British Politics

The week’s big stories, including Donald Trump heading to Davos, Klingon sensitivity and France’s daftest crook It seems the purge has begun after Momentum seized the Labour Party’s National Executive Committee this week. Momentum founder Jon Lansman as well as Yasmine Dar and Rachel Garnham – also backed by the fanatical, Corbyn movement – have […]

Readers of The New European react through our letters pages to this week’s cabinet reshuffle. Theresa May’s baffling treatment of Justine Greening is good for our cause. As a Remainer with a small majority in a massively pro-Remain area, she is now free to make the case for Remain from the backbenches and, more importantly, […]

Steve Anglesey counts down the worst Brexiteers of the week NEIL HAMILTON ‘We are looking forward to welcoming our new team member, Mandy Jones into the group,’ beamed UKIP’s Welsh leader on December 29, having won a long-running fight to get rival Nathan Gill to resign from the Welsh Assembly. Just 10 days later, after […]

RICHARD PORRITT on the week’s big stories, including a chaotic reshuffle, an unlikely resurrection and criticism of Portuguese parenting For a time this week Wikipedia listed among Chris Grayling’s roles ‘Conservative Party Chairman January 8, 2017 – January 8, 2017’. Conservative Campaign Headquarters veteran Iain Carter was the man at least partly responsible for the […]

Brexit is a career-killer for freelancers, argues reader Jayne Hamilton. I read your article on freelance musician Anneke Scott with sadness as I know exactly how she feels. If current negotiations are anything to go by, I will lose two-thirds of my livelihood at the very least because of Brexit. While companies export products, we […]

STEVE ANGLESEY counts down the worst Brexiteers of the week. BILL ETHERIDGE The West Midlands UKIP MEP believes he has uncovered a secret EU ruse to form an Olympic superteam at the 2036 Games in a cunning bid to out-medal Team GB. Etheridge told the Telegraph he had overheard plotters ‘using the word solidarity, which […]

RICHARD PORRITT on the week’s big stories, including stern warnings in Greece, unlikely heroes in Rome and Denmark’s most unfortunate taxi driver Sir Vince Cable’s vow to use the House of Lords in a bid to stop the UK leaving the EU will likely irk many Brexiteers. The Lib Dems have long called for reforms […]

Anthea McDowell writes that she is feeling more hopeful about the next 12 months in politics compared to this time last year. As 2018 approaches I find myself considerably more hopeful than at this time last year, when the twin blows of Brexit and Trump made it hard for many of us to get out […]

Readers had plenty to say this week about Nigel Farage’s claim he’s ’53, separated and skint’. Nigel Farage says he is ’53, separated and skint’. It is probably the first time one of his sentences has been two-thirds accurate, but the last bit really bugs me. Because Farage is plainly not skint. He earns £90,000 […]

STEVE ANGLESEY on how a book of less than 400 words provides the most compelling illustration of why Leave won As the news about Brexit continues to get worse; the writing about it continues to get better. What The Hell Happens Now by Ian Dunt, Tim Shipman’s All-Out War and Unleashing Demons by Craig Oliver […]

The big guns – Boris, DD, Farage – all had pleasingly tricky years. But here STEVE ANGLESEY picks out 20 unsung zeroes who brought their side of the argument into even bigger disrepute. 20. FRANCIS BASHIR Leader of the Royal Disciple Church, a Pakistani Christian sect which worships Nigel Farage. Congregants believe that the nicotine-stained […]

RICHARD PORRITT with the week’s big stories, including a diplomatic spat between Austria and Italy It is Christmas drinks season in Westminster, when journalists are tempted by cheap white wine and nibbles. The Number 10 event included invites to many of the biggest names in the UK media, to hear Theresa May chatting about her […]

Reader Paul Hollands spent a week on a pro-Brexit Facebook group to break out of the Remain social media ‘bubble’. I have spent the last week in a pro-Brexit group on Facebook. I did this to try and break out of my ‘bubble’, but also I went in search of the reason why people voted […]

MITCH BENN asks whether the likes of David Davis and Donald Trump have decided that shame is a sign of weakness. First of all, some sort of apology is order; I have been laid low with bloke-flu since last we spoke. It seems to be one of those annoying colds which wipes you out completely […]

The Prime Minister is doomed even if she survives yet another self-created crisis, writes reader Daniel Hunt. She is weak, lacking vision, and unable to unite her own party, let alone her coalition partners. The reluctance of the Tory plotters to knife her while Brexit remains in the balance is understandable. Less so is why […]

Steve Anglesey counts down the worst Brexiteers of the week. THE UKIP LION Though it was unveiled less than three months ago, the ‘Kippers are reportedly preparing to dump their lion logo after conceding that they cannot afford a copyright court fight with football’s Premier League, whose own emblem it closely resembles. UKIP insiders tip […]

RICHARD PORRITT with the week’s big stories, including Brexit health risks, trouble in Ukraine and controversy in Italy Nigel Farage’s former spokesman Michael Heaver has been chatting to the BBC about his time with UKIP. ‘Nigel Farage is such a machine,’ Heaver, who got the job aged just 27, said adoringly. ‘What was very important […]

MITCH BENN discusses how speaking in haste can often signal the truth I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying ‘there’s many a true word spoken in jest’. This is indeed the case (the whole satire industry depends upon it) but there are, if anything, even more true words spoken in haste. That is to say, […]

STEVE ANGLESEY counts down the worst Brexiteers of the week 10. LIAM FOX The International Trade Secretary delivered a tantalising hint of the amazing deals to come post-Brexit when he visited a bassoon shop in Newport. No doubt delighted to meet some other expensive wind instruments, Fox tweeted that Double Reed was an ‘internationally respected […]

RICHARD PORRITT on the week’s big stories, including a big victory in Austria, the German foreign minister on the offensive and the prince of letters After all that fuss about Brexit impact statements, it appears they never really existed in any meaningful sense anyway. To widespread shock, David Davis admitted to a parliamentary committee on […]

‘Irish Border unthinkable’ says Boris Johnson. ‘Isn’t this the same person that said the EU could go a whistle for more money and that £350m a week would go to the NHS…?’ asks reader Tony Howarth. ‘Irish Border unthinkable’ says Boris Johnson. Isn’t this the same person that said the EU could go a whistle […]

Has the constant reel of Brexit news got you pulling your hair out? Comedian and musician MITCH BENN looks at one piece of news this week that has taken minds off of Brexit. Hey folks. Do you sometimes find yourself longing for the days when I – and everyone else – had other things to […]

STEVE ANGLESEY counts down the worst Brexiteers of the week 10 ALAN BRAZIL Brushing off the departures of the European Medicines Agency to Amsterdam and the European Banking Authority to Paris, the bibulous Talksport host assured listeners that ‘if we get a good Brexit there will be 5,000 jobs created for every 1,000 lost’. So […]

RICHARD PORRITT with the week’s big stories, including some good news on electric planes, some bad news for the Polish economy and some credit for Emmanuel Macron So we have got to that sad moment in the breakdown of any relationship where the shouting is over, the tears have dried up and all there is […]

Remainers are still waiting for evidence of the cunning traps Labour were going to set for the government during this process, writes one reader. Two studies have shown that Labour’s surge at the last general election was mainly due to voters perceiving them as the party who would deliver the softest Brexit, or no Brexit […]

I didn’t get much from my Twitter spat with Kylie Minogue’s songwriter, but his famous lyrics certainly sum up the mindset of Brexiteers. I won’t lie to you; this hasn’t been an easy gig this week. I don’t necessarily regard it as being my responsibility to put a comical spin on events in every issue, […]

STEVE ANGLESEY counts down the worst Brexiteers of the week 10 Stella Fellas No-one is suggesting that Brexiteers are desperate for some good news, but Daily Telegraph chief political correspondent Christopher Hope appeared to have caught a glimpse of those famous sunlit uplands when he excitedly tweeted ‘Stella is now selling beer in pint cans. […]

A look at the week’s big stories, including a riddle over Jeremy Corbyn’s name, the fresh-faced new mayor of Lübeck and France’s averted butter crisis Angela Merkel’s domestic discomfort has been the source of some schadenfreude for the Brexit brigade with Jacob Rees-Mogg, predictably, among those suggesting it could give the UK some handy leverage […]