News and Opinion

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL has compiled a list of what he misses the most about normal life, from Pret to Burnley Football Club. Scottish Celtic rock band Skerryvore have topped the charts with fundraising single Everyday Heros. Alastair Campbell plays bagpipes on the track. Picture: Alan Cruickshank – Credit: Archant Easter Monday. I woke up, sat down […]

The French president wants the coronavirus crisis to bring Europe closer together. JASON WALSH assesses his chances. It was noticeable right away that even as French president Emmanuel Macron attempted to stir deep national sentiments in his recent address to his nation about the coronavirus crisis, he was quick to talk about the EU. The […]

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…

Dame Emma Thompson is one of a number of voices to call on home secretary Priti Patel to end restrictions that prevent thousands of migrants in the UK from accessing financial support during the coronavirus crisis. Home secretary Priti Patel. Photograph; Parliament TV. – Credit: Archant The actress is joined by Call The Midwife star […]

More Britons support immigration now more than at any other time since the 1980s, a survey has found. An analysis of several public opinion surveys on the issue has found that around 60% of people want a more relaxed immigration system. The study, conducted by University of Exeter statistics lecturer Patrick English, charts British attitudes […]

STEVE ANGLESEY discusses the irony of Brexiteers moaning about quarantine Britain. You might remember a time not so long ago when Brexiteers like Toby Young, Katie Hopkins and Daniel Hannan roamed the land hating the European Union and what they saw as all its flabby complacency, pointless rules and polite authoritarianism. That dragon was slain, […]

Even before coronavirus, Calais was a place of tension. Now, as migrants wait in cramped, unsanitary conditions for a chance to cross the Channel, the fear is ratcheting up. CONSTANCE KAMPFNER reports. ‘It’s a bit of ritual, the evening maraude. We often see the same people and normally, we stop and chat for a bit […]

Boris Johnson’s return to work will bring more obsessing over Brexit, at a time when he should be fully focused on coronavirus. As he savoured his moment of glory after his triumph in the polls in December followed by Britain leaving the EU Treaty in January, Boris Johnson thought he had Europe at his feet […]

From the Hippodrome to the Pavilion to the Corn Exchange, Brighton’s love for music is deep-rooted in the city’s history. Brighton was a byword for hedonism long before big beat became the city’s biggest export. It was the sea that made it so, sea bathing being all the rage among the 18th century elite and […]

TIM WALKER recounts meeting Harry Andrews, an actor who never went public about his sexuality. When I arrived at the home of Harry Andrews in the Sussex countryside, I was greeted at the door by his lover of the past 30 years, who led me into the living room where the ‘tough guy’ star of […]

MITCH BENN on a death which represents far more than a statistic. I met Harry McFarlane in the late summer of 2018, when my girlfriend Leslie – Harry’s granddaughter – and I called in at her old hometown of Prestwick on our way back from that year’s Edinburgh Festival. Harry was on good form that […]

Being a stable, conservative, even slightly boring country can be helpful in a crisis – especially if you also happen to get lucky – says CATHRIN SCHAER, as she assesses whether her country is deserving of the international plaudits it has been receiving. Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel, CDU, gives a statement and press conference after […]

Several petitions calling on Boris Johnson to extend Brexit talks because of the coronavirus outbreak are picking up steam. More than 150,000 people have signed petitions appealing to Boris Johnson to extend the Brexit transition period because of the coronavirus epidemic. Over 53,000 people have signed a government appeal while just under 100,000 have penned […]

MICHAEL WHITE on the dearth of government talent on display. History’s verdict on the Johnson government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is still a long way off. An early British vaccine breakthrough could save the day. But hindsight may conclude that the moment its faltering grip on the narrative lost public confidence in the here […]

A Tory minister has refused to apologise for a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the NHS and in care homes during the coronavirus crisis. An ambulance worker wears PPE during the coronavirus outbreak. Picture: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images. – Credit: Getty Images Lord Bethell told a secret session of Lords on Thursday that no […]

The family of Boris Johnson’s senior aide Dominic Cummings feared that he would need a ventilator after becoming bed-ridden with Covid-19 symptoms. Cummings’ wife Mary Wakefield said that the political adviser and Vote Leave mastermind spent 10 days in bed with the disease, and was away from work for two weeks. The Johnson aide was […]

Sir Keir Starmer wants a probe into a leaked Labour anti-Semitism dossier to be concluded in a ‘matter of months’ in a bid to rebuild the party. The NEC will convene on Thursday to set the timescale and frame of reference for the investigation into the leaking of the 860-page report that reignited divisions as […]

The weekly ‘clap for our carers’ ritual provides a much-needed moment of gratitude and community. But LIZ GERARD wonders where it might lead. Around 2,800 overseas NHS workers face going home in 12 months if they are not offered the right to remain; Peter Byrne – Credit: PA It’s 8 o’clock on Thursday. Time to […]

A Welsh health minister has apologised after being heard swearing about a colleague during a virtual sitting of the Welsh Assembly when he accidentally left his microphone on. Vaughan Gething made the blunder on a Zoom call as he finished answering questions during a session being held by Zoom. Gething was referring to Jenny Rathbone, […]

JAMES BALL on why this crisis must result in a renewal for our health service. It was, of all people, the former Conservative chancellor Nigel Lawson who noted in his memoirs that the ‘National Health Service is the closest thing the English have to a religion’. The observation was intended as a complaint, more than […]

Boris Johnson is well enough to attend the virtual parliament to answer questions from MPs, veteran Labour MP Harriet Harman has suggested. The mother of the House of Commons, who is the longest standing female MP, said that if Johnson was well enough to talk with Donald Trump and the Queen he is well enough […]

A cabinet minister has admitted it is ‘dreadful’ that care workers who fear they have the coronavirus are not being tested. Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain (GMB) to answer questions on why a majority of care home staff workers who were not being swabbed for Covid-19, despite an increase […]

The team behind Boris Johnson’s Brexit negotiation unit are said to be split over whether or not to extend the transition period to allow the government to focus on the coronavirus outbreak. Civil servants are becoming frustrated by the government’s refusal to countenance the idea of seeking an extension beyond December 31st, while the politicians […]

10 Downing Street deliberately ignored warnings by senior ministers not to publicise the arrival of personal protective equipment (PPE) from Turkey. Downing Street shunned explicit advice from Matt Hancock’s department that it should not publicise that a shipment of essential PPE for fight against the coronavirus was on its way from Turkey. The department of […]

ANDREW ADONIS explores why the drop in oil price will benefit the world by reducing Russia and Saudi Arabia’s economic grip. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin during a video conference meeting. Picture: Alexei DruzhininTASS via Getty Images – Credit: Alexei Druzhinin/TASS Time for much-needed cheer: oil at $0 a barrel. It means less of the rulers […]

Health experts are calling for an investigation in the government’s decision to allow the Cheltenham Festival to go ahead – after fears it may have led to a rise in coronavirus cases. Culture secretary Oliver Dowden did not see reason to cancel the sporting event, despite the fact that countries including Italy were going into […]

Former Downing Street director of communications ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on how the government can improve its messaging over coronavirus. Given I’ve written thousands of words on my blog of well-intentioned advice about the government briefing operation, which seems to get worse not better, I’m not sure another ’20 ways to improve your communications strategy’ memo from […]

The government has come under renewed pressure to release minutes from Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (SAGE) meetings after it refused to do so during the coronavirus. In a letter addressed to the science and technology committee chair, Greg Clark, Sir Patrick Vallance, Boris Johnson’s chief scientific advisor, said secret advice shared during SAGE meeting […]