News and Opinion

Nigel Farage’s market value as a speaker would appear to be plummeting as rapidly as UKIP’s standing in the polls. Freddie Fox arrives for the First Light Awards, a celebration of the next generation of British filmmakers held at the Odeon Leicester Square, London. – Credit: PA Archive/PA Images Mandrake hears that the man who […]

Three decades after the death of Kim Philby, perhaps Britain’s most notorious spy, CHARLIE CONNELLY ponders the changing nature of espionage British spy John Cairncross. Photo: UGC. – Credit: UGC Thirty years ago this week a solemn procession made its way slowly through Moscow’s Kuntsevo cemetery on the banks of the Setun river. An open […]

STEVE ANGLESEY picks the losers and the losers – because there are no winners – from another week on Planet Brexit JACOB REES-MOGG He’s already known for Victorian attire, issuing coded threats via the press and having three words in his name. Now a Sky News interview at his palatial home reveals he has a […]

Much has been said over the BBC’s possible Brexit bias, but what about Sky News, asks a reader. Much has been said over the BBC’s possible Brexit bias, but what about Sky News’ Sunrise? What is the point of having two guests in its Paper Review, if articles are shared between the pundits for them […]

Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer believes neither of the government’s customs solutions will succeed. And Sir Keir launched an attack at the cabinet saying the squabbling between ministers was ‘farcical’. He told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show: ‘I think we are in a farcical situation at the moment, nearly two years after the referendum […]

Former Labour heavyweight David Miliband has joined a cross-party bid to take on the Brexiteers. Miliband, who quit as an MP after losing the Labour leadership to his brother Ed in 2010, will share a platform with Tory ex-education secretary Nicky Morgan and Liberal Democrat former deputy PM Sir Nick Clegg to push for a […]

The assessment of the Liverpool manager has come through. ALASTAIR CAMPBELL says people do respect longevity Tory MP @JohnRedwood refuses to debate Brexit and the Customs Union with @Femi_Sorry pic.twitter.com/bYrqywmaFd— Our Future, Our Choice! (@OFOCBrexit) May 6, 2018 I’ve been trying to think of other people who, when taken ill, would have been met with […]

​The free press attacked, migrants degraded and liberalism in tatters – YASMIN ALIBHAI-BROWN on what must happen to ensure the European dream is not destroyed Europe Day is commemorated across the continent on May 9 every year. It acclaims peace between the nations and subtly reminds Europeans about its bloody past and institutionalised barbarisms. The […]

Earlier this year The New European published a letter by me about an negative experience I had in Essex at Christmas. I – a woman of colour, domiciled in France – felt racially harassed at Southend airport when returning to Britain to visit my children. I attributed this, and still do, to the toxic climate […]

Trump’s new top legal representative is emerging as a key political strategist, says PAUL CONNEW. His firings are usually more eye-catching than his hirings, but Donald Trump’s appointment of Rudy Giuliani as head of his troubled legal team has swiftly proved tactically explosive, both in legal and political terms. The pugnacious former mayor of New […]

RICHARD LUCK ponders one of the great modern conspiracy theories It was a remarkable year for British music, 1968. The Beatles released The White Album, the Stones set Beggars Banquet before the hungry masses, The Who began recording Tommy and, under the guise of The New Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin played their first concert. Meanwhile, Cream […]

Former attorney general Dominic Grieve has called for Boris Johnson to resign from the Cabinet. Grieve, who has been one of the leading Tory critics of the Government’s Brexit stance, rounded on the Foreign Secretary after Johnson described a customs partnership deal with the EU being considered by Prime Minister Theresa May as ‘crazy’. Grieve […]

Jeremy Corbyn will commit a ‘serious evasion of duty’ if he does not change course and back the UK retaining key aspects of the single market after Brexit, the former Labour leader Lord Kinnock has claimed. In a strongly-worded attack, the peer signalled that Labour MPs should defy the party leader if he repeats instructions […]

The will of the people want to stay within the Customs Union with the EU, argues Paul Smith. On last week’s Question Time, Martin Lewis, the undisputed master of figures and logic, made a crucial point on an imaginary referendum about staying in the customs union: ‘One would assume most Remainers were in favour of […]

It seems that, having done its dirty work, UKIP is content to fade into the background. Even to the extent of likening itself to a potentially recurrent strain of plague bacillus that will surface again in the event of an ‘unsatisfactory’ Brexit agreement. Having gleefully spooked David Cameron into calling what has subsequently come to […]

I voted for Brexit. I never expected it to actually happen. I voted for Brexit. I never expected it to actually happen. When I ticked the box marked No, I believed my vote would be a stern warning to the Eurocrats that their power had extended too far and that they were meddling too much […]

Giuseppe Sollazzo on one of the contest’s memorable winners – a love song to the single market Could a song about the European Union win the Eurovision contest? This is not an academic question: it happened in 1990. That year, Italy won with Insieme: 1992 (Insieme means ‘together’), a celebration of the single market. Its […]

Tory posturing gives Labour’s leader an opportunity… but will he take it, asks JANE MERRICK Two of the MPs most likely to be the next Conservative leader have been scrambling for attention this week. Clearly motivated by the prominence of Sajid Javid, whose stellar rise to home secretary prompted a wave of profile pieces tipping […]

Popbitch’s Eurovision team give the lowdown on who to watch out for in this year’s contest The One For A Social Conscience – France A he-she duo called Madame Monsieur, with a gentle pop hymn about a Nigerian child called Mercy, who was born on a migrant boat in the Mediterranean at the height of […]

So, it turns out the Bad Boys of Brexit were actually very bad indeed. Now Leave.EU backer Arron Banks has vowed to take the Electoral Commission to court over the £70,000 fine they have dished out. This is great news. Speaking on the Today programme he said: ‘We view the Electoral Commission announcement as a […]

With the UK entry in Lisbon this weekend unlikely to go with a boom-bang-a-bang, Roy Delaney investigates the reasons behind Britain’s malaise and wonders whether the country can transform its fortunes Blue rehearsing for the Eurovision Song Contest (Grand Prix Eurovision de la Chanson) at Esprit Arena in Duesseldorf, Germany, May 2011 Credit: WENN – […]

Young men are railing against the unfairness of the womenfolk of the world’s refusal to have sex with them. MITCH BENN sends them a public message. I’ve been thinking, as it would appear have quite a few columnists of late, about the whole ‘incel’ thing. Now ‘incel’, if you are fortunate enough to have avoided […]

Richard Dawkins is one of the latest to consider a move to New Zealand following the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit vote. A combination of both events has led to an upsurge in migration to New Zealand according to the latest figures. ‘Move to New Zealand’ became the top Google search term in […]

Splits in the cabinet over Brexit are simply the latest manifestations of a divide that has paralysed the Conservatives – and the country – for decades. STEVE RICHARDS reports Here we go again. A Conservative Prime Minister seeks to persuade a divided cabinet and a split parliamentary party that her policy in relation to the […]

Happy birthday! The New European podcast is celebrating its first birthday. We are one – and to celebrate the team is back with another round-up of the goings on in Brexit Britain. Richard and Steve delve into the week’s news including more momentous votes in the Lords and the foreign secretary’s latest outburst. Geri considers […]

If the Government is willing to admit defeat on our train system how can they be trusted to sort out Brexit, asks a reader. When the government cheerfully admits that it can not even run a workable and fair rail ticketing system via Network Rail, why should we have any faith that it can develop […]

Brexit campaign group Leave.EU has been fined £70,000 for breaking rules on spending during the EU referendum campaign, the Electoral Commission has announced. The group, co-founded by former Ukip backer Arron Banks, overspent by at least £77,380 – 10% over the limit for non-party registered groups – an investigation found. The commission said the actual […]

Test yourself on the continent’s music with our great quiz Test yourself on Europe’s music with our fiendish quiz. Caution – it’s harder to solve than Brexit…

From the local elections to the House of Lords, the case for a Brexit rethink is inescapable, says ANDREW ADONIS The big story of the local elections isn’t that Labour did badly and the Tories did better than expected – although both are true – but rather the Faragisation of the Conservative party, which is […]

A new study finds that while young women are more left-wing than men of the same age, older women are more right-wing. ROSALIND SHORROCKS, who carried out the research, explains what it means Research by politics lecturer Rosalind Shorrocks at the University of Manchester. – Credit: Archant That younger people are often more likely to […]

Relations between journalists and politicians should never be too cosy, but being personally rebuked by a home secretary is always going to give an editor pause for thought. The Sajid Javid cartoon we printed in The New European last week. Image: The New European. – Credit: Archant Relations between journalists and politicians should never be […]

Who is on Question Time this week and where do they stand on Brexit? Here’s your guide… The BBC’s flagship current affairs programme on Thursday (10 May 2018) comes from Kettering, an area which voted 61% to Leave in the EU referendum in 2016. On this week’s panel is: BBC Question Time Panel on Thursday […]