Opinion

BONNIE GREER reports on the US Capitol riots and what they tell us about modern populism. Was the storming of the US Capitol by the supporters of Donald Trump the beginning of the end of populism? Was this the lethal highpoint, the death knell for the crusade that went under the banner ‘Make America Great Again’? With the banning […]

This is the time when I traditionally look back on the shows I’ve reviewed over the previous 12 months and select the ones I’ve most enjoyed. I have, however, a practical problem that will no doubt soon be confronting the judges of the big theatrical awards: there isn’t an awful lot to choose from. I […]

JASON WALSH reports on Europe’s varying fortunes on vaccination roll-outs. The European Union performs many roles for its citizens. The most important – if one of the least-discussed – is to keep them safe from harm. And that is the issue causing grave concern across the continent right now, as the EU and its member states try desperately […]

Former Commons speaker JOHN BERCOW on the US president, the British politicians who indulged him, and the Trumpian tactics which have spread to the UK. The chorus of execration of the Capitol rioters, and president Trump’s evil incitement of them, has been loud, eloquent and justified. Global media outlets have simply reflected the overwhelming sense […]

Trump’s refusal to accept the end of his presidency was predicted by Mitch Benn in 2017… because he had seen it foretold in Game of Thrones.  Here’s the thing: I’m not an expert. On anything. I know a fair bit about a fair few things, but the capacity to store and retrieve biggish reserves of […]

Last week, editor-at-large Alastair Campbell kicked off a debate as to what more Remainers could have done to stop Brexit. Here, writers, politicians and campaigners have their say. Mary Honeyball Former Labour MEPWe pro-Europeans must show humility. We lost. Leave won. Many Leave voters were on low incomes, over 50 and male. They viewed the EU […]

The UK’s vaccination programme started well. But JAMES BALL detects some wearily and worryingly familiar signs of over-promising and under-delivering. No-one ever imagined the UK would end up in a third national coronavirus lockdown, let alone that thanks to systematic government failure it would end up with the NHS in an even more parlous position even […]

Don’t assume it couldn’t happen here, warns ALASTAIR CAMPBELL. There was something almost comical about the way Boris Johnson and his media sycophants sought to distance him and his cabinet from their previous ‘upsucking’ to Donald Trump. Whether Johnson backing Trump for a Nobel peace prize; Dominic Raab even quite recently refusing to criticise Trump’s […]

Leave.EU’s decision to register themselves in Co. Waterford, Ireland is very unwelcome, concerning and more importantly, requires rigorous scrutiny.  While some commentators may have allowed themselves a wry smile at the irony that an organisation set up to take the UK out of the EU have themselves decided to remain within the bloc, the irony and mild humour should not […]

The government needs the right message – and the right messenger – to ensure the UK is protected from the coronavirus. The commencement of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine roll-out is axiomatically good news. It now means Britain has two vaccines (the Pfizer-BioNTech came first) being administered to all those deemed priority groups. And there is […]

The president’s removal from the social network could create yet another cultural chasm between Democrats and Republicans. “Hello, I’m new to Twitter, what are you guys up to”, says a tweet purporting to be from someone called John Barron – whose avatar resembles Donald Trump with a photoshopped moustache. On Friday, Trump’s Twitter account was […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY profiles the sculptor and painter, starting on the evening that would change his outlook and output. The epiphany came one cold night in a fleapit newsreel theatre. Alberto Giacometti spent the Second World War in Geneva and had just returned to Paris in the winter of 1945 when he ducked into a cinema […]

I’m concerned for the future of Brixton Speaks, my only foray, ever, into public visual arts. I did work as a cartoonist for a few years in the mid-1980s, contributing to publications as august as the New Statesman and City Limits, but my quip about the metier once I began writing in earnest, was that […]

Britain will one day want to rejoin the EU, but will they have us back? Foreign policy expert NICK HOPKINSON outlines a possible route back to membership. Brexit is our biggest retreat from Europe since Dunkirk. We have distanced ourselves economically, and in many respects politically, from the EU as much as any European country can […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY reports on the quest for the remains of a writer likened to the Bard, and the posthumous activities of other great authors. Imagine if William Shakespeare’s remains were no longer in his grave inside Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. Imagine if they’d been lost, possibly in an act of desecration during a traumatic […]

TIM WALKER looks back at a memorable meeting with the great mime artist. Of all the people in all the world, mine artists must seem like the least promising subjects for an interview. Marcel Marceau was, however, a joy to talk to. And just to behold. It was the summer of 1990 and the scene […]

Britpop, I imagine most of you are old enough to remember, was a loosely applied umbrella tern referring to the movement of varyingly retro British guitar bands which rose to dominate the UK pop charts in the mid 1990s. I was in my mid 20s at the time – pretty much the same age as […]

Were the Angry Brigade a mere comedic English counterpoint to the doomed romantics of Germany’s Baader Meinhof gang or a far more sinister, if thankfully incompetent, force? Today anger is an emotion associated with right wing populism, of foaming keyboard warriors and the puce-faced men that are – for better or worse – often dubbed ‘gammons’. But […]

The UK’s departure from the EU not only introduced new phrases, but showed how language can be used to shape political debate. ANDREAS BUERKI reports. A number of expressions have entered everyday use since Brexit started. Terms like ‘Article 50’, ‘no deal’, ‘hard border’ may now seem just part of life but they were seldom, if ever, […]

One of the most alarming aspects of the pandemic is the sight of the mainstream right degenerating into attacks on public health policy. This week, as the virus spiralled completely out of control, they were still spewing out gibberish from the studios and newsrooms of respected British media outlets. “Lockdowns don’t work,” Talk Radio host Julia Hartley-Brewer […]

The UK’s pandemic plight might seem hopeless. But there are some measures which could help alter its course. One of the most frequent complaints levelled at newspaper columnists is that we snipe from the sidelines. Usually, it’s a bit of an unfair one: sniping from the sidelines is, in fact, what columnists are paid to […]

We lost… but we can’t just get over it. First we need to understand why we couldn’t stop Brexit. ALASTAIR CAMPBELL kicks off a crucial debate. On New Year’s Eve, I took a pill at 9pm, so as to be sure of being fast asleep two hours later, when the actual moment of departure from […]

The Government’s decision not to subscribe to the ERASMUS scheme for student exchange is desperately sad.  The scheme has benefited British young people since 1987. In the Guardian, Adam Tickell, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex,  was quoted as saying that “the Erasmus programme transformed the lives of thousands of young people”. My life was […]

Few years produced as many great films as 1946, the first year after the end of the Second World War, says BONNIE GREER. Might 2021 produce a similar post-pandemic glut of classics? 1946 is a year when most of us humans were not even alive. And of those who were, the majority experienced it as children. So our idea […]

Is it time to move on from Brexit and try to reunite the country? Readers have their say.  While I applaud the political logic and humanitarian sentiment behind Ian Dunt’s piece, I am finding it impossible to muster the love of country which he sees a key to post-Brexit recovery. Back in the distant times when […]

An analysis of European populism explores why it has established deepest roots in two former Iron Curtain states. Authoritarian populists almost doubled their share of electoral votes across Europe between 2001 and 2018 – from 11.8% to 22.3%, according to Swedish think-tank the Timbro institute. There was then a decline after, but it is too […]

A set of elections in the southern state next week will shape the future of America. ALBERT SCARDINO explains why Georgia has always been the fulcrum on which the country turns. The race to control the national government in America approaches another mile marker next week with runoff elections in Georgia for two seats in […]

PETER TRUDGILL on how long it took for the accent to appear after English arrived in Australia. In 1788, during the reign of King George III, the English language made a very long journey indeed, penetrating deep into the southern hemisphere. This was on the occasion of the foundation of the British Australian penal colony of […]