Opinion

Switzerland’s army has launched a drive to attract more female recruits by introducing standard-issue women’s underwear for the first time. At present, female soldiers are issued with the same regulation undergarments used by men. Armasuisse, the Swiss armed forces’ procurement organisation, said that “previous army equipment and uniforms were too little or not at all […]

When former Financial Times editor LIONEL BARBER was granted an audience at the Kremlin, Russia’s president proclaimed the end of the liberal idea. Was he right? The choreography for an interview with Vladimir Putin is worthy of the Bolshoi Ballet; every step rehearsed, nothing left to chance.  Our stage that night on June 26, 2019 was […]

While wealthier newspapers with larger readerships bowed the knee to the prime minister, this proud regional broadsheet refused to toe the line. Few in academia will profess ignorance of “no-platforming”. This expression of ideological zealotry seeks to restrict debate to orthodoxies with which its supporters sympathise. It restricts freedom of speech upon which, since the […]

TOM CHESSHYRE on tantalising plans to reboot Europe’s legendary rail service for the modern, post-pandemic age. Kraftwerk’s 1977 song Trans Europe Express, inspired by the first-class only rail service of the same name that ran between 130 cities in Europe between 1957 and 1995, is not known for its scintillating lyrics. To a clickety-clack drumbeat – evocative […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on a brilliant writer whose recently rediscovered story of a Jew forced to become a fugitive of the Nazis has echoes of his own itinerant, tragic life. When 27-year-old Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz leaned on the deck rail and watched the sun set over the Atlantic on October 29, 1942, he felt his wanderings […]

A recent decision to remake The King and I musical is a striking one, given the production’s politically incorrect undertones and unpopularity in Thailand. Just in time for the 70th anniversary of the Broadway premiere of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I later this month, Paramount Pictures revealed it had purchased the rights to create a […]

No country in the world is having a good time right now. But – coronavirus aside – why does Finland keep topping the international happiness charts? According to the old Nordic joke, a Swede goes into a bar in Helsinki. The chirpy Swede takes his drink and says “cheers” to the Finn on the barstool […]

Technology may be closing in on making instant, in-ear translation services a reality. But it's still a galaxy away from truly replicating human communication.

His Church is assailed on all sides, its role in the modern world in question like never before. Is Pope Francis the man to meet the challenge? The central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica was empty, there were no crowds in the square below. Instead, beneath the vast cavernousness of the basilica itself, a lone […]

Starting last spring, the pandemic has generated a passion for wildlife in many. A year on, as an easing of restrictions and return to normality finally nears, we must not lose the connection we’ve made with nature. It was the loveliest spring in living memory. Or perhaps it just seemed that way, because so many people actually noticed it. I mean, really noticed […]

The same factors that led up to his incursion into Ukraine are in place again, including domestic protests, a struggling economy and a desire for glory. So are the likes of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania next on the Russian leader’s list? A trained KGB agent, Vladimir Putin knows how to hide his feelings, but in […]

Rob Hughes on the financial calculations that mean the ball must keep rolling during a pandemic... if only to keep the money rolling in.

If our letters page is anything to go by, The New European’s readers are no fans of First Past The Post. But what exactly is the best way to ‘make every vote count’? MICK O’HARE considers the options. December 2019’s general election suggested that voters wanted an opportunity to think again about Brexit. Parties advocating […]

Covid-19 has overshadowed the splits over Brexit that dominated the last general election Boris Johnson was only three months on from his December 2019 election win when a pandemic was declared. The world has changed entirely since then, and the UK has suffered enormously. More than 125,000 people have died of COVID-19. Per capita, this […]

Scotland’s departure from the United Kingdom would lead to more of the politics pro-Europeans have fought against. Douglas Alexander’s excellent article seems to have stirred up some nationalist reaction in your letters page but none seems to answer the fundamental question raised, which is that if you think Brexit is a mistake, then why on […]

A vaccine ban would essentially get Boris Johnson off the hook over coronavirus and Brexit.  Last week’s letters were full of debate about vaccine rates, but one thing is certain: if the EU does go ahead with its proposed vaccine export ban, it will essentially get Boris Johnson off the hook for both coronavirus and […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on a humble Greek hero who fulfilled his nation’s ancient yearning. Spyridon Louis slept fitfully on the night of April 9, 1896. It wasn’t so much down to pre-race nerves as the bed bugs that riddled the mattress on which he’d been billeted at Marathon for the night. He was sure Pheidippides had […]

In both Scotland and Catalonia, the sense of inevitability that independence would soon become reality has receded as quickly as it appeared. What changed?  As Nicola Sturgeon fights for her political life in the wake of the scandal tearing her party apart, her former counterpart at the head of the Catalan independence movement, Carles Puigdemont, has his own […]

TIM WALKER on being charmed by Lord Delfont. Lord Delfont has enjoyed something of a career renaissance in recent years, albeit posthumously. Sir Michael Gambon played the great showbusiness impresario as a thoroughly decent man in the film Judy – the Judy Garland biopic that had Renée Zellweger in the title role – and, the year before […]

Infection rates are on the rise in Germany – but the big debate in the country right now is about Easter holidays. I have a confession: I’m writing this column on a plane from Palma de Mallorca back to Germany, ready to join the country’s heated debate about… Mallorca. The island’s tourist industry is ready to […]

Sunderland’s indomitable party spirit is to be found in its exuberant 1990s girl band, and its very own drug-addled rave subculture. The atmosphere at the Blue Monkey club was almost physically tangible. The dancefloor filled with drug-fuelled revellers, lights and lasers roiling while ultra-high energy hardcore pumped out of the speakers, this old bingo hall on Sunderland’s […]

In the latest exclusive serialisation of his diaries, ALASTAIR CAMPBELL describes in heart-wrenching detail his son Calum’s battle with alcoholism, and the memories it prompted of his own similar ordeal. There are plenty of low points in this new volume of diaries, many of them very personal, and very difficult for both Fiona and me, namely […]

PETER TRUDGILL on whether Scots should be considered a language or not. My column of a few weeks ago, about how the Swiss are encouraged to learn their country’s various languages – and how something similar here might benefit the UK – annoyed reader Bill Cooper, who wrote to The New European to say so. His letter was published […]

It may not seem at the top of voters’ concerns but electoral reform offers a chance to tackle so many of the UK’s problems. Labour must seize it now, says MP Ruth Cadbury. In late September 2017, instead of heading to Liverpool for Labour’s annual conference, I was in Auckland getting voters out to the polls. Playing […]

The novelist considers the Japanese appreciation of all that is both imperfect and impermanent in the works of man and nature One of them is about twelve inches by eight, is entirely covered by a patina that ranges from light tan to black, and has a bottom dimpled and hummocked by having been bashed repeatedly […]

The new film The United States vs Billie Holiday is part of a canonisation the singer would have disliked, says Bonnie Greer There are a few artists who we choose to journey to Calvary with us. One of them is an African American woman born Eleanora Fagan, who changed her name to Billie Holiday. That […]

Green Party co-leader Annalena Baerbock is emerging as a serious contender in the contest to succeed Angela Merkel. Towards the end of this year Europe may well have its first Green head of government – a German, a woman, a former youth elite trampolinist. Annalena Baerbock: remember the name, because she is set to become […]

Flags have dominated the news agenda in recent weeks as debates about national identity rumble on. If you’ve only been casually checking into the news – and after the few years we have all had, who could blame you? – you might be forgiven for thinking that the world is suddenly quiet. What other possible reason […]