News and Opinion

A town council meeting which descended into chaos — with councillors trading insults and ultimately getting booted off the Zoom call — has become an unlikely internet sensation. After clips of the Handforth Parish Council meeting were uploaded to Twitter, it was soon shared thousands of times. The name of one of the meeting’s participants, […]

Ministers have been accused of being too slow to act after it was disclosed new coronavirus quarantine hotels will not come into force until mid-February. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said that, from February 15, travellers returning to the UK from “red list” countries will have to quarantine in a government-approved facility […]

As Britain’s vaccine rollout gets further through the population, it’s challenges are going to mount, explains JAMES BALL. In this long, grey, lockdown winter there is only one real hope of a sustainable way to open up during the spring: the mass rollout of coronavirus vaccines. The comforting fact is there is a lot of […]

Tory lockdown-sceptics have expressed worry that the government is shifting the goalposts on reopening society as they called for complete removal of restrictions by the end of May. The prime minister told a Downing Street briefing that the level of coronavirus infections in the country was still “forbiddingly high” and that it was too soon […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY profiles the Austrian singer Falco, a man never able to quite escape his demons. Ilse Kraus might have been 75 years old but there was no way she was missing the funeral. She joined thousands of others in solemn procession to Vienna’s vast, sprawling Zentralfriedhof to follow the coffin, carried to its final […]

Last week was Holocaust Memorial Day, when we remember the millions murdered under Nazi persecution. This year marks 75 years since vital evidence of this was first presented at the Nuremberg war crimes trials alerting a largely unknowing world to the horrors that had occurred in concentration camps. Our great grandfather David Maxwell Fyfe was […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has dismissed a call from Labour for a select committee on Brexit and the European Union to be reinstated as problems continue after the UK’s departure from the bloc. For Labour, Valerie Vaz challenged Rees-Mogg over Boris Johnson’s claims about trade in Northern Ireland after Brexit. Calling for the committee to be reinstated, […]

Squabbling over whether to use red or blue ink on post-Brexit customs forms is among the problems plaguing exporters who are facing a “whack-a-mole” situation, a trade body has warned. Scotland Food and Drink chief executive James Withers told MSPs the sector has faced approximately £1 million in lost sales every day during “an absolutely […]

A Brexiteer official will take over the duty of advising Boris Johnson on the state of the union after his former aide quit. Oliver Lewis will take over a “beefed-up union unit” which advises Johnson on ways to counter calls for Scottish independence after Luke Graham quit following a furious dispute with Downing Street, the FT […]

Boris Johnson still believes Brexit is “done”, despite the government’s call for a two-year extension of the grace periods in the Northern Ireland Protocol. The prime minister’s official spokesman said “there are some issues that we need to resolve as part of the protocol” and “we will continue to work to address those issues” with […]

The culture secretary has been told by Elton John to end the obstacles facing UK-based musicians after Brexit. The singer has claimed that up-and-coming acts hoping to tour the continent will be “up against a brick wall” of fresh “bureaucracy”, “paperwork” and added finances. “It’s much more difficult for young artists to get this together because […]

Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has told Brexiteers to stop “crying their salty tears” and accept the consequences of their actions. McDonald denied there needed to be changes made to the Brexit agreement as a result of problems in Northern Ireland, claiming the issues were significantly documented before the UK left the EU. She told […]

The trading drama over GameStop has exposed a powerful new line of attack on financial institutions, say James Bowden and Edward Thomas Jones 

Calls have been made to scrap part of the Brexit deal relating to Northern Ireland, as the prime minister warned Brussels he will act to prevent trade barriers being put up in the Irish Sea. First minister Arlene Foster said the Northern Ireland Protocol risked the country’s “political and economic links” to the UK and […]

TIM WALKER on the PM’s controversial trip north of the border and a perhaps surprising cultural appointment. The position of Luke Graham as Boris Johnson‘s special adviser on the Union is hanging in the balance. It was Graham who encouraged the prime minister to make his much-lampooned 900-mile round trip to Scotland last week when he was photographed dripping some […]

CATHRIN SCHAER on how the continent sees its vaccine troubles. While Brexit fans were busy trying to shout “I told you so” across the Channel as loudly as possible, following the recent AstraZeneca stoush, Europeans were – as they so often are – more worried about their own backyards than being in a race with Britain. There […]

IAN DUNT on his recent battle with Covid. I tested positive for Covid two weeks ago. The first sign that something was wrong was a hazy feeling of impending flu, which I brushed away. Two days later I was in bed with fever. It was ferocious: your skin either boiling or freezing, no position bearing […]

The EU has survived previous crises. But it is not guaranteed to get through the next one, says JOHN KAMPFNER. “All of us are responsible for the crisis, and all of us have a responsibility to resolve it.” “We cannot shoulder this alone in the long term. We need a European solution.” So said Donald […]

Reports suggesting there was an argument between Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer after Prime Minister’s Questions have been denied. The two leaders had clashed in the Commons after the Prime Minister accused the Labour leader of repeatedly calling for the UK to stay in the European Medicines Agency after Brexit, suggesting such a move would […]

The UK will not take the lead in rescuing Eurostar as it is majority-owned by France, a cabinet minister has said. Transport secretary Grant Shapps told MPs that the government is “very keen for Eurostar to survive” but insisted “it’s not our company”. The cross-Channel rail operator revealed in November that it is “fighting for […]

A student with a severe stammer has described US President Joe Biden as an “inspiration” for opening up about his own speech condition. Faizan Sheikh, who is studying childcare at The Manchester College, said his stammer was once so bad he could not say his own name. Mr Sheikh, 18, told the PA News Agency: […]

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has suggested to the House of Commons he could invoke Article 16  “to ensure that there is no barrier down the Irish Sea” after Brexit. Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, DUP MP Ian Paisley said people in Northern Ireland were being made to “feel like foreigners in our own country” by […]

Boris Johnson has been branded “reckless” for visiting a Scottish vaccine plant which saw a coronavirus outbreak just 24 hours before. A report in the Daily Record revealed Johnson visited Valneva’s plant in Livingston last week as they started manufacturing their Covid-19 vaccine – just one day after public health officials uncovered a surge in coronavirus cases. Officials […]

Sir Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of twisting the “truth” for the purpose of “gags” during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). The leader of the opposition said Johnson had a habit of hiding behind “pre-prepared gags” instead of answering tough questions. Probing the prime minister on the government’s border strategy, Sir Keir asked: “With new variants coming […]

Implementing tougher Australia-style border closures would not help the UK tackle the coronavirus pandemic, transport secretary Grant Shapps has insisted. The cabinet minister said the UK’s proximity to continental Europe means it is important that vital goods and people continue to move in and out of the country. The government has faced criticism for not […]

MATT KELLY on big changes coming to The New European. This week, The New European begins a new chapter in its own peculiar story. What began as a four week pop-up experiment, run by Archant, a local media company based in Norwich, to chronicle the aftermath of the 2016 Brexit vote soon became a small but […]

Matt Hancock has downplayed suggestions he took advice on the UK’s vaccine strategy from a Hollywood film, telling Good Morning Britain (GMB) he had in fact consulted numerous sources. Hancock told LBC radio he had become aware that a row could break out over who was eligible for a Covid jab from Contagion, a 2011 thriller about the deadly outbreak of […]

The UK’s advertising watchdog has banned Ryanair’s “jab and go” holiday advertisement campaign, citing concerns it encourages the public to act irresponsibly once they had received the coronavirus vaccine. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned the two ads, which were the third-most complained-about of all time, mere days after the airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said […]