Why Dominic Cummings should be asked whether he believes Covid-19 leaked from a Chinese lab

“Only last year,” said Dominic Cummings at his press conference, “I wrote explicitly about the danger of coronaviruses.” Except he didn’t....

The biggest test of the government will be whether it can prevent a second Covid-19 wave

Individual parts of the country could face new targeted lockdowns in the event of future outbreaks of the novel coronavirus, or, as the Daily Mail...

Quietly, austerity has already become the response to coronavirus devastation

Doctors and other frontline workers fear it. Top economists warn against it. Boris Johnson vows not to do it. But austerity as an economic response...

All the ways I knew how to flirt have disappeared overnight during lockdown

A few weeks into lockdown, a friend of mine commented that the whole thing had the feeling of an interminable and dull teenage summer holiday. “I...

How the Cummings debacle reveals the government’s greatest weaknesses and deadliest enemies

The most important political commodity in a democratic society is goodwill. It acts as the equivalent of a party’s immune system: it doesn’t make...

Helen Lewis’s Diary: Political gaslighting, learning how to write in American, and linking the past with the present

It’s odd that a play from 1938 has given the present moment one of its most useful concepts. In Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight, a husband makes his...

Sars, Ebola and Mers were near misses that led us to believe Covid-19 would pass us by too

Angela Merkel’s chancellorship “runs and runs” as her ratings surge and lockdown is eased in Germany

Germany has eased its lockdown, so last week I exercised one of my reinstated freedoms by leaving Berlin for the first time since February to visit...

Mike Pompeo does not like answering questions about his actions but soon he may have to

The important thing to understand about Mike Pompeo, Trump’s second and current secretary of state, is that, although he became famous for...

How worried should the government be about the post-Cummings polls?

How worried should the government be about the polls following its defence of Dominic Cummings? Polls by Savanta ComRes, YouGov and JL Partners...

The Emily Maitlis row shows the BBC can stray from impartiality, but it acted fast to apologise

On the night news broke of Dominic Cummings’s dash to Durham, the BBC was accused of working flat out to support the government. It was peculiar,...

Despite a global effort, an effective vaccine for Covid-19 will be a very long time coming

On 21 May, the government announced that a programme of Covid-19 antibody testing will commence in June. This is distinct from the swab tests,...

The humbling of Dominic Cummings

Eight months ago, I asked in these pages whether Dominic Cummings was a visionary or a fool. At the time Brexit was at its greatest impasse;...

“We weren’t prepared”: Grooming ring prosecutor Nazir Afzal on grief and state failings

Nazir Afzal, the lawyer famed for prosecuting the Rochdale grooming gang in 2012, was supposed to be touring Britain’s literary festivals to...

Netflix’s The Big Flower Fight has its contestants to thank for its success

The Great British Bake Off has a lot to answer for. Its success has spawned all manner of televised arts and craft contests: the BBC’s The Big...

Why The Third Man remains as brilliant as ever

One of the amazing things about The Third Man,” wrote Steven Soderbergh, “is that it really is a great film, in spite of all the people who say...

Little Fires Everywhere – boring, improbable and hackneyed

In Little Fires Everywhere, adapted from the bestselling novel by Celeste Ng and now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Reese Witherspoon’s Elena...

First Thoughts: The Cummings affair, declining circulations and the elusive track and trace system

If Dominic Cummings was confident he had done the right thing in taking his apparently virus-infected wife and his son to Durham, couldn’t the...

My secret to befriending lesbians is Samuel Beckett and a bottle of the finest single malt

So how many box-sets have you been able to catch up with? I have hardly been able to watch any TV, largely because I have been speaking to people....

Commons confidential: The end of the daily briefing?

The revolting cabinet is smarting after Boris Johnson turned humiliated secretaries of state into an army of Russian bots obediently tweeting...

A new BBC radio documentary offers an original, disturbing look at life on death row

We’ve seen death row in enough films for some of its details to have (ghoulishly) become familiar. Especially the prisoner’s final speech,...

Each day I walk, garden and cook – but at night, my dreams give the lie to my apparent calmness

My diary mocks me with its empty pages, its entries so sadly rubbed out. I still keep a Filofax, the same one I’ve had since the 1980s, so the...

The ship aground

We have come over Tower Bridge over  the river’s silver over basculed stone, steel and we have curved, curled toward St Saviour’s Dock, where...

In times of sickness, we turn to food for comfort, prevention and cure

Perhaps I wouldn’t have noticed the persistent threat of infection that runs through the final instalment of Hilary Mantel’s Cromwellian saga,...

The greats outdoors: Alan Reynolds’s Legend in August

Alan Reynolds, the painter of this picture, Legend in August, was in fact two completely different artists. During the 1950s he was a pastoralist...

The Adventures of China Iron: a daring, playful story

The Adventures of China Iron is the daring, playful story of a young woman in pursuit of a freer life. The fourth novel by the Buenos Aires-based...

We’ve lived next to tennis courts for five years, but it has never occurred to me to play. Until now

Something has changed in the park. We arrive for our daily exercise session to find the place abuzz with activity. Usually, everyone is loafing...

Mark Damazer: The BBC’s Twitter problem, how Cummings was smoked out and the quality vs impartiality debate

On the night news broke of Dominic Cummings’s dash to Durham, the BBC was accused of working flat out to support the government. It was peculiar,...

China and the attractions of authoritarianism

The peak

For a moment, the world is as it used to be – unconfined, uncurtailed, alive with human teeming: coronavirus-free. The early light of a mid-April...

Dominic Cummings may have edited an old blog to add a reference to coronaviruses

A post on Dominic Cummings's personal blog from March 2019 appears to have been edited in April 2020 to add a reference to coronaviruses....

Dominic Cummings has failed to reframe his story

Even the announcement of shops reopening didn't bump Dominic Cummings from the front pages of the newspapers. The focus remains firmly on...

The four Conservative groups that want Dominic Cummings out – and the two that matter

Dominic Cummings’ critics within the Conservative parliamentary party come in four flavours. There are the committed Brexiteers who oppose him for...

Keir Starmer gets his preferred general secretary

David Evans has been named as Labour's new general secretary, meaning Keir Starmer has secured his preferred candidate for the role, a major...

Four Conservative groups want Dominic Cummings out: two matter

Dominic Cummings’ critics within the Conservative parliamentary party come in four flavours. There are the committed Brexiteers who oppose him for...

Keir Starmer gets his preferred general secretary in show of his internal dominance

Keir Starmer has secured his preferred candidate for the post of Labour party general secretary in a major boost for his leadership.   It attests...

“I want to see my friends, but I'm scared”: How do children feel about going back to school?

Many children would have said school being cancelled was a dream. But for the past three months, the reality across the country has been far from...

The Scottish Tories’ defence of Boris Johnson has left them looking craven

For all Ruth Davidson’s strengths, for all she achieved in returning the Scottish Conservatives to the front rank of politics, there was always a...

Dominic Cummings admits to breaking lockdown rules. What happens now?

Dominic Cummings admitted to travelling 250 miles from London to his parents’ house in Durham while having the symptoms of Covid-19, admitted to...

This could be the moment the public finally sees through Boris Johnson

No, Prime Minister. Your conduct at yesterday’s Downing Street briefing was not acceptable. In a mature democracy, at a time when you have...

Boris Johnson takes a big risk in tying himself to Dominic Cummings

Boris Johnson has made one of the boldest calls of his political career: announcing that he will stand by his chief strategist, Dominic Cummings....

If Dominic Cummings is not sacked, Boris Johnson’s government will lose all remaining credibility

Boris Johnson is in an awful bind. He cannot afford to sack Dominic Cummings, but nor can he afford to keep him. He cannot sack him because he...

Exclusive: Dominic Cummings’ parents defend their son as he faces demands to resign

Boris Johnson has backed his chief adviser. Dominic Cummings will remain in post, despite being spotted at his parents’ residence in Durham on...

The politics of the spice rack: cumin

Cumin has a unique distinction: it is the only English word whose ancestry can be traced back to Sumerian, the first written language. The word’s...

Dominic Cummings' position is now untenable

If the government is thinking straight, by the time you have read this, Dominic Cummings will already have resigned. It has been a furious 24...

Dominic Cummings's position is now untenable

If the government is thinking straight, by the time you have read this, Dominic Cummings will already have resigned. It has been a furious 24...

Did Dominic Cummings break lockdown, and will have to resign?

Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s chief strategist, is facing calls to resign after the Guardian and the Mirror revealed that he travelled...

Did Dominic Cummings break lockdown, and will he have to resign?

Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s chief strategist, is facing calls to resign after the Guardian and the Mirror revealed that he travelled...