News and Opinion

A Nobel prize winning scientist has slammed the government as being ‘on the back foot’ over its coronavirus response. Sir Paul Nurse appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme when he accused the government of mishandling its coronavirus strategy. The Francis Crick Institute director said ministers had been ‘increasingly playing catch-up’ over ways to contain […]

Former foreign secretary David Miliband has said that the arrival of Labour’s new leader Sir Keir Starmer has made him ‘proud to be Labour again’. The long-standing critic of former leader Jeremy Corbyn said after years of ‘vacillation’ Sir Keir had brought ‘clarity, pride, principle’ and ‘effective accountability’ of the government. Miliband had been tipped […]

Think you know Europe? Take our latest lockdown quiz As a New European reader, you probably reckon you know the continent inside out. Test yourself with our fiendish quiz…

A Scottish public health expert has questioned why poorer countries have managed the coronavirus outbreak better than some of the richest – countries like the UK and the USA. Holyrood health advisor Devi Sridhar told LBC’s James O’Brien that despite having smaller healthcare budgets, countries like Senegal and Vietnam had managed to contain the spread […]

The Brexiteer boss of Wetherspoon’s pub chain has seen his wealth fall by around £230 million, as the business made preparations to reopen. An exact date for reopening remains unclear, although government guidance for pubs is to plan for welcoming back customers in July. It is understood there are ongoing discussions between ministers and the […]

STEVE ANGLESEY on the hypocrisy of Olivia Utley, The Sun’s head of PR, who urged people to holiday in England despite enjoying a French holiday. OLIVIA UTLEY ‘It’ll do our spoiled young Remainers good to remain in Britain for the summer holidays,’ ran a Sun headline on a column by the paper’s head of PR […]

The government has been warned that communities face a funding shortfall after Brexit as a result of the loss of key EU regional funds. Labour and the Liberal Democrats warned communities minister Lord Greenhalgh that time was ‘running out’ for communities that rely on EU cash after it emerged that government plans for a UK-wide […]

Overseas health and care staff will be exempted from the fee levied on non-EU migrants to pay for the NHS in a u-turn from Boris Johnson following pressure from his backbenches and opposition MPs. Downing Street said the prime minister has asked officials at the Home Office and the Department for Health and Social Care […]

PETER TRUDGILL on a remarkable language made up equally from two others From time to time we hear about ‘mixed languages’. Maltese, for example, is sometimes said to be a mixture of the European language, Italian, and the North African variety of Arabic. But it isn’t really. Its grammatical structures show that it is basically […]

Former Australian PM and China expert Kevin Rudd has some stark forecasts in a Zoom interview with ANDREW ADONIS Andrew Adonis has interviewed Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia. Photo by Michael Masters/Getty Images – Credit: Getty Images Kevin Rudd is that rare beast: a diplomat and academic in politics. The former Australian prime […]

The home secretary’s immigration bill, which claims ending free movement will open up Britain to the world, has rightly attracted derision, says STEVE ANGLESEY. In these confusing lockdown times it’s all too easy to forget what day, even what month it is. So we must be grateful to home secretary Priti Patel for this week’s […]

MITCH BENN reflects on last weekend’s coronavirus lockdown protests in Hyde Park. For someone who’s ostensibly got nothing to do at the moment I seem to be weirdly busy. If anything I’ve been over-committing myself; I’ve actually had to back out of a couple of projects for which I’d volunteered in a burst of enthusiasm […]

The pandemic has shown the different nations of the United Kingdom moving in different directions. John Kampfner wonders if this will signal the start of a permanent dismantling. Have your say Send your letters for publication to The New European by emailing letters@theneweuropean.co.uk and pick up an edition each Thursday for more comment and analysis. […]

Around the world, organised crime gangs are exploiting the crisis to strengthen their grip on societies. Matteo Pazzona reports The citizens of Iguala in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, encountered several billboards hanging on different sites recently. They read: ‘People of Iguala, we ask you to please stay inside your home, we do not […]

PATRICK SAWER explores the enduring trope of the cowardly Italian and finds far more fitting illustrations of the country’s national character. Heard the one about the number of gears on an Italian tank? ‘Six. One forward, five reverse’. Or the one about the smallest book in the world? ‘The Italian Book of War Heroes’. Funny, […]

Just as a recession reveals businesses in bad shape, so this pandemic has exposed the disastrous state of the social care system. IAN BIRRELL investigates a broken industry in tragic turmoil. There is little to distinguish Burlington Court Care Home from thousands like it around Britain. It sits in a residential area of Glasgow, a […]

MICHAEL WHITE on the week minds began to turn to unfinished business in Europe. Apart from the grim rollcall of the Covid-19 casualties and 2.1 million jobless, two memorable details I won’t easily forget came my way in the past few days, both courtesy of Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers. Neither had anything directly to do with […]

Local emergency services face being ‘burnt out’ by no-deal Brexit planning, a leaked government report has found. The report, compiled by cross-party coronavirus scrutiny committee C-19 Foresight, said that failing to seek an extension would ‘compound COVID-19 with a second UK societal-wide, economic and social, chronic threat’. The 76-page national review said that all 42 […]

A Tory MP has been slammed for taking to social media to brand opposition MPs ‘work-shy’ for wanting to continue withthe virtual parliament during the coronavirus pandemic. https://twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/1263410328102219776 Rees-Mogg said he wants MPs to come in after June 2, following the Whitsun recess, to set an example to the rest of the country, but that […]

Labour has refound its mission as ministers get used to the new normal, argues JAMES BALL. Sunday mornings cannot be fun for anyone in professional politics, particularly if you’re affiliation is with the Labour Party – what for others is a leisurely scan of the paper over breakfast is for you a nerve-wracking assessment of […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on a shocking survey that lays bare the reputational damage the UK has suffered, as a result of its handling of the coronavirus. The survey was conducted by the Reputation Squad in April. Illustration: The New European – Credit: Archant It will hopefully take more than Boris Johnson to trash the UK’s reputation […]

Campaigner GINA MILLER on how she came to bond with a troll who had been abusing her online. Gina Miller meets a pro-Brexit internet troll as part of a BBC documentary. Photograph: BBC. – Credit: Archant ‘There are no strangers,’ William Butler Yeats once dreamily observed. ‘Only friends you haven’t met yet.’ One wonders if […]

Reopening schools during lockdown should be a priority as education is vital for social mobility, ANDREW ADONIS argues. When Tony Blair famously said his three priorities were education, education and education, the then Tory prime minister John Major quipped that he had the same priorities but not necessarily in the same order. Blair was true […]

BONNIE GREER on Donald Trump’s reckless plan to get re-elected this autumn. Like the plot of a Dario Fo play or a scenario from a Mel Brooks movie, the notorious germophobe Donald Trump has met his biggest opponent yet: a killer virus. ‘I can’t get sick! I can’t get sick!’ he is known to cry […]

The prime minister will not face a police investigation into his links with Jennifer Arcuri, an American model-turned-technology entrepreneur. Boris Johnson with Jennifer Arcuri at an Innotech summit in July 2013. Photograph: Innotech Network/YouTube. – Credit: Archant A review of Boris Johnson’s links with businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri found there was a ‘close association’ between them […]

Who is on the BBC Question Time panel tonight? Here’s your full guide Chris Philp Who? Well, quite. Junior justice minister After a solid run of Cabinet big-hitters representing the government on Question Time, tonight it’s the turn of Chris Philp, a man not even a household name in his own household and most notable […]

Scores of Tory MPs joined the opposition in a failed coup to stop the election of a Boris Johnson ally as head of an all-powerful scrutiny committee. Bernard Jenkin, a Vote Leave board member, was elected chair of the liaison committee despite a challenge to block him from the position from within his own party. […]

Health secretary Matt Hancock has been warned ‘time is running out’ for the government to launch a test, track and trace system if a second wave of cornavirus is to be avoided. Boris Johnson had announced a testing and tracing system considered essential for easing the current coronavirus lockdown will be up and running by […]