Fraser Nelson
Editor of The Spectator. Try a month for free: spectator.co.uk/subscription. Daily Telegraph columnist
Last synced from Twitter 183d ago
No, the NHS was not overrun by Covid during lockdown | The Spectator
The decision to implement lockdown was inspired partly by the appalling scenes from Lombardy, where hospitals were overrun and dying patients left in corridors. In London, ministers were terrified by the prospect of this happening here. They were...
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Fraser Nelson
At the peak of Covid hospital cases, 40% of NHS beds were empty - 4x average. So no, the NHS never was overrun by Covid. My blog...
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The ten worst Covid data failures | The Spectator
Throughout the pandemic, the government and its scientific advisers have made constant predictions, projections and illustrations regarding the behaviour of Covid-19. Their figures are never revisited as the Covid narrative unfolds, which means we...
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Fraser Nelson
The ten worst Covid data failures - latest from Prof Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson
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The Spectator Covid Tracker | London | The Spectator
Stay informed with The Spectator
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Fraser Nelson
The rise in Covid infections has stopped the recovery in London transport use - but those already back in action are staying back in action. From The Spectator's new data hub data.spectator.co.uk/city/london pic.twitter.com/cxvYQksGaW
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The Spectator Covid Tracker | The Spectator
Stay informed with The Spectator
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Fraser Nelson
NEW: figures for Covid patients in intensive care, 2nd wave vs 1st wave. Now updated and in The Spectator's new data hub data.spectator.co.uk pic.twitter.com/ttbsGxKndi
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Fraser Nelson
Number of patients in London hospitals rises, but ventilators used far less this time. From The Spectator’s new data hub: data.spectator.co.uk pic.twitter.com/0IkLBsetHb
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The elderly are paying a terrible price for being protected from Covid
Sweden’s decision to abolish restrictions on the over-70s raises important questions for Britain
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Fraser Nelson
Sweden has just ended restrictions on all over-70s - saying the cost of loneliness and isolation is greater than the risk from the virus. My @telegraph column on what Britain can learn
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Kemi Badenoch: The problem with critical race theory | The Spectator
Even now, months after the event, Labour MPs have not forgiven Kemi Badenoch for saying that Britain is one of the best countries in the world in which to be black. It was during the Black Lives Matter protests and many politicians — including Sir...
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Fraser Nelson
I interview Kemi Badenoch for this week's Spectator: talking identity politics, critical race theory and a Conservative equalities agenda
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We deserve to know what Sage is saying | The Spectator
At the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis it was easy to see why the Prime Minister was so keen to be seen to ‘follow the science’. He had a pandemic plan, designed by past governments, to be guided by the medical facts and expert judgment. There was...
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Fraser Nelson
SAGE was never designed for the power it now holds. A leading article in this week's Spectator argues for more openness - and reform
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Create a new survey on your own or with others at the same time. Choose from a variety of survey types and analyze results in Google Forms. Free from Google.
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Fraser Nelson
The Spectator is looking for freelance researchers who may be available evenings, weekends or early mornings. Apply here, with a sample of work. As ever, no CVs: good work speaks for itself
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Fact check: is the NHS at risk of bring overwhelmed by Covid? | The Spectator
It was never the plan for the NHS to deal with a second wave of Covid. The official strategy, all through the summer, was for the £12 billion test-and-trace system to come along and zap new cases. Decisions for NHS investment this winter were made...
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Fraser Nelson
At times, it seems that No10 is designing Covid policy based on worse-case scenarios rather than facts on the ground. My blog on the data, and NHS performance spectator.co.uk/article/how-li… pic.twitter.com/4FIqHyGq3p
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Does Manchester really need tougher restrictions? | The Spectator
Is Andy Burnham’s resistance to tier three a principled stand or just an attempt to extract more money from central government? While Burnham is insisting that he ‘won’t be rolled over’ for money — he is believed to have been offered between £75...
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Fraser Nelson
Manchester’s Covid infections peaked weeks ago, says Ross Clark - so why impose Tier3 restrictions now? spectator.co.uk/article/does-m… pic.twitter.com/G43vYexEMP
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What lockdown sceptics get wrong | The Spectator
One of the more peculiar features of Covid is just how cleanly the crisis has split us down political lines. As a serving Tory councillor, you may assume that my views on masks, lockdown and the virus are predictable. But I’m also a microbiologist...
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Fraser Nelson
“Ministers should set targets for the tolerable level of Covid infections that will percolate through to hospital admissions, similar to the Treasury’s inflation target. Upon breaching these targets, the public should expect adjustment of restrictions”
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Fraser Nelson
The suggestion that we let the virus work its way through the nation’s respiratory tracts until we reach levels of herd immunity is fanciful and dangerous, says Dr Simon Clarke.
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Why this lifelong Republican has to vote for Biden | The Spectator
For as long as I was old enough to think about politics, I have been a Republican. When my dad told me, aged six, that Bill Clinton had beaten Bob Dole, I’m told I cried. I don’t remember this, but do have vivid memories of running around St Andrews...
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Fraser Nelson
On hearing the news that Bill Clinton had won, Kate Andrews cried (she was six years old). But as a lifelong Republican she is now voting for Biden. Here, she explains why
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Building an Islam of the Enlightenment | The Spectator
What is it that today, in our society, endangers our Republic, our ability to live together, and inform you of the decisions taken as a result which are the result of methodical work carried out for nearly three years?
The problem is not...
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Fraser Nelson
Macron gave a v important speech last Friday on reshaping Islam in France. We’ve translated it and republish an abridged version here.
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Students who catch Covid may be saving lives | The Spectator
It is counterintuitive but the current spread of Covid may on balance be the least worst thing that could happen now. In the absence of a vaccine, and with no real prospect of eradicating the disease, the virus spreading among younger people, mostly...
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Fraser Nelson
Students who catch Covid may be saving granny’s life by building up immunity, sage Matt Ridley
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If Biden wins, who will govern? | The Spectator
Joe Biden started spouting nonsense about his background again this week. Trying to sound all man of the people, he told a rally in Ohio that he would be the first president ‘in 80 or 90 years’ who did not attend one of those fancy Ivy League...
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Fraser Nelson
I’m perhaps biased but genuinely think no one writes better about American politics on either side of the Atlantic than Freddy Gray. Here’s his latest Spectator cover story asking: if Biden wins, who will govern?
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Sales of The Spectator surge towards 100,000 | The Spectator
When The Spectator returned furlough money during lockdown, we set ourselves a new target. Rather than take the taxpayer subsidy, we decided to try to grow our way of this mess by hitting sales of 100,000. For a magazine that finished last year...
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Fraser Nelson
The Spectator sales surge continues - my blog on what happened after we returned the furlough money and set a target of 100,000 sales...
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Were there any links between Cambridge Analytica, Russia and Brexit? | The Spectator
In July 2018, Elizabeth Denham – the woman in charge of enforcing the UK’s laws on data protection – appeared on the Today programme, and made a stark allegation.
“In 2014 and 2015, the Facebook platform allowed an app… that ended up harvesting 87...
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Fraser Nelson
The verdicts are in: did Cambridge Analytica trick us into voting for Brexit? James Ball puts all the pieces together
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Covid has not ‘overwhelmed’ French hospitals — yet | The Spectator
Britain is often said to be two weeks behind France in the new Covid wave — so how bad are things in France? Lille, Grenoble, Lyon and Saint-Étienne have switched to maximum alert, with two thirds of regions on ‘enhanced alert’. Things are at their...
What BBC boss Tim Davie gets wrong about Oxbridge | The Spectator
As a first-generation immigrant, my mum’s greatest ambition for me was to get into Oxbridge. For her, it was clear that these world-leading universities would be a passport into a better world. So she’ll be aghast to learn of BBC Director General...
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Fraser Nelson
My colleague Cindy Yu points out that more than two-thirds of Oxford undergrads are now from state schools... spectator.co.uk/article/what-t… pic.twitter.com/mKf5r9Z6Mw
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BBC to cut back recruitment of Oxbridge graduates
Director-general Tim Davie said the BBC can't 'just take people from a certain academic track'
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Fraser Nelson
"It’s about not fishing in an Oxbridge gene pool" says a BBC source on its recruitment. But it's dangerous to conflate Oxbridge with inherited privilege, or mark anyone down for having got (or thought) their way into two of world's greatest unis.
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