Dear Reader,

The United States has a new president and, with him, Joe Biden has brought a wave of cautious optimism. Yet America’s problems run far deeper than those emanating from the Oval Office. Allister Heath, in his column, welcomes the arrival of Mr Biden, but examines a long list of ailments to the Republic that he fears may doom it to long-term decline.

The vaccine rollout is regularly reaching new milestones, but the programme has not been entirely without problems. It emerged this week that a town in Kent had not yet administered a single jab. Laura Donnelly and Cara McGoogan filed this excellent report on what has gone wrong in Sandwich, and how its residents feel at being left behind.

Finally, kindness is something that you most definitely know when you see it, but there is plenty of fake kindness about, says Suzanne Moore. From the demonisation of opponents in the fight over transgender rights to the Government’s failings on free school meals, many of our problems can be traced to an absence of real kindness, she writes in a thought-provoking column.

Chris

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