News and Opinion

It has been tested like never before, but our sense of society has received a boost rather than a blow from Covid, says ZOE WILLIAMS. I had volunteered to help with corona testing admin at a local secondary school, and they wanted to do an interview first. Weird, I thought, as I already had a […]

Independent SAGE member Professor Christina Pagel has criticised Priti Patel’s decision to issue new £800 fines for Covid rule-breakers, calling on the minster to “stop blaming the public”. Prof Pagel told LBC radio she was “so angry” at the announcement and said ministers should instead focus on tightening Covid restrictions than fining people who break them.  “They’ve […]

Six Eurosceptic and Conservative MEPs have failed to vote in support of an appeal to raise funds for Croatia after an earthquake hit the country. The European Parliament proposed a resolution to help the country after the shattering earthquake in Sisak Moslavina on December 29. The 6.4-magnitude earthquake killed several thousand people and caused extensive damage […]

IAN DUNT offers a radical and thought-provoking list of changes he argues would make Britain better. Do you agree or disagree? Make media studies mandatory in school Every year or so, a right wing columnist does a piece mocking media studies as a soft subject for intellectual deadbeats. They were never right, but they’re even more […]

A Question Time audience member has called on politicians to prepare for a border poll in Northern Ireland “even if it isn’t for another ten years”. The audience member told Northern Ireland first and deputy first ministers Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neil that Stormont had a lot to learn from the “shambles of the Brexit […]

Conservative MPs have put pressure on Boris Johnson to ignore scientific advice to keep pubs and restaurants shut until May, as the hospitality sector warned such measures could help kill off more businesses. Mark Harper, chairman of the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) – made up of lockdown-sceptic Tory MPs – said the government “must start […]

If Brexit really was about winding up ‘Radio 4 types’ like MITCH BENN, there were easier ways to go about it. The more the effects of Brexit make themselves felt, the harder it gets to understand what the point of it was in the first place. During what for want of a more descriptive term […]

GLEN O’HARA assesses the Labour leader’s performance since he took the reins, and his ultimate prospects. Sir Keir Starmer has spent nearly a year now presenting himself as a diligent, calm and intelligent leader – a kind of ‘Mister Competence’, in contradistinction not just to the prime minister, Boris Johnson, but also to his immediate predecessor, Jeremy […]

Westminster’s tumultuous scenes of recent years have underlined a need for change in the way parliament operates. MEG RUSSELL and DANIEL GOVER offer a solution. The last few years have been turbulent ones in the House of Commons. First over Brexit, then over Covid-19, tensions between the government and parliament have run exceptionally high. This was […]

Think you’re on top of what’s been going on across Europe in the past seven days? Take The New European’s tricky quiz and find out just how much of a Europhile you are…

TIM WALKER on the former chancellor’s latest venture and the current fad for politicians to use Union Jacks as interview backdrops. George Osborne is nothing if not a pragmatist. A passionate Remainer during the referendum campaign, he later became, as a newspaper editor, an unashamed champion of Boris Johnson. Now, the former chancellor clearly sees a business opportunity […]

Liana Semchuk on whether Alexei Navalny’s reappearance in Russia could galvanise change in the country in the same way as Lenin just over a century ago. Political commentators both inside Russia and around the world are comparing Alexei Navalny’s return to Moscow with Vladimir Lenin’s ‘sealed train’ journey from Switzerland to St Petersburg in April 1917. It […]

Sir John Bell is the most influential figure in British medicine and a man who strides determinedly between academia, business and politics. He also played a critical role in the development of the Oxford vaccine. He talks to MARK MARDELL about how what unfolded. Last November, Sir John Bell, a man of many hats and master of keeping them all […]

Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, which ended its initial run 35 years ago, is often explained as a response to the unemployment and social unrest brought about by Thatcherism. It may tell us more about Britain’s relationship with ‘Europe’ today, suggests TOM DRAPER. For a television series supposedly about the great changes forced upon Britain in the 1980s […]

Priti Patel dodged a question on UK taking a belated border of its borders in response to coronavirus. Speaking at the latest Downing Street press conference, the home secretary was asked by BBC journalist Vicki Young whether she felt “pleased” that Boris Johnson “has finally come round to your way of thinking” in respect of tougher […]

Almost half of Welsh voters would rejoin the EU, a new poll has found.  Despite a Brexit deal being reached at the eleventh hour, 44% of Welsh voters told ITV News they would vote yes if EU membership was put to another referendum. By comparison, 38% would reject rejoining and almost a fifth – 19% – said […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has thanked Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters – who he called the “woke brigade” – for removing statues of historic British figures in a bizarre speech in the House of Commons. Rees-Mogg claimed BLM demonstrators had in fact made people more aware of statues they walk past every day. Responding to a request for a […]

Labour MPs have tabled an Opposition Day debate motion to protect employment rights now under threat as a result of Brexit.  With the UK no longer bound by EU directives, rights enshrined in their wording – such as holiday pay and statutory working limits – can be stripped away.  Sir Keir Starmer – together with […]

JOHN KAMPFNER on Armin Laschet – the man now lined up as Angela Merkel’s successor. It was the ‘Merkel Machine’ which helped secure the close victory. After a lacklustre campaign, Armin Laschet hobbled over the line for the leadership of Germany’s largest party, the CDU, thanks to some last-minute lobbying and arm-twisting from the chancellor and […]

Labour’s Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson’s government of a “very foolish gamble” with hoping that Donald Trump would sign up to a post-Brexit “mini” trade deal before his exit. Tariffs of £5.6 billion were imposed by former president Trump’s administration in retaliation for state support given to Airbus, with products including Scotch whisky badly affected […]

Bob Geldof has claimed “lying is second nature” to Boris Johnson’s government as he accused it of betraying British businesses to deliver Brexit. Geldof said Downing Street were “a hapless lot” who put politics ahead of the economic wellbeing of the nation. The Irish singer-songwriter turned political activist claimed No 10 was never serious about clenching a […]

Downing Street has declined to criticise Joe Biden for removing a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office, despite Boris Johnson’s previous attack on Barack Obama for the same move. The prime minister said in much-criticised comments in 2016 that Obama removing the sculpture “was a symbol of the part-Kenyan president’s ancestral dislike […]

The EU is to blame for British musicians not being able to tour in Europe, Jacob Rees-Mogg has attempted to claim. Rees-Mogg shrugged off accusations Downing Street rejected an offer to extend the EU music visa scheme that allowed artists to perform freely in Europe for up to 90 days. Earlier this week, culture minister Caroline […]

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has suggested Priti Patel may have broken the ministerial code by advocating border closures against government policy. In comments first reported by political website Guido Fawkes, Patel is said to have told the Conservative Friends of India group: “On ‘should we have closed our borders earlier’, the answer is yes. I was […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL compares the recent resignation of the Dutch cabinet with the lack of scrutiny and accountability of our own leaders. It is now almost a quarter of a century since I jumped the journalistic fence into frontline political combat. By the time another quarter of a century is done, assuming I survive that long, […]

A Tory MP has complained Brexit has meant there is less scrutiny of trade deals struck by the UK government than when the country was part of the European Union. Jonathan Djanogly was appearing in the debate on the government’s trade bill where he warned that there must be “meaningful scrutiny” of future trade deals […]

Michel Barnier has become the first foreign winner of the European of the Year award given by the European Movement Ireland group thanks to his work on Brexit negotiations. The EU negotiator was given the award via a virtual ceremony for his role in defending the Republic of Ireland’s interests during Brexit negotiations. Barner also received praised […]

Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly has called upon Ireland to fill the void left by the UK’s departure from the Erasmus programme.  With the UK’s withdrawal confirmed following Brexit, Kelly – a long-time advocate of the initiative – urged Irish colleges to take advantage of the country’s new-found status: “16,000 EU students participate in an Erasmus in the […]