News and Opinion

Following the latest coronavirus news can be hard on your mental health, but for ALASTAIR CAMPBELL, we can always get good out of the bad. A few years ago, I wrote a short book, The Happy Depressive, in which I went through a few of my life rules. To one of them I gave the […]

Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s chief international correspondent, reports on the global nature of the coronavirus pandemic, and the international response needed to tackle it Now we know. Now we all know what it’s like to live in a war zone. At the least, we know what it’s like to live in this one. Our new […]

The only ‘herd immunity’ world leaders should opt for is a united global effort for the state to invest, writes ANDREW ADONIS, Whatever may or may not have been briefed or initially reported, as soon as the scale of the coronavirus pandemic became clear, the British government did not act on the basis of sacrificing […]

Care homes could be priced out of sourcing personal protective equipment (PPE) by ‘unethical’ suppliers seeking to cash in on the coronavirus crisus, one English provider has said. The Surrey-based CHD Living group says smaller social care companies could struggle to attain approved protective equipment as prices had reached ‘laughable’ levels. Shaleeza Hasham, Head of […]

Even the Conservative-backing newspapers are growing weary of the government’s handling of the coronavirus epidemic. The front cover of the Telegraph newspaper. Photograph: Twitter. – Credit: Archant The Daily Mail uses a ‘statistic that humbles ministers’ by reporting that of the 550,000 NHS staff only 2,000 people had been tested. It’s ‘the latest shocking example […]

Millionaire Brexit-backing businessman Arron Banks has lost a bid to use European human rights law to overturn a six-figure inheritance tax bill on political donations to UKIP. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) assessed the Brexiteer as owing just over £160,000 on almost £1 million in donations to UKIP between October 2014 and March 2015. Donations […]

A newsreader has been left baffled by a government announcement that the NHS will receive just 30 extra ventilators next week rather than the 30,000 it needs. BBC presenter Jane Hill announced the news live on the news channel as she was told the number of ventilators the NHS would receive was only in double […]

Defence secretary Ben Wallace has been self-isolating after feeling the symptoms of the coronavirus, it has been disclosed. Wallace said he was now recovered after spending a week in his flat. He had continued to work throughout his illness. ‘I felt symptoms last Tuesday and followed NHS guidelines by self-isolating in my flat,’ he told […]

Donald Trump said he had concerns about Boris Johnson’s initial response to the coronavirus – claiming it could have been ‘very catastrophic’ until he changed tack. The US president suggested the prime minister had looked to ‘ride out’ the virus in an approach that would have caused ‘a lot of death’. The G7 ally’s comments […]

With no PMQs to review for a while, we look back on some classic encounters, starting with Tony Blair’s first as prime minister The most striking initial take on the prime minister’s questions of May 21, 1997 is just old it looks. Yes, it’s 23 years old, but to my eye it looks like the […]

A new Labour leader finally takes Jeremy Corbyn’s place this week – his dogged determination to carry on to the end has been one of his final strategic mistakes. No-one could have predicted the crisis the country would be facing when Labour decided to set the close of the leadership contest for this week, but […]

MPs want Boris Johnson to hold a virtual Prime Minister’s Questions session to ensure he does not avoid scrutiny. Parliament is now shut for at least four weeks, and there are doubts whether it will re-open on 21st April as planned. The Commons authorities are reportedly planning a two-day week system to limit the numbers […]

Experts at King’s College London have developed a free coronavirus app to monitor symptoms on a population-wide level. TIM SPECTOR from the institution said that the public response has been staggering. The global COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is a public health emergency. In just under three months, we have gone from […]

Are you protected for life once you have the coronavirus antibodies as the government’s experts claim? CONNOR BAMFORD assesses the claim which spurred the idea of ‘herd immunity’. Patrick Vallance, chief scientific adviser to the UK government, recently said that many groups are working on blood tests for COVID-19, adding: ‘That would tell us who […]

When Boris Johnson posted a screenshot of his virtual cabinet meeting using Zoom it did not take long for Twitter to respond in its usual hilarious manner. People had many questions – why did they all look like the audience members of Question Time? Why was the prime minister giving out the ID of the […]

The government not only needs to provide help to the people of Britain but a vision of hope too, says ANDREW ADONIS. Andrew Adonis says university students should be allowed to repeat their final year without paying fees after the coronavirus lockdown has been lifted. Picture: PA – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images In a matter […]

Labour has said the government has ‘big questions’ to answer as to why it was continually missing its coronavirus testing target. 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. Find your nearest stockist here or subscribe […]

Labour pressure group Blue Labour has refused to back any leadership contender ahead of the close of the ballot, claiming that the party remains ‘lost’. The group, an unofficial sub-group affiliated with the party and formed by Maurice Glasman, claimed the none of the leadership candidates had ‘grasped the scale of Labour’s defeat or its […]

Political fun for all the family with our fiendishly tough trivia test, set by STEVE ANGLESEY. During the lockdown The New European will set you a series of questions as part of our big self-isolating quiz. Prove you know you have been paying attention to politics in recent years by having a go. How many […]

There is no specific restriction on the number of times people can go shopping, Downing Street said after a cabinet minister suggested a once-weekly limit in order to help combat coronavirus. Transport secretary Grant Shapps suggested Britons should only buy the essentials in their weekly trip to the supermarket. The official coronavirus guidance issued by […]

Tory MP Damian Green has called for a cooling of international relations with China, suggesting something akin to how the UK treated Russia during the Cold War. Green, formerly Theresa May’s second in command when she was in Downing Street, has argued that links with Beijing should be dialled back to something like the UK’s […]

A coronavirus test centre for NHS workers has opened at an Ikea store in a bid to increase checks for frontline staff. The drive-through centre has opened in the car park of the Swedish firm’s store in Wembley, north-west London, and Ikea said it is reviewing its other sites to see if any more can […]

A look from JOHN KAMPFNER at what will be swept away by the COVID-19 pandemic – and what will remain. Only one in 5,000 people survived, scavenging for food, searching for loved ones, for anyone who could keep the world going. The biggest concentration of the living was to be found in the Scottish Highlands, […]

BONNIE GREER assesses the English coping strategies coming to the fore during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. Americans and Italians and the French, just to name a few cultures, are touchy-feely. An American will shake your hand under almost any circumstances. Or give you a hug. Especially if they do not know you because the hug […]

A Conservative MP has denied claims that ventilator orders are being given to companies which support the Tory party. Douglas Ross said the UK government is looking at all available options to help the NHS tackle thousands of coronavirus cases across the UK. Dyson recently announced that it had received an order from prime minister […]

Take our seven questions to find out what readers of The New European think about the government’s handling of the coronavirus – and what the next Labour leader should do about it. Have you changed your mind on how you voted in the general election in the last three months? Do you think the transition […]

The Brexit transition period must be delayed to help the UK after the coronavirus outbreak. The coronavirus crisis, resulting in mass panic buying, hoarding and supply shortages with extensive empty shelves in supermarkets, has inadvertently become a dry run for no-deal Brexit and an unofficial test of resilience in the UK. I expect to see […]

There was a spike in the number of people reporting significant levels of depression and anxiety immediately following the lockdown, according to a flash study. Researchers found that on Tuesday March 24 – the day after prime minister Boris Johnson announced the stringent stay-at-home clampdown – 38% of study participants reported significant depression and 36% […]