News and Opinion

Oh I do like a Brexit by the seaside … Quintessentially British seaside town Skegness voted in droves to quit the EU. We went for a stroll along the pier and found ourself wondering whether the locals might be in for a shock After spending most of the morning being battered by brutal North Sea […]

Be very wary when people invoke the will of the people. The fate of Jesus shows us why ‘The public have spoken. It’s the will of the people.’ It is a familiar refrain we’ve heard a lot of, of late. It is also one that was heard, twice, in the account of the first Easter, […]

Truth and lies dance circles round each other – and part of us even admires the con men Aaron Banks; Nigel Farage; Katie Hopkins; Milo Yiannopoulos; Ann Coulter, among others, have all suffered a grave shock recently. Donald Trump has betrayed them. ‘Who stole my President? #Syriahoax’ Hopkins lamented on Twitter after Trump sent Tomahawk […]

Many of these places, like Blackpool, Great Yarmouth and Scarborough, voted for Brexit more emphatically than most in last year’s referendum. Yet it is precisely these communities that stand to lose the most from the process that result unleashed. The reasons for those high Leave turnouts have been well analysed already. Years of neglect produced […]

A fixation with the demand that NATO members spend 2% of their GDP on defence obscures a wider issue for the Alliance European leaders have pushed back at Donald Trump’s threat that they increase defence spending by the end of the year or risk American rethinking its commitment to transatlantic partnership in defence and security. […]

A former MI6 chief has called the allegations of contact between Trump’s team and Moscow ‘unprecedented’ A top British spook has suggested Donald Trump has deep financial links back to Russia which could return to haunt the US President. Ex-MI6 head Sir Richard Dearlove claimed the President borrowed money from Russian lenders to keep his […]

Impulse, calculation and an ever-deepening blood bath Motivation, motivation, motivation. Words to keep repeating as questions in search of an educated answer to the new cold war crisis triggered by the Khan Sheikhoun sarin gas horror and President Trump’s retaliatory Tomahawk cruise missile blitz. Let’s start by being fair to Donald Trump. Those of us […]

We sort the chaff from the chaff to bring you eight of the worst Leavers of the week Nigel Farage and Paul Nuttall Like a comedian who has long lost his audience but has been booked in for the whole season Farage continues to make misjudged forays from his bar stool at the Dog & […]

It seems barely a month goes by without a European city celebrating cinema in a big way. We consider the essential film festivals for 2017 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 17-28 May Aka: The Big One Easily the best-known film festival on the planet, this gargantuan, red-carpeted affair on the Cote d’Azur has long been an indispensable […]

A group of MPs have called on the Government to ensure Brexit does not impact science MPs have urged the Government not to slam the door on scientists and experts from overseas after Brexit. The Commons Science and Technology Committee also said the Government should fully commit to making up any shortfall in research funding […]

MPs have expressed their fears that hackers attacked the voter registration website in the weeks before the EU referendum A voter registration website that crashed in the run-up to the Brexit vote may have been brought down by foreign hackers. The Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) said it was deeply concerned about […]

It is a tiny country, known for its opaque financial affairs and low tax rates but Luxembourg has become an unlikely contender in the space race When it comes to European countries it hardly enjoys the highest of profiles. But Luxembourg does at least have a reputation for historic buildings and a thriving financial sector. […]

Nowhere does Easter quite like Seville. But could the city’s incredible spectacle begin to fade? SIPA USA/PA Images – Credit: SIPA USA/PA Images Three years ago, almost to the day, I arrived in Seville during Semana Santa (Holy Week). I was going to live with a friend for two months, and he’d suggested it wouldn’t […]

French dislike of the EU is more widespread that you might think. But it has taken on a different form to that seen in the UK Claude doesn’t quite fit the clichéd view of eurosceptics: mild in manner with a mordant sense of humour and an ability to speak two languages, neither dispossessed, nor rich, […]

‘Deep in the psyche of Irish Republicanism is the Holy Grail of an all island republic, and of the right of republicans to take up arms to achieve it’ The events of one day in March encapsulated the contradictions that riddle much official British, Irish, American and media responses to the Northern Ireland problem. On […]

Lies, fibs, untruths… in the end the truth about quitting the EU will be revealed Ever told a lie? Yeah, me too. Not for quite a while, though. Because I’ll tell you what I haven’t done; while I’ve told a few lies in my time, something I’ve never done is got away with telling a […]

Google and Facebook pushed back the frontiers of cyberspace as champions of freedom and transparency. Now, they are the villains My libertarian instincts are under attack. By whom? Er, me. Or, to be more precise, my conscience is struggling with Big Tech. The battle involves considerable agonised soul-searching for someone who has long championed the […]

Be brave, Britain. And don’t devalue grief with ostentatious displays As Burnley and Spurs lined up before kick-off last Saturday, I turned to my neighbour and said ‘who’s died?’ Both teams, not just the players but managers and coaches too, were wearing black armbands. Then, once the teams were announced and the stadium announcer fell […]

The French far right, through the generations, has mutated and adapted to the mood of the age. And already, the next generation is moving it in new directions Jean-Marie Le Pen (born in 1928), French politician and president of the National Front political party, with his first wife Pierrette Lalanne and their three children: Marie-Caroline, […]

Having won a great victory, Brexiteers seem thoroughly bored by the prize. But the ennui around Brexit plays into the hands of the zealots PA Wire/PA Images – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images ‘I want to see a truly global Britain that is really outward-looking with good trade deals around the world’. That’s Theresa May’s most […]

The referendum result was clear but not well-founded. If it was a court case it would be considered an unsafe conviction That’s it then, is it?‎ Acquiesce. Knuckle down. Suck it up and get on with it. The message from some (former) Remainers seems to be that it is time to make the best of […]

UK’s attractiveness to overseas investors is being challenged by Brexit The cabinet’s big hitters have been accruing air miles this week as the job of selling the UK proceeds apace. The Prime Minister is in Saudi Arabia promoting long-term business relationships, while the Chancellor is in India, looking for co-operation over energy, fintech and financial […]

What is at stake and what needs to change to ‘save the country’? I write these words in the warm autumn of the antipodes, where incredulous Australians and dismayed, distressed and unhappy British expatriates look at the farce, the lunacy, of Brexit from afar, and shake their heads. I tell them that Brexit will collapse […]

Finding an answer to the cri de coeur: how the promise of a home away from home is vanishing for European students I heard the group in front of me speaking French. They were lost, so I stepped up and asked if I could help. They asked in very good English if I knew of […]

Broadcasters are letting us down over Brexit. They should credit us with a bit more intelligence After Theresa May signalled that apart from meaning Brexit, Brexit also means an uncertain future for European cooperation on security issues, outspoken radio host James O’Brien took to Twitter to accuse the PM of threatening to give terrorists an […]

Unanimously anti-Brexit, unanimously pro-British, Gibraltar must rely on the word of a government without many cards to play. It was depressing enough on the Rock that the first skirmish after the sending of the Article 50 letter should be over Gibraltar. But what was particularly unhelpful was that it came on the same weekend as […]

We sort the chaff from the chaff to bring you another 10 of the worst leavers of the week 10. Nigel Farage (DOWN 9) Brexit’s own Crazy Frog continues his battle to crack America but all the signs are that the end result will be more Cheryl Cole than James Corden. Unknown beyond his Fox […]

We knew it was going to be bad. But even the most pessimistic among us perhaps gave it a bit longer than a few days after the triggering of Article 50 before the prospect of war with an erstwhile European friend was raised. Such loose talk over Gibraltar from powerful figures in the Brexiteer brigade […]