 28 April 2020 | Updated: 22:36 BST, 28 April 2020 Beyonce’s mother Tina Lawson posted a smoldering throwback snap to her Instagram page this Tuesday. In the … Read more
How mortifying to be complimented by a representative of the totalitarian regime now in the global dock for its conduct during the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet that is where our Government finds itself. Last week, the long-serving Chinese ambassador to London, Liu Xiaoming, said that the UK was a ‘model’ for other nations in maintaining a … Read more
The Government’s decision to extend the lockdown for a further three weeks has, unsurprisingly, intensified the complaint that ‘shutting down the economy will cost more lives than the coronavirus’ — or, in the words of President Trump, that the ‘cure may be worse than the disease’. The argument, in essence, is this: recessions kill. Intuitively, … Read more
This wasn’t supposed to happen. The British people have responded to a draconian lockdown — the Government-directed measure to stamp out coronavirus infection — with good humour and fortitude. Not only that, we have been significantly more observant of the rules than most other nations in similar lockdowns. Saturday’s Daily Mail reported a poll conducted … Read more
Only a certain type engages in professional point-scoring in the midst of a pandemic. But Sir Paul Nurse, the Nobel prize-winning scientist, seems to fit that bill. On Saturday, in a lengthy interview for the Times, the geneticist and former president of the Royal Society laid into Boris Johnson for what he described as a … Read more
The founder of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong, invented a term for ‘reactionaries’ in the West who made threats against his regime. He called them ‘paper tigers’ — the ancient Chinese word is zhilaohu. What Mao (whose vast portrait still looms over Beijing’s Tiananmen Square) meant was that we, to use an equally … Read more
As so often in her 68-year reign, the Queen gets it right. In her statement to the country (and the Commonwealth) last week on meeting the challenge of the coronavirus, the monarch did not once use the word ‘war’. There was just the suggestive phrase ‘I am reminded that our nation’s history has been forged … Read more
#Fattenthecurve trends as self-isolation brings over-indulgence – with Nigella Lawson revealing she’s eating a 250g bar of chocolate daily while holed up at home Nigella Lawson, 60, shared that she’s indulging in chocolate while self-isolating TV cook said she was eating 250g – a sharing-sized bar of choc – every evening Many agreed they were … Read more
Boris Johnson looks shattered. The bags under his eyes have bags of their own. This is unsurprising: he is where the buck stops in dealing with a public health crisis on a scale not seen in this country for generations. There is an additional reason, I suspect, for his mental turmoil. Inexorably, pressure is increasing … Read more