News and Opinion

The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says her case has been a “failure of diplomacy and campaigning” ahead of her return to court in Iran. Richard Ratcliffe said it would take “a long time” for his wife to recover from the psychological trauma of her ordeal, but that continuing media coverage had “kept her a bit […]

A Tory minister has raised eyebrows after claiming “British wind” will soon fuel homes across the UK. Paul Scully, a minister at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), made the announcement during an interview on Sky News, in which he promoted a new government pledge of £95million in funding for offshore wind farms in […]

Exports of UK goods to the European Union dropped by more than two-fifths in January as the Brexit transition period came to an end. New figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that overall exports from the UK fell by £5.6 billion – 19.3%. It was driven by a £5.6 billion, or 40.7%, […]

Schools, colleges and universities can now apply for funding to allow students to study and work abroad as part of the post-Brexit replacement of the Erasmus exchange programme. The £110 million Turing scheme, which will fund global exchanges for about 35,000 UK students from September, will target disadvantaged students and those from under-represented areas. But […]

This May will see the country’s largest round of contests outside a general election, in an extraordinary day of democracy and crucial contests Election buffs are in for an exciting spring; and for every party it will be unusually tense. For the first time since Brexit and the outbreak of Covid, millions of real votes, […]

LIZ GERARD on what is behind the contrast in coverage between the two royals. Why does the press hate Meghan? Why does it give her such a hard time and Prince Andrew such an easy ride? It must be because of her colour, her nationality, her gender, her wokeness. Or so at least one planet in […]

JAMES BALL on Europe’s very uneven vaccine rollout. With so much riding on the vaccine rollout across Europe, it is perhaps unsurprising it has been quite so tempestuous and bad-tempered. Governments have been accusing one another of irresponsibility, of cheating on supplies, or botching their rollouts. Last week, Italy even stopped a shipment of vaccines destined for […]

Lack of knowledge about the condition has left Long Covid sufferers desperate and vulnerable to quack treatments.  Kate can’t hear properly. She adds hearing loss to a list of other daily symptoms which include migraines, rashes, tremors and nerve damage. An author and chartered psychologist, Kate is on a waiting list for imaging and other diagnostic […]

The European Union’s ambassador to the UK has called on London and Brussels to “give up on trying to score points” and ensure there is trust between both sides. Joao Vale de Almeida told a Westminster briefing that he wanted there to be the “best possible relationship” between Britain and the EU post-Brexit amid disputes […]

TIM WALKER on Nigel Farage’s latest business venture, Michael Gove’s backer, and a royal scam that caught out several veteran palace watchers. Nigel Farage‘s decision to quit as leader of the Reform UK party – he said he was “done” with frontline politics – may be motivated by a desire to spend more time with his […]

Amazon and Serco are among a number of businesses to receive government help with New Year Honours nominations even though they are at the centre of a row over Covid contracts, a major Whitehall leak has revealed. The Sun reports officials asked the companies to nominate staff members for the award in a list they accidentally leaked. The […]

The Tories have backed their London mayoral candidate after he was accused of politicising the disappearance of Sarah Everard. Business minister Paul Scully said Shaun Bailey can “absolutely” still run for office despite facing criticism for comments around the case of the missing 33-year-old. The mayoral candidate had said his wife and daughter “have to […]

The SNP are no longer on course to win a majority in this May’s Holyrood elections, new polling has suggested. The survey, conducted by Sevanta ComRes on behalf of The Scotsman, found Scots being put off the SNP over its leader’s botched handling of sexual harassment complaints against Alex Salmond. This is the first major poll […]

Irish journalist and academic DENNIS KENNEDY on the consequences of a demographic revolution in Northern Ireland The Northern Ireland Protocol promises to be 21st century Europe’s Schleswig-Holstein Question, the apparently intractable territorial dispute lasting most of the 19th century involving Denmark, Sweden, Prussia, Austria and some others over the two provinces straddling south Denmark and northern Germany. Lord […]

Sir Keir Starmer will target the government’s controversial 1% pay rise for NHS workers during the campaign for the May elections, declaring “a vote for Labour is a vote to support our nurses”. The Labour leader is to launch the party’s campaign for the local and mayoral elections by demanding key workers are given “a […]

Three of the government’s LGBT advisers have resigned as they issued sharp criticism of equalities ministers Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch. Jayne Ozanne accused Boris Johnson’s government of creating a “hostile environment” for LGBT people and criticised the two ministers as being “ignorant” on key issues. The government’s Equalities Office also confirmed that it had […]

Stormont’s agriculture minister has said special cricket pitch soil can be freely moved from Great Britain to Northern Ireland under Brexit rules. The clay-containing material known as loam can be obtained from counties in England to help give the ball a predictable bounce on the pitch. Northern Ireland Protocol bureaucracy has caused problems for suppliers […]

A new era of advertising in the air is being tested in Germany A new era of advertising in the sky is being tested in Germany, where a squadron of planes flying in formation has written ‘Hallo Berlin’ and ‘Hallo Hamburg’ at an altitude of 3,000m above the cities. The messages are the work of […]

The Northern Ireland secretary has failed to explain the legal grounds for scrapping Brexit customs checks in the Irish Sea. Brandon Lewis was asked to clarify which part of the Northern Ireland Protocol would allow the UK to renege on its committment on customs checks – amid claims it could be breaching international law. “Is it […]

Boris Johnson has refused to apologise for falsely accusing Labour of having voted against a pay rise for NHS staff. Johnson claimed during Prime Minister’s Questions, where he came under fire for a 1% pay rise for nurses, that Labour had opposed earlier government plans to give health workers a 2.1% hike. Johnson told MPs the […]

The failure to properly investigate allegations against ministers risks damaging public confidence, Boris Johnson’s former independent adviser on the ministerial code has warned. Sir Alex Allan said there was now a case for giving the adviser greater powers to initiate their own inquiries into complaints against members of the government. Sir Alex quit the post […]

The Welsh secretary has accused the first minister Mark Drakeford of being “fixated on politics” after said that Boris Johnson “really, really is awful”. Simon Hart said that he hopes the first minister now “slightly regrets” a clip of him saying the prime minister “really, really is awful”, which emerged during an S4C film. The Welsh […]

Sir Keir Starmer has questioned whether Boris Johnson thinks NHS workers or Dominic Cummings are more deserving of a pay rise. In this week’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir asked: “Who does the prime minister think deserves a pay rise more, an NHS nurse or Dominic Cummings?” The prime minister replied: “As I told (Daisy […]

The United States has never seen an elected politician quite like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who takes the word ‘controversial’ to new extremes. Pulitzer prize-winner and fellow Georgian ALBERT SCARDINO reports on where the conspiracy theorist congresswoman has emerged from. The northern part of Georgia is a land that has folded itself into a series of granite waves […]

A senior European Union diplomat has been summoned to the Foreign Office in a row over coronavirus vaccine exports. Nicole Mannion, deputy ambassador of the EU to the UK, attended the meeting on Wednesday morning after European Council president Charles Michel accused Britain and the US of imposing bans on the movement of jabs. Foreign […]

Greenpeace has condemned Boris Johnson’s plans to ditch taxes on short-distance domestic flights after pledging to help the environment. A review today reveals No 10 is considering cutting Air Passenger Duty on domestic flights under plans to boost connectivity within the UK. Johnson said he wanted to “build back better” after the coronavirus crisis in a […]

Dominic Raab has written to the European Council president after he claimed the UK imposed an “outright ban” on coronavirus vaccine exports. Charles Michel accused Britain and the US of imposing bans on the movement of jabs as he used a newsletter to hit back at criticisms of the bloc’s vaccine rollout. The foreign secretary […]

With galleries badly affected by Covid restrictions, street art has come to the fore to chronicle coronavirus. It’s a year or so now since the first lockdown. While many of us have been stranded indoors during this time artists and visual activists for whom the streets are both canvas and in part medium have managed to […]