Instant Opinion: ‘loss of confidence in government’ could trigger second coronavirus wave
Your guide to the best columns and commentary on Thursday 4 June

The Week’s daily round-up highlights the five best opinion pieces from across the British and international media, with excerpts from each.
1. Stephen Bush in the New Statesman
On the fresh outbreak of sickness in parliament
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
How the loss of confidence in the government could lead to a second wave of Covid-19
“The growing perception that the government is doing the wrong things is dangerous itself. The polling consistently shows most people think it is too early to ease the lockdown, then there’s the 76 per cent of people telling YouGov that MPs should simply be able to vote online until the pandemic is over. And there’s also the belief that Parliament's return will cause lockdown to ‘end’… The perception that the government has lost control of the disease, which a fresh outbreak in Parliament would surely trigger, might cause more damage than any other misstep the government may have made since the start of the lockdown.”
2. Allister Heath in The Daily Telegraph
on the trouble brewing for Boris Johnson
The government must act now or a triple Covid storm will destroy it
“Johnson should give a televised address to the nation in which he accepts that bad mistakes have been made, where he states that the system he inherited turned out to be catastrophically unfit for purpose and where he vows to change it. He must announce sweeping changes, high-profile sackings, greater accountability, a new policy to cocoon care homes, the abolition of PHE, the creation of British version of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, able and willing to work with the private sector, and an NHS that reports directly to the secretary of state. The longer Johnson waits, the more toxic the errors of the past few months will become for him.”
3. Afua Hirsch in The Guardian
on how ‘horrible stuff’ is not just an American problem
The racism that killed George Floyd was built in Britain
“The British government could have had the humility to use this moment to acknowledge Britain’s experiences. It could have discussed how Britain helped invent anti-black racism, how today’s US traces its racist heritage to British colonies in America, and how it was Britain that industrialised black enslavement in the Caribbean, initiated systems of apartheid all over the African continent, using the appropriation of black land, resources and labour to fight both world wars and using it again to reconstruct the peace.”
4. Gerard Baker in The Times
on the blue-failure to take on African-American inequality
Democrats fail black voters and blame others
“George Floyd. Eric Garner. Freddie Gray. Rodney King. The baleful list of the names of black men killed or brutalised by police in America is long and too familiar. So too the list of cities where these and other acts occurred, cities now engulfed in protest and mayhem: Minneapolis. New York. Baltimore. Los Angeles… These places have something else in common. Every one of them is controlled by the Democratic Party. Not just recently, or narrowly, or tenuously. Like almost all big cities in America where most instances of racial tension have occurred of late, they are citadels of one-party rule.”
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––For a round-up of the most important stories from around the world - and a concise, refreshing and balanced take on the week’s news agenda - try The Week magazine. Start your trial subscription today –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
5. Stephen Daisley in The Spectator
on how George Floyd’s death poured accelerant on centre-left radicalism
Liberals are wrong to defend George Floyd protest violence
“Scenes of rioting, looting and the firebombing of a police station bring out the Rousseauean id of the liberal psyche and a righteous impatience to burn it all to the ground and start over. (‘Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death/ The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies/ We, the people, must redeem…/ And make America again!’) The drift towards radicalism on the centre-left did not begin with the killing of George Floyd. Some American progressives are done with America, as the New York Times’s flawed, fervently defended and Pulitzer-winning 1619 Project illustrates. The taking of another black life has poured accelerant on this process.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Book reviews: ‘Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America’ and ‘How to End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978–1998’
Feature A political ‘witch hunt’ and Helen Garner’s journal entries
By The Week US Published
-
The backlash against ChatGPT's Studio Ghibli filter
The Explainer The studio's charming style has become part of a nebulous social media trend
By Theara Coleman, The Week US Published
-
Why are student loan borrowers falling behind on payments?
Today's Big Question Delinquencies surge as the Trump administration upends the program
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published
-
'What is this Hungarian model they so admire?'
Instant Opinion 'Opinion, comment and editorials of the day'
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
'We should end this betrayal of man's best friend'
Instant Opinion 'Opinion, comment and editorials of the day'
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
'How quickly misogynistic videos show up in users' TikTok and YouTube feeds'
instant opinion 'Opinion, comment and editorials of the day'
By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week US Published
-
'Americans deserve immigration officials who are transparent about what they do and why'
instant opinion 'Opinion, comment and editorials of the day'
By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week US Published
-
'Even authoritarian regimes need a measure of public support — the consent of at least some of the governed'
instant opinion 'Opinion, comment and editorials of the day'
By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week US Published
-
'There is a certain kind of strength in refusing to concede error'
instant opinion 'Opinion, comment and editorials of the day'
By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week US Published
-
'A political agenda aimed at reshaping higher education into an ideological stronghold'
instant opinion 'Opinion, comment and editorials of the day'
By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, The Week US Published
-
'Moving the headquarters isn't about abandoning Washington'
Instant Opinion 'Opinion, comment and editorials of the day'
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published