News and Opinion

If Brexit happens next March it won’t be the end – just the ‘end of the beginning’, explains Will Goble. The best analogy I’ve yet heard about the lunacy of Brexit is from an anonymous poster in the comments section of an online newspaper. It goes something like this: A man is driving at speed […]

Right-wing Tories will be furious, Boris Johnson and Liam Fox will resign, and we’ll stay close to Europe. It’s a no-brainer isn’t it? With David ‘Two Brains’ Willetts seeking to persuade the government to pursue a less isolationist post-Brexit policy, the time is surely ripe for the less cerebrally-endowed politician – Lord Lawson, Theresa May […]

This week’s Mandrake column diaries the attempts to have The New European recognised by the Today programme, and securing an interview with Nigel Farage. At least a couple of scandals before Windrush – it’s actually getting hard to keep track now with this government – Boris Johnson pledged to avenge the attempted murder of the […]

Elections in the Central American country could end in victory for a hard left populist seen as the polar opposite of the US leader, says PAUL KNOTT ‘Poor Mexico – so far from God, so close to the United States’. The oft-quoted words of the early 20th century Mexican President Porfirio Diaz have rarely seemed […]

Test yourself on your knowledge of the box with our great quiz Test yourself on your TV knowledge with our fiendish quiz. Caution – it’s harder to solve than Brexit…

Scotland’s First Minister has made it clear that she will only support key Brexit legislation if further amendments are made by the UK government. Nicola Sturgeon has insisted that if Holyrood were to give its consent to the current EU Withdrawal Bill, it would not be in Scotland’s ‘national interest’. Changes made by Westminster, including […]

Britain’s Brexit deal has been thrown into further confusion after a senior cabinet minister suggested that the question of the UK’s membership in the customs union remained open. Home Secretary Amber Rudd refrained from confirming that the UK was certain to leave the customs union, when pressed on the issue at a Westminster lunch. Saying […]

For EU citizens living in the UK and worried about their status, the Windrush scandal will have had a particularly chilling effect. But, says BRAD BLITZ, there are encouraging legal precedents they can look to. It is hard to recall a recent scandal that has shocked the country quite like the Windrush debacle. But there […]

US farmers are demanding hormone-pumped beef and chlorine-washed chicken are included in any post-Brexit trade deal. Plans for deals with the US mean the UK market could be opened up to trade from American farms which are subject to lower standards of production. The current UK guidelines for meat are covered by strict EU food […]

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 The Athenaeum in Bury St Edmunds, where Charles Dickens uses to give readings. But in this age of foolishness and epoch of incredulity, who’s on the panel – and where […]

STEVE ANGLESEY runs through the losers and losers – because there are no winners – in another week of Brexit madness PETER FROM BURY Caller to LBC who claimed to have found the ideal solution to the Irish border problem: ‘You microchip the population so you know who is in there.’ How long before Peter […]

A fixation on Donald Trump means we’re overlooking an even more profound threat facing the United States. In an epic essay ALBERT SCARDINO explains how this has come to pass Forget for a moment, if you can, Donald Trump and his latest legal imbroglios. Forget about the surprise early retirement of Paul Ryan, the speaker […]

Britain has always been devious and unjust with immigrants whose lands were colonised, writes YASMIN ALIBHAI-BROWN The Wikipedia definition of ‘perfidious Albion’ is ‘An Anglophobic pejorative phrase used within the context of international relations and diplomacy to refer to alleged acts of diplomatic sleights, duplicity, treachery and hence infidelity (with respect to perceived promises made […]

The debate on the customs union is a golden opportunity for MPs to discuss, sensibly, the impact quitting will have on Britain. This should be viewed as a chance to convince wavering Tories to be brave when the vote really matters next month – it is time for members to realise sometimes they must put […]

The motion put before Parliament this autumn on the final Brexit agreement will be amendable by MPs and its outcome will be binding on the government, David Davis has said. The Brexit secretary said the motion – which prime minister Theresa May has previously described as a “take it or leave it” choice – would […]

Prime Minister’s Questions was again consumed by the ongoing scandal over the treatment of the Windrush generation. A pumped Jeremy Corbyn went for Theresa May from the off. His plan is to paint the government as racist – but this is a difficult path. The term ‘hostile environment’ has been used by Labour as well. […]

The return of exorbitant fees for using your phone abroad is yet another reason we need to think again on Brexit, says NINA DE AYALA PARKER Among the many things threatened by Brexit is one which seems to have escaped wider attention. And it is one which should resonate particularly strongly among the young… the […]

MPs have voiced ‘grave concerns’ over the complacency of the Department for Business in preparing for Brexit. The department, headed by business secretary Greg Clark, is one of the parts of government most deeply affected by EU withdrawal, with responsibility for around one-fifth of the work streams requiring action. But the chairwoman of the Commons […]

Is the twerk empowering or just more pandering to the male ideal of what female pop stars should act like? EMMA JONES investigates Apr 15, 2018; Indio, CA, USA; Cardi B performs at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at Empire Polo Club. Mandatory Credit: Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun via USA TODAY NETWORK/Sipa USA […]

It’s increasingly difficult to pick out individual instances of insanity from the constant droning white noise of craziness, says MITCH BENN We live in an age when lunacy, in many forms and at many levels, romps (largely) unchallenged through civil, political and international discourse. As such it’s increasingly difficult to pick out individual instances of […]

Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has said that Brexit makes “no sense” and called for a second referendum on Britain staying in the EU. Speaking to the Guardian, the 50-year-old said the EU was not perfect but “was the best idea we had”. The German said: ‘When Mr Cameron had the idea you thought: ‘This is […]

The UK’s fashion sector says it needs the single market to flourish… JAMES BALL warns Brexit will damage a truly modern industry When we talk about Brexit and its potential costs, or its potential benefits, all too often we end up talking about cars or fish. When we warn about the dangers of hard Brexit, […]

As France nears the 50th anniversary of the May 1968 protests amid unmistakable echoes of those events, JASON WALSH asks which direction the country will go in this time around Spring 1968: Paris is a febrile city, with workers out on strike and students occupying universities in defiance of a government that seems to be […]

As an EU national who has resided in UK for the past eight years, I will be using the ballot box in May to articulate my discontent with Brexit. Although local elections concern local matters, as an EU national I only have the local elections at my disposal to signal my disagreement with the Conservative […]

Members of Theresa May’s team believe she could have to accept continued membership of a European customs union, according to reports. Leaks to the Sunday Times suggest senior aides said they would not be ‘crying into our beer’ if parliament forces the government’s hand by voting in favour of remaining in a customs union. But […]

Consumers face price hikes and less choice at the supermarket if Britain does not secure a free trade deal with the European Union, MPs have warned. The cross-party Commons Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee said a reversion to World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules would be ‘disastrous’ to Britain’s £28 billion processed food and drinks […]

Sir Martin Sorrell, arguably the UK’s most successful businessman, has been toppled from his throne at WPP, the advertising company he founded, after 33 years in charge. WPP was built over decades, on the back of Sir Martin’s relentless energy and drive. He swept up the famous advertising agencies J Walter Thompson, Young & Rubicam […]

Alastair Campbell (TNE #90) reminds us of just how extraordinary it is that someone so clearly unsuited to holding public office as Boris Johnson has managed to gain such a strong foothold in politics. Gary Neville summed it up for me when, following yet another bit of foot-in-mouth idiocy as the foreign secretary suggested we […]

MICHAEL WHITE on gathering storms for vunerable May while Corbyn catches the mood The politically-loaded phrase ‘regime change’ is back in the headlines in the wake of the West’s retaliation against the renewed use of chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war. We routinely use it about governments in faraway countries of which we disapprove. […]

Both sides of Brexit think the BBC is biased towards the other side, as Chris Grey’s excellent piece points out. This may indicate that the Beeb is doing the right thing. So let’s just cut to the chase and stop hammering the BBC for showing or not showing any partiality during the referendum debate. What […]

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

This May there will be another opportunity for anti-Brexit voices to be heard as the next round of local elections take place around England. 32 London boroughs, 34 metropolitan boroughs, 68 district/borough councils and 17 unitary authorities will hold council elections. On the same day there will be Mayoral elections in Hackney, Lewisham, Newham, Tower […]