News and Opinion

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer has gained more union support for his bid to become Labour Party leader. The Community union has endorsed the early front-runner for the job along with Angela Rayner for deputy leader. Community general secretary Roy Rickhuss said of Sir Keir: “His experience and vision are what the Labour Party […]

The great city is known for melding different cultural influences, says SOPHIA DEBOICK, but that does not mean it lacks a voice of its own. Mumbai is the entertainment capital of India, the home of a film industry that has become one of the country’s cultural touchstones. Yet Bollywood, like the city itself, is the […]

The ‘get ready for Brexit’ campaign last October had very little impact on the public’s level of preparedness for Brexit, the Whitehall spending watchdog has found. The National Audit Office (NAO) said ministers spent £46 million on the “get ready for Brexit” campaign ahead of the UK’s expected EU withdrawal date of October 31st. The […]

UK citizens remain unsafe from outside interference in UK elections, a former Cambridge Analytica employee has warned. Brittany Kaiser, previously business development director at the company, said the level of disinformation on social media is just as bad – if not worse – than during the EU referendum. The self-styled data rights activist was visiting […]

Organisers of a campaign to pay for Big Ben to ring out to mark Brexit have admitted defeat, as questions were raised around the donated money. The appeal raised £272,770, fuelled by Boris Johnson’s suggestion that “we are working up a plan so people can bung a bob for a Big Ben bong”. But no […]

Pro-Europeans have kickstarted a campaign to try to get Ode To Joy back into the charts on the day that the UK will depart the European Union. Andre Rieu at the 2012 Classic Brit Awards at the Royal Albert Hall. Photograph: Ian West/PA. – Credit: PA Archive/PA Images Lib Dem MEP Caroline Voaden is one […]

A Conservative MP has banned French and German wine from his constituency’s Brexit celebration party on Friday, allowing only drinks from Britain and the Commonwealth. Andrew Rosindell, a hardline Brexiteer who has spoken of his “humiliation” of having to carry a pink passport, has organised the party in his constituency of Romford, East London, to […]

The US ambassador to Britain has said that British farmers need to embrace chlorinated chicken, ahead of Brexit talks between Donald Trump and Boris Johnson’s teams. The government has repeatedly vowed not to weaken food standards as part of a trade deal with the US with environment secretary Theresa Villiers saying that the UK would […]

Labour leadership contender Sir Keir Starmer has criticised a question from a BBC presenter about whether there were ‘too many foreigners’ in Britain. BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Nicky Campbell was asking Sir Keir about Labour’s need to win back more socially conservative voters to win an election. As Boris Johnson prepared to unveil a […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been criticised for claiming that Brexit could take Britain into ‘a golden age’, but hinting it is up to the country ‘to make it one’. The outspoken Brexiteer has written an opinion piece for the Daily Mail comparing Brexit to when the “mighty Augustus quelled the unrest and strife in ancient Rome […]

Opinion is split on the Treasury’s decision to release three million commemorative Brexit 50p coins into circulation on January 31st. Chancellor Sajid Javid holding the Brexit coin, a 50p bearing the inscription ‘Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations’. Photograph: HM Treasury/PA. – Credit: PA Remainers have vowed to either refuse the coin in shops, […]

Actor Hugh Grant has claimed that ‘the country’s finished’ after Brexit happens. The Love Actually star was speaking to the Associated Press in an interview about his new film The Gentleman, alongside co-star Charlie Hunnam. The interviewer briefly touched upon politics, asking him how he felt after the election result, in which he had campaigned […]

The government’s new ‘global talent’ visa route for post-Brexit Britain has been described by critics as a ‘marketing gimmick. Boris Johnson said he wanted to send a message that Britain is open to the “most talented minds in the world” as the country leaves the European Union. The “Global Talent” visa route – to be […]

There will always be a place for the UK at the European Union, the Irish prime minister has insisted. Leo Varadkar, who reiterated his concerns about being able to strike a deal by December 31, said the UK would be welcomed back into the EU if it ever wanted to return. “On Friday, the United […]

Boris Johnson’s senior adviser could be a ‘useful lightning road’ for the government, according to the prime minister’s sister. Rachel Johnson appearing on the BBC1 current affairs programme, The Andrew Marr Show. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA Wire. – Credit: PA Rachel Johnson said Dominic Cummings might be the man who takes the unpopular decisions, suggesting this […]

Remainers have taken a defiant stance against the new commemorative Brexit 50p coin. After the chancellor signalled that three million of the coins – marking the UK’s departure from the EU – would enter into circulation on January 31st, Remain campaigners vowed to take action. Readers of The New European Facebook page said that they […]

Former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine and other politicians have accused Boris Johnson of rubbing the noses of Remainers in their defeat through plans to celebrate Brexit. The Tory peer, who fought for Britain to stay in the EU, told The Observer newspaper the raft of celebrations risked exacerbating national divisions at a time when […]

As Terry Gilliam’s version of Don Quixote finally reaches our screens, after 30 years in the pipeline, Richard Luck looks at what makes the book so… quixotic Don Quixote – Credit: Archant In the land of the unmade movie, Terry Gilliam is king. Leaving aside the pictures he’s turned down – Who Framed Roger Rabbit, […]

Chancellor Sajid Javid has unveiled the new commemorative 50p coin to mark Britain’s departure from the EU. Phillip Hammond originally ordered production of the celebratory coins in advance of the original departure date of March 29th. His successor Javid made another attempt for October 31st. But the Brexit delays meant about a million coins had […]

A new film, to be broadcast on Holocaust Memorial Day, tells the little-known story of a group of children taken from the death camps to the Lake District. JASON SOLOMONS talks to the team behind this moving story. A scene from the production. Photo: Helen Sloan / BBC – Credit: Archant In August 1945, Britain […]

The sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff remains the world’s worst ever maritime disaster, yet a little known footnote in the history of the Second World War. RAY KERSHAW explores its complex legacy On the evening of January 30, 1945 – the 12th anniversary of the Nazis’ accession to power – Adolf Hitler made his last […]

Radical constitutional changes are on the way. We need to organise our resistance, says LEIGHTON ANDREWS Will Simpson’s article in issue 174 of The New European got the ball rolling, so I’d like to give it another shove. In these pages last month he wrote about Charter 88, the campaign of the largely liberal left, […]

A Michelin-starred chef has been refused permission to remain in the UK after Brexit – despite living here for 23 years. Claude Bosi, who runs the Bibendum restaurant in Chelsea, posted on social media to claim he had his application for the EU Settlement Scheme denied. According to a post on Instagram, in which he […]

Labour MP David Lammy reviews an important new book which challenges many of the narratives about women in the criminal justice system. “Our hope is that then the cage bars, both visible and invisible, can finally be broken.” Anna Motz, Anne Aiyegbusi and Maxine Dennis are fearless in their ambition: to emancipate women from a […]

MICHAEL WHITE on the first signs of the grievance-mongering that lies ahead for us after January 31. As we head towards Brexit Day it’s getting ever-harder to find news about this shape-shifting event in most of the newspapers which campaigned so passionately for it. Not enough conflict to hold their attention, eh? Apart from the […]

RAGS the musical had a great deal of potential, but the latest performance was an open-heart surgery gone wrong, writes TIM WALKER. Often considered to be one of the worst songs of all time, MacArthur Park has a special place in my heart. Jimmy Webb wrote a big, bold and beautiful score, but also the […]

Birthday boy MITCH BENN comes up with a proposal to help take the heat out of our polarised times. There’s always a bit of a balancing act to being a columnist; on the one hand you’ve been engaged by the publication you’re writing for to provide your own personal ‘take’ on things and it’s to […]

With HS2 under increasing threat, ANDREW ADONIS launches an impassioned defence of the project. What do the Victoria Line, the Jubilee Line, the Channel Tunnel, the M25 and Buckingham Palace all have in common? They were wildly over budget, long delayed – and the Treasury wanted to cancel them all. HS2 is going through this […]