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
Is it just me? Or is the boom in DIY grooming a joyous return to our teen years? Asks SARAH VINE By Sarah Vine for the Daily Mail Published: 00:02 BST, 13 April 2020 | Updated: 00:04 BST, 13 April 2020 I have fond memories of me and my old flatmate Lucy, the pair of … 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
Every crisis has its flashpoint. For me — as, I suspect for many others — the news on Monday evening that the Prime Minister was being treated in intensive care for Covid-19 felt like one such moment. Or, as my teenage son put it: ‘This thing just got real.’ It came as much of a … Read more
Under normal circumstances, the fact that today is the first day of Harry and Meghan’s new life as ‘ordinary’ citizens would have dominated the news. But most people have more pressing matters on their minds. Against a background of economic meltdown and the life-and-death battle against this damned virus, the plight of Harry and Meghan … Read more
When all this is over and the world has returned to some semblance of normality, survivors will broadly fall into two camps. On the one hand, those who thought only of themselves, selfishly raiding supermarket shelves, stockpiling mountains of food in deep freezers, buying up household essentials to sell on at inflated prices and generally … Read more
Whatever else happens in the next few months, the world will look very different when we finally emerge blinking into the sunlight. There will be newfound respect for all sorts of people we’ve previously taken for granted — not least supermarket staff, delivery drivers — and, of course, all the other key workers currently keeping … 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
My mother messages from Italy with a tiny but telling anecdote that sums up the difficulty of the situation. The assistant manager of her local Carrefour Express in Turin (like Tesco Express, only with nicer wine), is being driven to distraction by little old ladies roaming endlessly around his supermarket. He keeps telling them to … Read more