I'm not sure Tories will win over many people when they use so many porkies in this short video... [1/4]

https://twitter.com/Conservatives/status/1797676601640927437

"Taxes are being cut" - no, they're rising and the Tory plan is to increase them to a 74-year high [2/4] data.spectator.co.uk

Sunak’s furlough scheme was a lifeline , created at breakneck speed. It was a case study in how the civil service can innovate and launch a successful product for millions.

But as Sunak knew, its longer-term effects were deeply uncertain. Would it really facilitate a jobs bounce back?

Things are clearer now…

telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/2… When it comes to post-Covid jobs recovery, the UK has done worse than almost any other developed country…

One of biggest UK economic problems is exit of almost 650,000 workers from the economy since the pandemic.

Figures today show the number long-term sick (in red, below) now up 350,000 data.spectator.co.uk/category/labou… The same graph, split by age

Is Sweden about to have a Conservative Prime Minister? Right now Ulf Kristersson's coalition leading the red-greens 176-173. Result may not come until wed svd.se/a/eEVAgy/valet… Latest below - NB things can take days to settle in Swedish elections. But Conservative PM (a historical rarity) currently looks like the most likely outcome

Tech and capitalism have helped drive vast environmental improvements since the first Earth Day.

Here's six reasons to be cheerful:-
spectator.co.uk/article/earth-… Take air pollution since the first Earth Day in 1970: a story of stunning progress

Was Sweden right about Covid all along? Two years on, a look at the evidence (in today's Sunday Telegraph)

telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/1… Sweden and UK are more comparable than many think: 88pc of Swedes live in cities, vs 84pc of Brits.

What matters with Covid is the concentration of people, not the distance between towns - as shown by Oliver Johnson et al: arxiv.org/abs/2005.01167

Sharp fall in Covid cases across all adult age groups.

Figures updated daily on the Spectator data hub data.spectator.co.uk …reflected in national figure now falling as fast as it rose. Is this just a factor of fewer tests? We won’t know for a while as ONS survey takes a while to come out. But….

After weeks of having lowest Covid in Europe the UK is now creeping up the league as reopening means more cases... data.spectator.co.uk ...UK now amongst the more liberal countries in Europe for retail...

When Boris Johnson resisted lockdown, was he really being reckless?

My column on what really happened in that September meeting;-

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/… In that Sep meeting John Edmunds, a Sage adviser, made his case for lockdown to No10 by showing a controversial graph screen-grabbed from the FT website...

To (quickly) answer a few points on my Sweden column in the Telegraph - its strategy was to minimise all deaths. This meant the ones counted daily (Covid) plus indirect deaths, counted later. On Covid deaths, it's about the European average... ...by avoiding lockdown, Sweden sought to minimise (long-term) collateral damage on society & health. On total 'excess death' last year, it's a bit lower than European average...

Big change in publishing recently has been appetite for original arguments from academics.

Carl Heneghan’s diary in last week’s Spectator was our most-read article: on his work as a GP, lockdown and Twitter trolls

spectator.co.uk/article/the-hi… Our most-read article yesterday was an in-depth, data-rich analysis by Prof Simon Wood - looking at statistical assumptions and lockdown modelling spectator.co.uk/article/covid-…

The setback for AstraZeneca vaccine today need to be set in context. By being easily-stored (and made here) UK has protected more people than any comparably-sized country... The AZ success is reflected not just in trials but antibody studies. Vaccine success has helped 55% of population acquire Covid antibodies: a figure that rises all the time...

Is Sweden conducting a crazy experiment - or are we? My Telegraph column, now online. telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/04/0… Sweden's premise: if you level with the public, share details of Covid battle in real time, you foster trust. People will socially distance on a voluntary basis, "flattening the curve" enough for hospitals to cope. Today, only a quarter of Sweden's intensive care units being used