News and Opinion

Germany is seen as Europe’s dull but stable backbone. But for how much longer, asks JASON WALSH? It should have been a resounding victory, and looked at through squinted eyes, perhaps it is. Angela Merkel will be re-appointed chancellor of Germany, leading the country for a fourth term – something that has only happened once […]

Labour MPs HEIDI ALEXANDER and ALISON McGOVERN on why their party cannot continue to brush Brexit under the carpet Like the German word schadenfreude there is doubtless a compound noun somewhere that perfectly encapsulates a dilemma you pretend to grapple with whilst never really dealing with it in any serious or honest way. If it […]

If you’re heading to the Stop Brexit march in Manchester on Sunday you’ll want to take these posters Heading to the Stop Brexit march in Manchester in Sunday? Then as a New European reader you won’t want to be without one of our brilliant and suitably Mancunian placards we’ve created especially for the occasion. Download […]

Jeremy Corbyn and his Momentum supporters have a stranglehold on the Labour Party. RICHARD PORRITT reports from Labour conference on the impact that is having on the party’s Brexit stance A few hundred yards from the armed police that patrol the entrance to the Brighton Conference Centre a queue snakes around the block. Young and […]

Brexit was bad enough, now John McDonnell has given businesses even more to think about. ANGELA JAMESON reports Which is the bigger economic crisis facing the UK – the prospect of leaving the EU without any trade deal or a Labour government with Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister and war-gaming John McDonnell as his renationalising […]

BONNIE GREER on the late Sir Peter Hall, a man who revolutionised English-speaking theatre Peter Hall called his memoir Making An Exhibition Of Myself, a phrase his mother would hurl at him from time to time. An only child, and the grandson of Queen Victoria’s ratcatcher, he was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, a […]

The grassroots movement to stop Brexit returns to the streets this weekend with a mass march in Manchester. Organiser PETER FRENCH issues a rallying cry A friend of mine who will be taking part in Sunday’s Stop Brexit march has only recently become an active participant in our fight. He told me he had decided […]

Former Labour minister DENIS MACSHANE gives his snap verdict on the speech Jeremy Corbyn gave today Jeremy Corbyn’s keynote conference speech was carefully calibrated to stay on not-quite diverging tramlines with Theresa May but he at least dropped Labour language that the EU was responsible for driving down wages in Britain because of freedom of […]

If you thought you couldn’t see anything more embarrassing from the Brexit fall-out than the March For Leadsom on Parliament, think again. An enterprising elderly warbler has taken to YouTube to voice his support for exiting the EU via the means of a mind-numbingly awful music video. The Brexit Song (We’ll Be Strong) by Peter […]

Boris Johnson’s Brexit intervention has put the focus back on statistics, says ANGELA JAMESON. And the actual numbers do not look good Boris Johnson has done more to stimulate interest in how statistics are used and abused in the last few days than the UK Statistics Authority has managed in its 10 year lifetime. BoJo’s […]

It might have recently been overshadowed by other crises, but the Israeli-Palestinian dispute still simmers dangerously, says PAUL KNOTT Europe is reluctant to get deeply involved in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. It is distracted by seemingly more urgent issues and tells itself that only the US has any real influence on the matter. But this festering […]

There is a way to understand how much the nation has changed since the EU referendum vote. In place of a kind of hard-headedness, that famed ‘British common sense’ that we immigrants find a hallmark of life on this island, there has emerged a kind of dream state. This Britain, woolly and dreamy, is like […]

Sir Keir Starmer has said Labour could negotiate “a new single market relationship” with the EU after Brexit. The Shadow Brexit Secretary said options for retaining the benefits of the single market and customs union “should not be swept off the table”, as he also mentioned a new bespoke trade deal. Sir Keir told the […]

Jeremy Corbyn appeared to pour cold water on demand from Labour members to back membership of the single market, suggesting it could hinder his plans to nationalise the railways. More than 40 senior Labour figures, including 30 MPs, have signed an open letter in the Observer today urging the leadership to commit to remaining in […]

In the second part of the our exclusive serialisation from his latest diaries, ALASTAIR CAMPBELL describes how internal Labour opposition to Gordon Brown crumbled, tensions with Cherie Blair and Muammar Gaddafi’s incredulity that Tony Blair was stepping down Tuesday February 27, 2007 To lunch with Rebekah Wade. Chatted re her situation. (In 2005, Wade, now […]

PAUL CONNEW on the US president The word out of the White House is that Donald Trump considers Boris Johnson has ‘something of the clown’ about him. A viewpoint that their fairly brief encounter at the UN in New York this week did little to dispel apparently. The temptation is to dismiss one flaxen-haired egomaniac […]

MITCH BENN lays out how to understand the Brexiteering foreign secretary First rule of Boris Johnson; it’s all about Boris Johnson. Second rule of Boris Johnson; it’s ALL about Boris Johnson. Boris Johnson may, on occasion, have taken actions which benefitted people besides himself (I’ll put my hand up right now and acknowledge that his […]

Labour’s position on Brexit is softening, says NATHANIEL TAPLEY, and the 48% should get off Jeremy Corbyn’s back The greatest threat to the cause of Remaining are large swathes of the country who are in the grip of Corbyn-fever. There are activists and commentators whose every article, every statement, every position is all about the […]

Theresa May has ruled out Britain staying in the European Economic Area or striking a deal with the EU similar to the one Canada enjoys during a speech meant to kick-step Brexit negotiations. (Left-right) Brexit Secretary David Davis, Chancellor Philip Hammond and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson listen as Prime Minister Theresa May speaks in Florence, […]

This is a sumptuous revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman’s 1971 homage to departed American musical theatre, says Martin McQuillan After the success of La La Land a canny producer at the National has decided to bring back the original musical of unhappy endings to create a theatrical blockbuster, a glorious hit that can […]

RICHARD PORRITT with this week’s big stories The comrades are massing on the south coast for the Labour Party conference – but hidden by the raucous renditions of The Red Flag the whispers of division continue. With the McDonnell rule – meaning leadership contenders only need the support of 10% of their peers, not 15% […]

Scotland’s three biggest parties have all experienced sudden jolts in recent weeks. MAURICE SMITH reports on the tectonic plates shifting once again north of the border The three leading women of Scottish politics have discovered, of late, a variation of the old adage that a week is a long time in politics. Several can seem […]

A fitting 48 times the hapless foreign secretary, currently backtracking from his bungled attempt to topple Theresa May, outraged with his thoughtless comments and ill-judged actions 1) During the London Riots of 2011 it took mayor Boris Johnson three days to return from holiday in Canada. He said: “I came as fast as I could.” […]

The Lib Dems have stepped back from the Brexit cliff-edge. The party, voting with its head rather than its heart, decided to retain the policy it’s had since June 24 last year – calling for the people to have a say (via a referendum, including an option to remain in the European Union) on any […]

We have a number of set phrases in English which we use in a rather automatic and semi-obligatory way at particular times and in specific social situations – such as ‘good morning’ and ‘good evening’, ‘happy birthday’ and ‘happy new year’. There are rules about how to use these formulae. We can say ‘good afternoon’ […]

Despite its devastating impact, Hurricane Irma passed with only a handful of deaths yet received wall-to-wall media coverage. On the other side of the world, floods have left a far higher death toll, yet reporting has been sparse. LIZ GERARD asks what is behind this apparent hypocrisy and what it says about us Eleven dead […]

Full disclosure: I’ve never drunk a glass of beer before in my life. Until this summer in Scotland. Before that, beer was the stuff in cans that my Dad and his cronies drank while watching the Chicago Cubs lose another baseball game. It was the drink guys guzzled while drifting in canoes down the Great […]

Sir Vince Cable is to set out his bid to scupper Brexit by declaring ‘I am a proud saboteur’. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable during a question and answer session during the second day of the Liberal Democrats Autumn Conference at the Bournemouth International Centre. – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images In his maiden conference […]