Opinion

Government ministers that told us we’d had enough of experts now seem to have performed a sharp u-turn. The government which told us that ‘people have had enough of experts’ now briefs that its strategy on dealing with coronavirus is wholly in the hands of experts like the chief medical officer and the chief scientific […]

Recent news reports the world over have been littered with coverage over panic-buying to prepare for self-isolation, with toilet roll high on the list. MITCH BENN sheds light on how the clear-outs start. I’m a big fan of the ‘discount’ supermarket chain Aldi (other Germanic discount supermarket chains are available. Well one other is anyway). […]

Nigel Farage’s recent media appearances telling Boris Johnson how to run the country and how to deal with coronavirus have annoyed readers. It’s a bit rich of Nigel Farage to lecture Boris Johnson on his leadership, or absence of it. I agree with his criticisms of Johnson’s tactic of hiding from the public and the […]

Brexit has meant some now want their towns to backtrack on their links with Europe, while others are doubling down their commitments. HOLLY EVA RYAN explains more. The Harbury village sign was defaced on January 31st (left). Right is the original version on Google Maps. Photograph: Facebook/Google. – Credit: Archant The practice of twinning towns […]

Readers suggest their ideas for how to keep the United Kingdom together after Brexit hits. Would allowing Britons to keep EU citizenship (Letters, TNE #182-183) help prevent the break-up of the United Kingdom by reducing support among Scottish voters for independence by preserving their freedom to travel, live and work within the EU? Many UK […]

Readers disagree with recent contributions from our columnists that Bernie Sanders cannot beat Donald Trump. As a Vermonter, I take issue with Bonnie Greer and Michael White on Vermont senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (TNE #184). As Bonnie says, Bernie is rich – total wealth approaching $2 million. But Trump, if you believe him, […]

Some readers are taking a cynical approach to the coronavirus and how the fear will be used by the government. How timely is this coronavirus for our Brexit government? For the next two years they can blame it for all the economic problems caused by Brexit. Of course after that, they will have to find […]

BONNIE GREER on the black swan circling germophobe president Trump. One of the first things that you learn as a scriptwriter is to keep your stories realistic. This means that your tale must be something that so-called ordinary people can grasp fairly quickly. American scripts, no matter how fantastical, are usually rooted in recognisable situations, […]

MITCH BENN says the right-wing media’s reaction to the prime minister’s announcement is hypocritical. So, our prime minister has announced having conceived a child “out of wedlock”, as our recent ancestors might have tersely put it, while still at least technically married to his last wife (one is given to understand that a divorce has […]

JAMES BALL questions whether any of the remaining Democratic party candidates can defeat Donald Trump. The night misleadingly called “Super Tuesday” turned into anything but for the Democratic Party, leaving it with the dismal choice of which of two elderly white men it should pick as its champion to beat the elderly orange man in […]

DON BRIND on why the next Labour leader needs to shift the party position to ensure it has a future. My old boss, the BBC political editor John Cole, had a perceptive test of political leadership. Good leaders, he said, had to be ready to “chip away at the prejudices of their followers”. It looks […]

Readers react to Priti Patel’s new points-based immigration system proposals. My Hungarian mate Ferenc sees a bright future for gangmasters under our new ugly immigration laws. So you can stay in the UK for six months but you’re not allowed to work. That’s really going to stop low-paid illegal work in the unregulated economy! Arrive […]

Tackling the climate emergency a political struggle needs to be won up against right-wing populism. RICHARD CALLAND says the new digital era provides an opportunity to do this. History may in due course record 2019 as the year in which the penny finally dropped about the climate emergency humanity faces. A sense of urgency was […]

It’s not just turning 50 that has made MITCH BENN want to get in shape. He’s dreams of watching the wheels fall off the Brexit bandwagon. I’ve started going to the gym again. There are a few reasons for this: firstly, I’ve found a local gym which is run by and in aid of a […]

Without a change in electoral system the big parties are doomed to keep repeating the same mistakes with their leaders. In Meg Russell’s insightful article (“Why grassroots members shouldn’t choose party leaders”), she says of the move away from MP-only selections, “Labour was the first party to diverge from this… in 1981”. However, the 1976 […]

BONNIE GREER discusses how the Bernie Sanders campaign could spell doom for the Democrats and lead to Donald Trump staying in power. Democratic presidential hopeful Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders speaks during a rally at Houston University, Texas. Photo: MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images – Credit: AFP via Getty Images Question: What do Bernie Sanders and […]

As the Brexiteers celebrate leaving the European Union they are yet to realise that their hopes of ‘sovereignty’ will never truly exist. The government talk of taking back control from Brussels, but then are quite willing to pass over key strategic sectors to the Chinese. First Huawei are able to bid for the sensitive 5G […]

JAMES BALL on the Tory Brexiteer’s realisation that Britain does need experts after all. Britain’s Brexiteer government, it seems, hasn’t had enough of experts after all. In an interview this week, Iain Duncan Smith – the former Conservative leader and prominent hard Brexit backer – made the staggeringly original observation that the UK hasn’t done […]

STEVE ANGLESEY on the similarities between home secretary Priti Patel and her old classmate Geri Horner (née Halliwell). Given the name of a famous person and the instruction to name a single interesting fact about them, most people will come up with the same set of answers. David Bowie? His eyes were different colours. Shot-putting […]

Brexit has been cited as one of the biggest problems for the Labour at the general election, so what approach should its next leader take to the big issue of the day? One of the most striking failures of the Labour campaign last December was any attempt to rebut or counter Johnson’s “Get Brexit done” […]

Readers respond to claims that it would be wrong for Remainers to campaign for associate EU citizenship. Mark Bates might be missing the point of associate EU citizenship (TNE #182). It would not and could not be an easy passage to living and collecting our pensions abroad. What it could do would be to show […]

Dominic Cummings stands for everything that he advocated the country rejecting, writes a reader. Dominic Cummings is the epitome of everything he advocated rejecting, all the reasons he fabricated for leaving the EU. The ‘unelected Eurocrats’ spin was a lie; instead, decisions on our futures are now actually being made by faceless, unaccountable figures, not […]

For all its failings, the BBC needs your support, writes JAMES BALL. BBC Sport Presenter Gabby Logan, Alan Shearer and Michael Appleton during an FA Cup match. Photograph: David Davies/PA. – Credit: PA In the midst of last year’s parliamentary battles on Article 50 and the Withdrawal Agreement – and Labour’s struggle to find a […]

Mary C. Murphy assesses the likely impact on Brexit of Sinn Féin’s election success. Political hostility, historical antipathy and considerable incompatibility on both policies and principles has traditionally sullied the relationships between Sinn Féin and Ireland’s two other largest parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. But while they are reluctant to share power with Sinn […]

MITCH BENN on the tragic death of television presenter Caroline Flack – and how we all played a part in the media’s involvement. I wasn’t really that aware of Caroline Flack; I realise what a tiresomely bourgeois and pretentious-sounding thing that is to say right now, but it does become relevant, so bear with me. […]

As Labour members prepare to cast their votes for their chosen candidates, MEG RUSSELL explains why the process is so flawed and damaging. This Friday, the ballot opens in the Labour leadership election. It will close again on April 2, with the result announced two days later. The three candidates still in the running – […]

BONNIE GREER questions Bernie Sanders’ ‘socialist’ credentials and wonders why political parties and activists ignore the wider electorate when they choose leaders. Some of my family back in the States have been emailing me the one question that I imagine much of America is asking: “What’s the difference between a socialist and a democratic socialist?” […]

Whether it’s his hard Brexit agenda, the barring of journalists or the reforms of the justice system, the latest rows in Downing Street show the prime minister is neither a liberal politician or a Tory. Number 10’s spin machine, controlled by the prime minister’s Svengali, Vote Leave campaigner Dominic Cummings, took a leaf out of […]