Well, I don’t know about you, but events over the past few days have left me feeling very depressed. I think it’s a combination of things: revisiting the Madeleine McCann case; the shaming Prince Andrew saga; the spiralling cost — both human and economic — of coronavirus; the fact that our children’s education is being … Read more
Those of us who have followed the twists and turns of the Madeleine McCann story had all but given up hope of the long-running inquiry into her disappearance leading anywhere. So yesterday’s announcement by the police came as a bolt from the blue. So much time has passed and so many leads have come to … Read more
There is a scene in George A. Romero’s 1978 cult zombie classic Dawn Of The Dead, where survivors arrive at a post-apocalyptic shopping mall to discover it teeming with the infected, stumbling around closed shops, blindly riding the escalators in a grimly comedic ballet of gore. ‘But what are they all doing?’ asks the heroine. … Read more
Citizens rejoice! The Government has decreed that from June 15, Britain will once again be a nation of shopkeepers. Non-essential retail such as mobile phone shops and fashion stores (and car showrooms, which are allowed to open from next Monday) are to fling wide their doors to a grateful public who, it is hoped, will … Read more
Workers on a vineyard inside the Duke of Northumberland’s Albury Estate lit hundreds of candles to stop frost destroying new buds as temperatures neared freezing early this morning. As temperatures dropped to almost freezing across the Albury Vineyard, more than 800 candles were lit among the budding fruit in an effort to prevent frosts … Read more
When it comes to the latest Government guidelines on the (very) gradual lifting of lockdown, it seems people fall into one of two camps. You’re either a Pooja from Solihull, or a Ryan from Surrey. Pooja Jalota is the pharmacist who on Monday, in deeply censorious tones, accused Boris Johnson of being ‘too vague’ and … Read more
With each day that passes, with each new grim death toll, we learn a little bit more about the nature of this ghastly virus. This week in particular, statistics have come to light showing that obesity is emerging as one of the biggest risk factors for Covid-19. According to data released by the NHS, being … Read more
First of all: how are you both? I know no one ever asks, so I thought it best just to check. After all, it must be so hard for you, stuck in Los Angeles in rented accommodation with only Ellen DeGeneres and Beyonce for company. We all know how stressful moving house can be, and … Read more
We may not be fully conscious of it yet, but lockdown is, in many respects, one giant, unprecedented social experiment. No one has any real idea how it will influence the economy, although very few disagree that, short term, it will be almost cataclysmic. Equally seismic are the social repercussions. For young people, who are … Read more
Under normal circumstances the fact that the Prime Minister rose miraculously from his sickbed on Easter Sunday might have felt rather too much like the work of an overimaginative spin doctor. But given everything, I don’t think many people will begrudge Boris Johnson his Messiah moment. The Prime Minister being so dangerously ill with Covid-19 … Read more