News and Opinion

A clip of the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator telling Nigel Farage he is the ‘biggest waste of money in the EU’ has gone viral on social media. In the video Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt responds to the former UKIP leader’s rant about the cost of the European Union by telling him it is his […]

RICHARD LUCK on a forgotten chapter in tennis history and the man who became the unexpected beneficiary of the Grand Slam glory at SW19. This year’s Wimbledon marks 50 years since the start of the Open Era, when the four grand slam tournaments finally agreed that professionals could compete with amateurs, so ending a split […]

Tory infighting over Europe has intensified after hardline Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg warned Theresa May she must deliver what he wants or risk the collapse of her government. The prime minister will face MPs this afternoon ahead of a crunch meeting of her Cabinet at Chequers on Friday to attempt to thrash out the government’s plans […]

In a flawed bid to prevent migrants arriving in Europe, the Sahara is being sealed off to travellers – no matter what the consequences. JULIEN BRACHET reports: If global media reports are to be believed, every African who leaves their home country is heading for Europe. This is simply not true – 80% of Sub-Saharan […]

Touring Fuengirola’s seafront it isn’t only the British pubs adorned with the Union Jack, souvenir touts or pasty tourists that put you in mind of Skegness, Blackpool or Great Yarmouth. Sandra Watson. Photo: Geraldine Scott – Credit: Geraldine Scott British expats are living on one of Brexit’s front lines. But on atrip to the Costa […]

A Cabinet minister has left the door open to extending Britain’s transition out of the EU as hardline backbenchers warned Theresa May the deadline must remain intact. Under the current timetable the implementation period is set to end in December 2020. But Business secretary Greg Clark refused to rule out an extension to the arrangements. […]

The People’s Vote march received just the kind of snarky criticism we have all come to expect, says MITCH BENN. Like many of you in body and all of you in spirit, I imagine, I spent Saturday last taking part in what became known as the People’s Vote March, and have the badly sunburnt ever-expanding […]

Two years on from the referendum, what do we now know about Brexit? Professor AC GRAYLING explores the facts and reveals what must happen to stop the UK crashing out of the EU. Last Saturday, two years to the day after the EU referendum of 2016, more than 100,000 people marched in London demanding a […]

The latest demands to change the laws on medicinal cannabis must be based on scientific evidence, says TRACY KING. What happens when medical evidence clashes with a mother’s love for her child? Charlotte Caldwell’s son, 12-year-old boy Billy, has severe autism and epilepsy. She claims that the cannabis oil she procured from a doctor in […]

In the great Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges – whose master work is that literary revolution, The Garden of Forking Paths – we can see the value of weariness, exhaustion and the path/worlds they reveal. This short story, on the surface, is about a Chinese spy. But in his attempt to show his German masters […]

With rising tension over Trump’s zero tolerance immigration policy, PAUL CONNEW says the Republicans are moving to drop the president for the next election. Donald Trump once boasted to me he’d staged more comebacks than Frank Sinatra. Indeed The Donald came as close to worshipping Ol’ Blue Eyes as he did anyone other than himself. […]

Since the referendum politics have taken an anti-European turn. But, asks BARNABY TOWNS, what has shifted in political and public opinion? Few, in the aftermath of the 2016 referendum, would have foreseen that the government – so keen to trigger Article 50 – would still lack a negotiating position two years later, or that Britain […]

Readers that marched in London last weekend have a lot to say about the Labour leader missing the event and those that are defending his position. The world is certainly changing. I attended the very inspiring People’s Vote march in London. It was the biggest demonstration I have ever been on without either Jeremy Corbyn […]

Surely even Theresa May must agree that Boris Johnson’s alleged response of ‘f*** business’ to a question at a diplomatic event about business concerns about Brexit renders his position untenable. For most of us in the UK, business is essential to our very survival. Business provides employment. Business enables us to put a meal on […]

Government ministers call the Airbus warning ‘part of a new Project Fear’. They would do well to take this warning seriously. Shortly before his death, I sat with one of the team who had negotiated the agreement for Broughton to manufacture the wings of these multinational European projects. He told me of the determination, of […]

As a New European reader, you probably reckon you keep a close eye on the continent’s news. Test yourself with our quiz… Think you’re on top of what’s been going on across Europe in the past seven days? Take The New European’s tricky quiz and find out just how much of a Europhile you are…

STEVE ANGLESEY rounds up the losers and the losers (because their are no winners) of another crazy seven days on Planet Brexit 10 LIAM FOX The international trade secretary celebrated ‘Thank A Teacher’ day with a video praising his old schoolmistress, Patsy Watt. Created with all the care and attention for which Liam Fox is […]

MICHAEL WHITE on more own goals from the Foreign Secretary as he dodges Heathrow vote and patronises the public. It is tempting fate to invoke the success of the England football squad at the World Cup before knowing the outcome of this week’s final Group G games. But the sun is shining, so let’s do […]

The Conservatives used to pride themselves on being the party of business. But that relationship has unequivocally broken down, as ANGELA JAMESON reports. How do you know when a relationship has hit rock bottom? Roland Rudd, a prominent Remain campaigner and adviser to many of the UK’s leading businesses, tweeted this week: ‘Can’t remember a […]

Brussels’ chief Brexit negotiator has told Theresa May to produce “realistic and workable” proposals as the prime minister called for the process to accelerate. Michel Barnier said “huge and serious divergence” remained over issues relating to Ireland and Northern Ireland and called for an extra session of negotiations with UK officials on Monday. The prime […]

Europeans must rekindle post-war values to combat the hostile treatment of migrants, argues YASMIN ALIBHAI-BROWN. Idi Amin, Robert Mugabe and, latterly, Jacob Zuma were heroes for any number of African leaders. Such real bad guys made other, less vividly crooked and repressive prime ministers and presidents feel good about themselves. So Hastings Banda of Malawi […]

RACHEL JOHNSON reflects on travels with her husband, Brexit business concerns and how trying to have fun can be such hard work. Travels with my husband, Ivo, have an erratic quality that I have decided is part of their charm, if not allure. We spent two days in Helsinki en route to Delhi this year. […]

David Cameron has declined to comment after being subjected to a brutal tongue-lashing from actor Danny Dyer over his part in Brexit. The soap star branded the politician a “twat” on live TV and accused him of “scuttling off” after plunging the country into the confusion of EU withdrawal But a spokesman for Mr Cameron […]

Anti-Brexit campaigner GINA MILLER on the atmosphere of heady patriotism which spread throughout the March for a People’s Vote. Anti-Brexit demonstrators fill Parliament Square in central London, during the People’s Vote march, which called for a vote on the final Brexit deal. Picture date: Saturday 23rd June, 2018. Photo credit should read: Matt Crossick/ EMPICS […]

Who is on Question Time tonight and where do they stand on Brexit? Here’s your guide… The BBC’s flagship current affairs programme tonight comes from Exeter’s Northcott Theatre, which next month plays host to The League of Gentleman. But who’s serving the special stuff – and who thinks Britain is a local country for local […]

The matches themselves might be bearable, but everything else surrounding England’s World Cup bid is a bore, says an unenthused CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ. I didn’t hate football until I moved to England. My first big footballing memory was the 1990 World Cup. I was six, we were living in Portugal at the time, and Argentina […]

Society romanticises childbirth to the point women are not given a chance to cope with what is really involved, says CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ The first thing you notice is that you’re tired all the time. Then the nausea starts. You will start feeling dizzy and you may faint. As the condition progresses you may experience […]

Editor-at-Large ALASTAIR CAMPBELL explains why comparing the public reaction surrounding the Iraq War with Brexit simply won’t work. Piers Morgan has a point. No, please bear with me, he does. Like his old pal Donald Trump, he makes most of his points on Twitter, responding to my tweets about the People’s Vote march thus: ‘I […]

Boris Johnson is hellbent on being prime minister, argues ANDREW ADONIS, but his career has been built on cowardice. For the biographer of Churchill to be the master of cowardice is a feat of hypocrisy unparalleled since the Emperor Nero refused the poison and lamented ‘what an artist is now about to perish’. Junior ministers […]

TIM WALKER on how Paul Dacre’s departure from the Daily Mail could mean the end of Sarah Vine’s column, Gina Miller challenges the BBC on bias… and Theresa May wins a battle with a spider. Although undeclared in the register of members’ interests, Michael Gove’s household is enriched to the tune of £200,000 a year […]

The events of the referendum night, writes JAMES BALL, shine a fascinating light on the world of finance, polling and politics It was the week a major news organisation accused Nigel Farage of perhaps the most cynical manipulation of financial markets in history Bloomberg, the international financial news agency, suggested the former UKIP leader might […]

Migrants from Ukraine could take the place of EU workers in the aftermath of Brexit, Michael Gove has said. The UK environment secretary told MSPs at Holyrood that industries could in future have to “think about looking further afield” when recruiting staff. Some sectors of the UK economy, such as food production and the hospitality […]