News and Opinion

Remainer MPs have drafted a bill that would force Boris Johnson to delay Brexit until January 31 if he cannot get a deal with the EU. 1/8 The European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 6) Bill 2019 pic.twitter.com/16cmhdRkOp— Hilary Benn (@hilarybennmp) September 2, 2019 A cross-party group of Remainer MPs have published their bill detailing action they […]

Richard Luck looks at an actress who has managed to remain very British while also being undeniably European. Charlotte Rampling, like her contemporaries Jane Birkin and Jacqueline Bisset, has managed to remain very British while also being undeniably European. Perhaps by virtue of having lived in Paris so long, Rampling feels more like a product […]

A city with a musical pedigree to match any, Sheffield is still producing acts that could not have come from anywhere else, as Sophia Deboick reports Jarvis Cocker, lead singer of English rock band Pulp, performs live on the NME stage at the Glastonbury Festival near Pilton, Somerset on 26th June 1994. Photo: Michael Putland/Getty […]

A cross-party group of 75 MPs and peers are bringing legal action against the government and plan to tell the courts that it would be ‘unconstitutional’ to deny enough time in parliament to discuss Brexit. As Boris Johnson plans to meet his cabinet, it has been claimed that the government’s legal argument for dropping the […]

Up until recently Jeremy Corbyn was accused of taking a leaf out of the Communist Party book, but now it is the ERG’s views on democracy that put the Tories in that territory. Boris Johnson, the man who lied during the 2016 referendum campaign and used dubious methods to become prime minister will, of course, […]

A Brexiteer MP has been publicly corrected by a fellow Tory after he tweeted about the need to move on from an austerity budget – but blamed the EU, not his own party, for imposing it on the UK. Longtime eurosceptic John Redwood had almost 500 replies to his tweet which called for “the austerity […]

As unrest in the African giant simmers, Paul Knott explains what is behind the protests and the bloody history the country has yet to leave behind. Algeria has always been different. It largely avoided the Arab Spring uprisings that swept the Middle East in 2010-12. But the struggle its people are now waging against their […]

The government’s poster and online campaign telling people to ‘Get ready for Brexit’ has been hijacked on social media and Twitter users are certainly not using the #GetReady hashtag as intended. #GetReadyForBrexit pic.twitter.com/t88NC9htXe— Richard Littler (@richard_littler) September 2, 2019 The government’s £100 million “Get ready” campaign has begun to roll out nationwide with billboards and […]

A doctor involved in giving expert opinion to the government about a no-deal Brexit has been told by a Brexiteer MP that he should be ‘ashamed’ for asking him about mortality rates. Doctor David Nichol, a consultant urologist from Birmingham, said he was involved giving expert opinion on the NHS to government officials for the […]

Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg says that the public cannot have another say on Brexit – because it would overturn the original decision to vote to Leave. Damien from Maidenhead called Rees-Mogg on LBC to try to understand the Brexiteers’ hesitation in not giving the public another say. He said: “I was undecided in 2016 so I […]

Boris Johnson is attempting to keep his MPs in line by warning any that defy the whip on Brexit they will lose their status as a Tory MP. A senior source from the Tory whips office said that any MP who defies the the party “will have the whip withdrawn and will not stand as […]

We are in a fight between a flawed and tainted semi-democracy and a proper democracy, writes AC GRAYLING. One of Boris Johnson’s cabinet colleagues has already confirmed unequivocally what we all know: that prorogation is a deliberate effort by Johnson to suppress parliament because he knows that he will not get a ‘No Deal’ Brexit […]

Tony Blair is to call on for Labour to oppose any move by Boris Johnson to hold a snap general election until Brexit has been resolved – but has praised Jeremy Corbyn for his work so far. The former prime minister will say Labour should not “fall into the elephant trap” of backing a Westminster […]

Boris Johnson’s comparison of women in burkas to letterboxes led to a ‘significant spike’ in Islamophobic incidents, an anti-racism organisation has claimed. Tell MAMA said there was a 375% increase in anti-Muslim incidents from the week before Johnson made the comments to the week after. In the week following the publication of the prime minister’s […]

The prime minister is being urged to come clean on the ‘potentially disastrous’ risks a no-deal Brexit poses to the UK’s food supply. Former prime minster Gordon Brown joined the GMB union, campaign group Hope Not Hate and food charity Sustain, to warn Boris Johnson that crashing out of the EU threatened food supplies. A […]

A pro-EU campaign group has had its applications to join the Conservative Party annual conference turned down, despite having several Tory MP supporters. The applications from Best For Britain, including that of its CEO Naomi Smith, were rejected with no explanation from the party, reported the Mirror. Tory supporters of the group have included Dominic […]

Hundreds of people across the North East hsvse turned out to a People’s Vote rally that has called for resistance to the suspension of parliament. The rally, held in the Assembly Rooms in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, heard the demand from political, business and community leaders on a weekend when an estimated 100,000 people joined protests against Boris […]

The recent row over Enid Blyton is nothing new, says Charlie Connelly. The children’s author was always controversial. Enid Blyton isn’t often in the news these days, not least because it’s more than half a century since her death in 1968 at the age of 71. She was however at the centre of a kerfuffle […]

TIM WALKER reviews The Doctor at London’s Almeida Theatre Social media has helped to make identity politics an inescapable part of modern life. This has been as much of a curse as a blessing since it means we’re now required to be in an almost perpetual state of outrage over this, that and the other. […]

Michael Gove has refused to say whether the government would abide by legislation against no-deal Brexit, if it were passed by parliament. The minister was noncommittal when asked by Andrew Marr what the government would do in this case, saying he’d “wait to see” what the bill would say. His refusal to commit to the […]

Michael Gove has said that he meant something different back in July when he opposed the prorogation of parliament. Since Boris Johnson announced the move, the minister has been haunted by footage of a previous interview in which he said he would oppose it. But Gove, who has since accepted a position in Johnson’s government, […]

After Boris Johnson threatened automatic deselection for any Conservative MPs who vote against a no-deal Brexit, David Gauke has said he would still put country before party. David Gauke said that he would vote against the government despite the threat made by Boris Johnson. The former justice secretary, who gives his name to the anti-no-deal […]

JAMES BALL on the Conservatives’ latest Facebook campaign targetting Remain MPs. If you’d believe some of the more excitable corners of the internet, if you want to see who will win the next election, you need look no further than who’s winning the battle of online advertising on Facebook. And with the government confirming suspicions […]

What Jim Davidson’s latest comments tell us about Brexiteers’ attitudes. Towards the end of his troubled life, the comic genius born Leonard Alfred Schneider would end his routines with the words “I’m not a comedian, I’m
Lenny Bruce”. What a welcome clarification it would be if Jim Davidson were to adopt the first half of this […]

Like Pride, St Patrick’s Day or Eid, sponsored corporate interests are ruining Notting Hill Carnival. Back in the sepia-tinted day, Multicultural Man was at an imperfect stage of development, so I manifested instead as Subcultural Man. Like many young people I had antinomian pretensions – but of course, there’s hardly anything more conducive to conformity, […]

A lot of recent focus in the media has been on suicide among students in higher education – but it’s missing the bigger picture, argues COLIN TALBOT. Student suicides and mental health issues have been much in the news recently. There are undoubtedly issues to be addressed and there has been a rise in student […]

Chants of ‘shame on you’ were directed at Boris Johnson by demonstrators outside Downing Street as streets around government buildings in Westminster were brought to a standstill. Campaigners are fighting to #stopthecoup in Central London. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/London. – Credit: PA Scores more have taken place across the United Kingdom – all united by the […]

The idea that we have always been a reluctant, recalcitrant EU member is a myth, says James Dunne. With the clock ticking towards the latest Brexit deadline, it’s better late than never to reflect on the story of the UK’s EU membership, over the nearly half century since it joined. A familiar narrative about the […]