Opinion

TIM WALKER remembers a tense meeting where the Spanish singer was anxious to save face. I got to meet the old crooner Julio Iglesias in the late1980s and it’s his vanity that made the encounter so memorable. In those days, I used to work with Jane Bown, a photographer so grand that she numbered the […]

A fascinating new book focuses on the works of artists who died under the age of 30. Some are households name, but many more are those who would have been if only their lives had not been cut so tragically short The heavy thump of another coffee table art tome being delivered by the postie can evoke groans – and not […]

Matt Kelly on how media saw Boris Johnson as one of their own… and gave the shyster a free ride. Only once have I encountered Boris Johnson in the flesh. It was an illuminating experience, shedding as much sunlight on my industry as it did on this man who, as Ted Hastings would simmer, we’ve […]

The Seychelles are a place where musical cultures from every part of the world – African, Indian, Polynesian, Arabic, Far Eastern and European – truly harmonise “The real richness of these islands is our cultural heritage,” Seychellois musical legend Patrick Victor has said. That is a cultural heritage that ranges far beyond the island of Mahé, smaller […]

The adventures of seafarer Jean Bart read like the chapters of a buccaneering novel When the British finally caught Jean Bart in 1689 it was quite a coup. A Dunkirk-based privateer sailing on behalf of Louis XIV, Bart had wrought havoc up and down the English Channel for 15 years by the time two 50-gun […]

The resonance, or otherwise, of constitutional issues will be a key factor in a dramatically unpredictable Senedd election For those of us living in Hen Wlad fy Nhadau, it feels that Welsh devolved politics only makes it onto the radar of UK politicians when it’s given a kicking as part of the game of political […]

Len McCluskey has been a large, often disruptive, figure in the Labour Party. With his departure, will his Unite union revert to its former, steadying role? Keir Starmer had a bit of good news this week, for a change. Not only is his most dangerous enemy, Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite trade union, […]

Jason Solomons looks at how Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman helped take The Father from French fringe play to the Oscars It started life as a one-set play in a fringe theatre in Paris. Nine years later, The Father is now, as they say, a major motion picture and a very strong contender for this […]

Germany’s reputation for ‘efficiency’ was always code for ‘thoroughness’. And Covid has shown that the two are not the same Pity the poor Germans. The pandemic hasn’t just forced the closure of beer gardens just as the sun started to shine again, it has also given the country’s self-image a knocking. For weeks now, local media […]

Why does a republic like Germany love the British royalty so much? Eleven million Germans watched Prince Philip’s funeral last weekend. I was one of them. Seven TV channels live-broadcasted the ceremony. Most had cleared the complete afternoon schedule to show hours of documentaries and talk-shows around the royal event. There was an interview with Prince […]

The Russian president is currently embroiled in a bewildering array of crises, yet seems impervious to everything his opponents can throw at him. So how should the West respond? It’s one of the TV moments of 2021. Good Morning America, March 17. The host is George Stephanopoulos, former communications director under Bill Clinton and one […]

WILL SELF on an art exhibition that prompts thoughts beyond the gallery To Peckham for my first art exhibition since lockdown has lifted. In truth, I wouldn’t have gone if the show weren’t being curated by a friend – but then I sometimes wonder if this applies to all gallery-goers: they’re so very convivial, the […]

The football genius’ nomadic decline after Manchester United is a tale well told. But his brief stint in apartheid South Africa is less familiar. As NATHAN O’HAGAN reports, his spell there set the tone for all that followed He was one of the greatest footballers ever to grace a football pitch. His natural ability and […]

Mitch Benn told Labour leader Keir Starmer to be a little less stiff – but getting thrown out of a pub is taking matters too far… GEAR SHIFT OF THE WEEK Sir Keir Starmer, about whom, you may recall, I was complaining last week; specifically about how he’s taking so subtle and reserved an approach […]

The UK is no longer a glowing example of tackling climate change - our carbon footprint is growing following Brexit

There are few greater symbols of Britain’s standing in the world than Gibraltar. But, as MARK MARDELL explains, as the UK moves away from the EU the Rock is gravitating dramatically into its sphere. A British warship, the HMS Trent, has arrived at her new permanent base, Gibraltar, Britain’s last remaining European overseas territory. According to her captain, […]

Downing Street is embarking on an incompetent battle to preserve the Union Boris Johnson doesn’t care about Scotland. There are a lot of complex elements to the government’s anti-independence strategy, but at the heart of it is that one simple fact. He doesn’t understand Scotland and he isn’t interested in it. There couldn’t be a worse […]

The Greensill scandal has exposed long-running tensions caused by a decision to allow business interests into the corridors of Whitehall In May 2010, Gordon Brown left a handwritten note to David Cameron, the incoming prime minister, with a simple message: “The country is in good hands. Jeremy is running it.” Nine years later, Brown’s telling […]

The prime minister has miscalculated on the current sleaze scandal and it will cost him dear During the Brexit referendum, among the pleading emails I occasionally sent to David Cameron’s team were several urging them to hit back far harder against the lies being told by Boris Johnson and the Leave campaign. There were two […]

A United Ireland does not mean simply assimilating the North into the Republic. Everything must be on the table Despite all the contemporary difficulties that we face on this island, and indeed across these islands, 23 years on from the signing of the Good Friday Agreement there is a clear sense of hope for a […]

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has the profile and ambition to run against Emmanuel Macron for the French presidency. But her greatest strengths might also be what prevents this ‘Queen of the Bobos’ from reviving the country’s moribund Socialists Despite not yet having declared her candidacy for next year’s presidential elections, mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo […]

Keir Starmer's time will come - but he must start to take risks.

The scandal surrounding David Cameron’s lobbying lays bare exactly what is meant by ‘selling off the NHS’ Seen from afar, the running saga of David Cameron’s efforts to meet with every minister in the UK (and beyond) on behalf of his clients can be a strange one. To even a casual observer, it seems like […]

The New European editor-in-chief and Liverpool fan MATT KELLY on the pain and confusion caused by his club’s actions My wife doesn’t understand me.  The events of this week threw me into a deep funk from which I have yet to recover. The unprecedented headaches I began to suffer on Monday can’t have been just a coincidence. […]

The Super League farce may be over, but the conflicting interests of owners and fans mean more trouble ahead. Not even Niccolò Machiavelli, the grandmaster of deception, could have foreseen the manner in which English, Spanish and Italian clubs attempted to carve up European football. “I’m not interested in preserving the status quo,” Machiavelli wrote […]

The Russian president is testing the resolve of the West, but in doing so he reveals his weakness rather than his strength Vladimir Putin is steeped in Lenin’s old maxim, “you probe with bayonets. If you find mush, you proceed. If you find steel, you withdraw”. This approach certainly seems to inform the thinking behind Russia’s […]

What will happen to police reform in America following the verdict over George Floyd? Another day. Another African American man faced the police. This time it was 20-year-old Daunte Wright, driving his car through Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. Wright was pulled over by cops and a female officer shot him dead. It happened 10 miles away […]

TANIT KOCH on the traumas of moving house in Germany, the country where everybody rents. I’ve moved house. One of the more humiliating experiences, I find, is walking through an empty, well-kept flat alongside a facility manager who inspects it and points to three minor spots in a corner behind the door, condescendingly asking you […]