News and Opinion

Turkey expects to welcome British holidaymakers this summer without requiring proof of a coronavirus vaccine or negative test. Tourism minister Mehmet Ersoy said the country is “looking forward to welcoming British tourists with open arms”. British nationals made more than 2.5 million visits to Turkey in 2019, according to government figures. Ersoy said: “We have […]

An MP is cross-referencing constituents’ complaints about Dominic Cummings’ trip to Durham with those who complained about the Clapham Commons vigil. According to Guido Fawkes reporter Tom Harwood, an MP is sifting through his emails from people who complained about both in a bid to “point out the hypocrisy of their positions”. He tweeted: “One MP tells […]

A Russian-owned firm was hired to carry out key works in the £2.6million renovation of No 9 in an undisclosed contract to get it ready for White House-style television briefings. An inside source told HuffPost UK that Megahertz undertook essential work, including the installation of computers, cameras, microphones and a control desk to get the building […]

Former Remain and Leave groups have united in opposition to the government’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Opponents of Priti Patel’s latest act of legislation include Richard Tice – former chairman of the Brexit Party and Leave Means Leave – and Tom Brufatto, former leader of the People’s Vote marches and co-director of March […]

Labour has said it will not back the government’s key crime legislation because of clauses that could lead to harsher penalties for damaging a statue than attacking a woman. Shadow justice secretary David Lammy said the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill contain “poorly thought out” proposals that would impose controls on the right to protest. […]

TIM WALKER reminisces on his time covering the tax evasion trial of Ken Dodd. One normally only gets to spend an hour or so in the company of a big star – that’s all that tends to be allocated for even the biggest interviews – but in the case of Ken Dodd it was for […]

Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has suffered a historic defeat in state elections – with one senior member describing it as a “wake-up call”. Final results streaming in early Monday confirmed the centre-right CDU lost out in two elections to popular incumbent state governors – the Greens’ Winfried Kretschmann in Baden-Wuerttemberg and the centre-left […]

The EU will begin legal action on Monday over the UK’s breach of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a source close to the matter has confirmed. A letter is expected to be issued laying out the grounds on which the EU believes a breach occurred. A second “political” letter will be sent sharing the arbitration procedures […]

AstraZeneca has insisted its coronavirus vaccine is safe, after concern around blood clots prompted Ireland to become the latest European country to suspend use of the jabs. A review of available safety data in more than 17 million people who have been vaccinated across the UK and EU has shown no evidence of increased risk, […]

Downing Street needs to be more transparent over the evidence needed to call a referendum on uniting Ireland, an expert has said. Professor Colin Harvey, a professor of Human Rights Law, has called for the UK to collaborate with Dublin to ensure voters are adequately prepared. He wanted to avoid a repeat of the “mess” surrounding the […]

South African comedian Trevor Noah has taken aim at the royal family and Boris Johnson during his stint as host of this year’s Grammy Awards. Noah, who hosts the late-night satirical news programme The Daily Show in the US, made fun of the prime minister during a comment about UK pop star Harry Styles. The comedian joked that […]

Brexiteer Mark Francois has urged Boris Johnson to stop paying the EU for post-Brexit arrangements after the UK’s decision to leave the EU led to a number of issues in Northern Ireland.  The chair of the European Research Group and Tory MP said the prime minister should reconsider paying £20bn worth of payments over the […]

Scottish secretary Alister Jack has hailed the vaccination programme against the virus as being a success for the UK. The minister claimed Scotland would still be in the “vice-like grip” of coronavirus if it had followed SNP advice on vaccinations. He insisted: “Had we followed the SNP’s advice on vaccines and waited for the flat-footed […]

Boris Johnson will discuss ways to protect women and girls from violence with the head of the Metropolitan Police amid a storm of criticism over the force’s handling of a vigil in memory of Sarah Everard. The prime minister is expected to chair a meeting of the government’s Crime and Justice Taskforce on Monday, with […]

Anthony Scaramucci, former Trump aide turned foe, tells ALASTAIR CAMPBELL why Joe Biden does not want his predecessor in jail, and why the US might need an entirely new political party to repair the damage done by his former boss. Working for Donald Trump in the first place almost cost Anthony Scaramucci his marriage. Turning on his […]

PETER TRUDGILL on how easy it is to make false assumptions about connections between words  Etymology is the study of the origins of words and the development of their forms and meanings. It is a scholarly activity which needs considerable knowledge of large numbers of languages, plus language history, linguistic change, historical linguistics, semantics (the […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on an important new book that concentrates on the societies – not the states – that have emerged from communism. In 1996 Britain was, well, a bit full of itself. Nothing new there of course, but this time there was a tangible positivity about a new and vigorous assertion of Britishness. It felt as […]

Next week’s elections in the Netherlands will be seen as a test of how voters assess their government’s performances in the Covid crisis.  Four years ago, the world watched the Dutch elections – among the first major votes after the Brexit referendum and election of Donald Trump – for a clue to whether the anti-European, populist right was poised for a […]

TANIT KOCH on what the Germans are only just learning about their country under the long rule of Angela Merkel. Most Germans (ven not engaged in ze race for pole pool positions) will have come across one phrase in those heady days when we could actually go on holiday: “You’re lucky, you’ve got Merkel.”  Britons, […]

Musicians from the US capital city have been more effective than many of its politicians at articulating the country’s problems. By SOPHIA DEBOICK The official presidential playlists issued by Joe Biden – who marks 50 days in office this week – do not necessarily reveal much about his personal musical tastes. The practice, started by […]

Independence for Scotland would represent a reckless ‘hold my beer’ response to Brexit. By DOUGLAS ALEXANDER. I’m Scottish, British and European. I’m comfortable with layered identities, with pluralism, and I believe deeply in international cooperation. In a previous life I was the UK’s Europe minister so I’ve seen the EU from the inside. It isn’t perfect, but I continue […]

Recent unrest in the country reflects the competing forces which have been exerted on it for centuries. Should it look to Moscow or to Europe? Andrew North reports from Tbilisi A narrow street in the centre of Tbilisi lined by distinguishedlooking 19th century houses leads to a brutalist, yellow-brown Soviet-era office block that houses the […]

The best way to get the most out of our NHS is to compare it with health systems across Europe – and how they pay their workers. Everyone knows the truism. The NHS is a national religion. Every other institution is known by its name, if it’s known at all. But the health service is “our” NHS. The people […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on the life of Iolanda Balaș, an extraordinary athlete who dominated her sport, despite the petty interferences of her country’s communist authorities. It rained in Rome on September 8, 1960, a light, persistent afternoon drizzle that drenched the crowd at a packed Stadio Olimpico and saw athletes and officials alike drifting ethereally around the […]

The Scottish Tories have said that a report investigating whether or not Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code should be published before the Holyrood elections. James Hamilton, the former head of public prosecutions in Ireland, was tasked with investigating if the first minister had breached the ministerial code in relation to the botched handling of […]

Boris Johnson has held “frank” conversations with the DUP on the Northern Ireland Protocol as he visited the region. Extra checks on goods passing through its ports from the rest of the UK following Brexit have angered unionists. The prime minister toured a mass vaccination centre in Arlene Foster’s Co Fermanagh constituency. He was joined by […]

Comedian Mitch Benn hands out his alternative awards of another week in politics… REPEAT OFFENDER OF THE WEEK Rishi Sunak, who followed up last week’s excruciating “I’m just a guy, standing in front of a country, commending my budget to the House” video with an equally bizarre sequel in which he was interviewed by a […]

The Mash Report, the BBC show which was accused of left-wing bias, will not return for another series. The programme, a satirical take on the week’s news which featured Nish Kumar and Rachel Parris, first aired in 2017. The BBC said in a statement: “We are very proud of The Mash Report but, in order […]