British Politics

Readers had plenty to say this week about Nigel Farage’s claim he’s ’53, separated and skint’. Nigel Farage says he is ’53, separated and skint’. It is probably the first time one of his sentences has been two-thirds accurate, but the last bit really bugs me. Because Farage is plainly not skint. He earns £90,000 […]

STEVE ANGLESEY on how a book of less than 400 words provides the most compelling illustration of why Leave won As the news about Brexit continues to get worse; the writing about it continues to get better. What The Hell Happens Now by Ian Dunt, Tim Shipman’s All-Out War and Unleashing Demons by Craig Oliver […]

The big guns – Boris, DD, Farage – all had pleasingly tricky years. But here STEVE ANGLESEY picks out 20 unsung zeroes who brought their side of the argument into even bigger disrepute. 20. FRANCIS BASHIR Leader of the Royal Disciple Church, a Pakistani Christian sect which worships Nigel Farage. Congregants believe that the nicotine-stained […]

RICHARD PORRITT with the week’s big stories, including a diplomatic spat between Austria and Italy It is Christmas drinks season in Westminster, when journalists are tempted by cheap white wine and nibbles. The Number 10 event included invites to many of the biggest names in the UK media, to hear Theresa May chatting about her […]

Reader Paul Hollands spent a week on a pro-Brexit Facebook group to break out of the Remain social media ‘bubble’. I have spent the last week in a pro-Brexit group on Facebook. I did this to try and break out of my ‘bubble’, but also I went in search of the reason why people voted […]

MITCH BENN asks whether the likes of David Davis and Donald Trump have decided that shame is a sign of weakness. First of all, some sort of apology is order; I have been laid low with bloke-flu since last we spoke. It seems to be one of those annoying colds which wipes you out completely […]

The Prime Minister is doomed even if she survives yet another self-created crisis, writes reader Daniel Hunt. She is weak, lacking vision, and unable to unite her own party, let alone her coalition partners. The reluctance of the Tory plotters to knife her while Brexit remains in the balance is understandable. Less so is why […]

Steve Anglesey counts down the worst Brexiteers of the week. THE UKIP LION Though it was unveiled less than three months ago, the ‘Kippers are reportedly preparing to dump their lion logo after conceding that they cannot afford a copyright court fight with football’s Premier League, whose own emblem it closely resembles. UKIP insiders tip […]

RICHARD PORRITT with the week’s big stories, including Brexit health risks, trouble in Ukraine and controversy in Italy Nigel Farage’s former spokesman Michael Heaver has been chatting to the BBC about his time with UKIP. ‘Nigel Farage is such a machine,’ Heaver, who got the job aged just 27, said adoringly. ‘What was very important […]

MITCH BENN discusses how speaking in haste can often signal the truth I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying ‘there’s many a true word spoken in jest’. This is indeed the case (the whole satire industry depends upon it) but there are, if anything, even more true words spoken in haste. That is to say, […]

STEVE ANGLESEY counts down the worst Brexiteers of the week 10. LIAM FOX The International Trade Secretary delivered a tantalising hint of the amazing deals to come post-Brexit when he visited a bassoon shop in Newport. No doubt delighted to meet some other expensive wind instruments, Fox tweeted that Double Reed was an ‘internationally respected […]

RICHARD PORRITT on the week’s big stories, including a big victory in Austria, the German foreign minister on the offensive and the prince of letters After all that fuss about Brexit impact statements, it appears they never really existed in any meaningful sense anyway. To widespread shock, David Davis admitted to a parliamentary committee on […]

‘Irish Border unthinkable’ says Boris Johnson. ‘Isn’t this the same person that said the EU could go a whistle for more money and that £350m a week would go to the NHS…?’ asks reader Tony Howarth. ‘Irish Border unthinkable’ says Boris Johnson. Isn’t this the same person that said the EU could go a whistle […]

Has the constant reel of Brexit news got you pulling your hair out? Comedian and musician MITCH BENN looks at one piece of news this week that has taken minds off of Brexit. Hey folks. Do you sometimes find yourself longing for the days when I – and everyone else – had other things to […]

STEVE ANGLESEY counts down the worst Brexiteers of the week 10 ALAN BRAZIL Brushing off the departures of the European Medicines Agency to Amsterdam and the European Banking Authority to Paris, the bibulous Talksport host assured listeners that ‘if we get a good Brexit there will be 5,000 jobs created for every 1,000 lost’. So […]

RICHARD PORRITT with the week’s big stories, including some good news on electric planes, some bad news for the Polish economy and some credit for Emmanuel Macron So we have got to that sad moment in the breakdown of any relationship where the shouting is over, the tears have dried up and all there is […]

Remainers are still waiting for evidence of the cunning traps Labour were going to set for the government during this process, writes one reader. Two studies have shown that Labour’s surge at the last general election was mainly due to voters perceiving them as the party who would deliver the softest Brexit, or no Brexit […]

I didn’t get much from my Twitter spat with Kylie Minogue’s songwriter, but his famous lyrics certainly sum up the mindset of Brexiteers. I won’t lie to you; this hasn’t been an easy gig this week. I don’t necessarily regard it as being my responsibility to put a comical spin on events in every issue, […]

STEVE ANGLESEY counts down the worst Brexiteers of the week 10 Stella Fellas No-one is suggesting that Brexiteers are desperate for some good news, but Daily Telegraph chief political correspondent Christopher Hope appeared to have caught a glimpse of those famous sunlit uplands when he excitedly tweeted ‘Stella is now selling beer in pint cans. […]

A look at the week’s big stories, including a riddle over Jeremy Corbyn’s name, the fresh-faced new mayor of Lübeck and France’s averted butter crisis Angela Merkel’s domestic discomfort has been the source of some schadenfreude for the Brexit brigade with Jacob Rees-Mogg, predictably, among those suggesting it could give the UK some handy leverage […]

Here is a flavour of some of the recent letters we’ve received in The New European’s mailbag. Send your letters for publication to letters@theneweuropean.co.uk Boris Johnson blunders over Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, with potentially horrific consequences. Boris then appears before the House of Commons but declines to apologise. Michael Gove appears on TV to defend Boris but […]

Britain’s tech sector is flying. But, asks ANGELA JAMESON, will new Government cash be enough to stop Brexit bursting the bubble? Bill Gates is to create a smart city called Belmont in Arizona in an attempt to build the desert state into a tech hub to rival Silicon Valley. Of course there is a long […]

STEVE ANGLESEY counts down the worst Brexiteers of the week 10 BILL ETHERIDGE ‘I have been extremely naïve,’ said West Midlands MEP and failed UKIP leadership candidate Etheridge back in 2015, after he had repeated Enoch Powell’s warning that multiculturalism would lead to ‘rivers of blood’. Happily Bill is a changed man and now acts […]

RICHARD PORRITT with the week’s big stories All hail to the mutineers! The Daily Telegraph pulled off a remarkable feat this week by outraging both Remainers and Leavers with their bonkers splash labelling Tory Brexit rebels ‘mutineers’. Even Brexit minister Steve Baker took a shot at the Conservative Party’s in-house newsletter, saying ‘colleagues have sincere […]

RICHARD PORRITT rounds up the losers and losers (because there are no winners) of another crazy seven days on Planet Brexit 10 Peter Lundgren MEP Swedish right-winger Lundgren has claimed this week that warnings about Britain being isolated and poor after Brexit are ‘bulls**t’. Phew. This from a man who represents a party launched by […]

RICHARD PORRITT with the week’s big stories ‘Can she last until Christmas?’ That is the question we pose on the front page of this week’s paper… and it’s a question a Number 10 insider answered with a sigh moments after her doomed conference speech last month. ‘Well,’ he continued amid the shock of the worse […]

Steve Anglesey counts down the worst Brexiteers of the week 10 Arron Banks If his lucrative dog-whistle business should ever go wrong, Leave.EU backer Banks really should consider a career as a psychic. Just after 9am on October 30 he was crowing on Twitter that the ‘Russian stuff out of the US against Trump… is […]

RICHARD PORRITT with this week’s big stories A Brexit stalemate, no money in the coffers and polls which have a hard leftie as favourite to win the next election – the news is not good for poor Theresa May. And now a raft of old fashioned sex scandals is set to rock her government as […]

STEVE ANGLESEY picks out the worst Brexiteers of the week 10 Henry Bolton Fresh from declaring that he could strange a badger with his bare hands, UKIP’s new leader has admitted that since the party is skint and his position is unpaid, he’ll probably have to sell his home to get by. No worries, Henry […]

RICHARD PORRITT with the week’s big stories Thanks to concerned readers in academia, The New European was among several media outlets to receive a copy of Chris Heaton-Harris’ sinister letter to universities this week. Did this dunderhead Tory really think he could fire off veiled threats to vice-chancellors up and down the country in an […]

RICHARD PORRITT on the week’s big talking points The chlorinated chickens have come home to roost for the Brexiteers this week. First lobby group TheCityUK says Britain stands to lose as much as £10bn in lost investments if a transitional deal is not worked out. Then the Resolution Foundation warned millions of families face shelling […]

STEVE ANGLESEY rounds up the losers and losers (because there are no winners) of another crazy seven days on Planet Brexit 10 Gerard Batten ‘English is not taught in our schools and hasn’t been for decades,’ claimed the UKIP MEP on Twitter, surprising hundreds of English teachers across the nation and enraging thousands of pupils […]