| Dear reader,
With cases of Covid-19 rising and the testing system in chaos, Boris Johnson is fighting to keep the pandemic under control. We reported this morning that ministers are considering reversing the return to the office, as the Government announces further restrictions in its bid to avoid another national lockdown. You can follow the latest on our live blog. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is at risk of letting events overwhelm him and has just six months to save his premiership, writes Allister Heath.
The pandemic and Brexit have drawn much of the attention away from what would otherwise be a highly significant crisis – the crossing of the Channel by migrants in small boats. Our reporter spent the day at sea and became the first journalist to document what had long been suspected: that the French Navy is shepherding migrant boats into UK waters and abandoning them.
Raynor Winn’s life story is already lined up to become a film, after the first part of her tale – a middle-class life turned upside down by being made homeless and her husband being diagnosed with a terminal disease – became a best seller. But, as Louise Carpenter hears, even with financial security, the lessons and scars of homelessness remain.
Lynda La Plante is one of the most successful crime writers in history, so it may come as a surprise that, aged 74, she completely lost confidence in herself. Three years later, though, she has overcome her challenges, recovered from failed eye surgery and blindness, and is releasing her second book of 2020. She tells Lina Das how she bounced back.
Finally, David Starkey is perhaps the most high-profile victim this year of “cancel culture” after he made public remarks that have been widely condemned as racist for the second time in a decade. But is he a victim of “wokeness” or simply reaping the whirlwind of deliberate provocation? In an extraordinary interview with Camilla Tominey, Dr Starkey excoriates what he says is the Left’s pernicious attacks on British history and public life.
Chris
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