Plans have been drawn up to deploy 20,000 troops to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic. They will be drafted in to guard key sites, including hospitals, pharmacies and supermarkets. Soldiers are being trained to drive oxygen tankers around the country and Army reservists may be called up to join a special ‘Covid support force’. Richard … Read more
Plans have been drawn up to deploy 20,000 troops to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic. They will be drafted in to guard key sites, including hospitals, pharmacies and supermarkets. Soldiers are being trained to drive oxygen tankers around the country and Army reservists may be called up to join a special ‘Covid support force’. Richard … Read more
Few images encapsulate more succinctly or poignantly the situation facing us all than that published by the Mail yesterday. A trim, neatly dressed elderly gentleman stands in the middle of a supermarket aisle, his gaze focused on the scrap of paper — presumably his shopping list — in his hands. All around him the shelves … Read more
Coronavirus has succeeded where world wars and previous epidemics failed: from next week, schools will be closed and public exams have been cancelled. With Covid-19 unlikely to disappear any time soon, suspending GCSEs and A-levels was undoubtedly the right decision. But ministers must not ignore the logistical, educational and emotional quagmire that pupils, parents and … Read more
Few images encapsulate more succinctly or poignantly the situation facing us all than that published by the Mail yesterday. A trim, neatly dressed elderly gentleman stands in the middle of a supermarket aisle, his gaze focused on the scrap of paper — presumably his shopping list — in his hands. All around him the shelves … Read more
The immense scale of this crisis is terrifying to comprehend, not least for those politicians and scientists who find themselves taking decisions with life and death consequences. Yet in a war, one thing should be beyond debate: you must equip and protect your frontline forces to the best of your ability, whether they are soldiers … Read more
We are good in this country at holding our nerve and steadying one another. But a pandemic is something else; you can’t touch the virus, see it or even know where it is. It may be spread by those who don’t even know they are infected. It is very serious for some, very mild for many. … Read more
When Boris Johnson last week warned that ‘many more families are going to lose loved ones’, it was a clear, chilling statement of the reality of the coronavirus pandemic. But most of us were reassured by the measured words of the two eminent scientists who stood either side of him, about the actions being taken … 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
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders began their first one-on-one Democratic debate with an elbow bump instead of the traditional handshake, bowing to concerns about the spread of the coronavirus. Their debate was overshadowed by the crisis and focused heavily on it, but saw a significant announcement by Biden that he will have a female running … Read more