News and Opinion

Brexit talks kick off on Monday – but there won’t be any talk about trade. The Brussels talks will focus on the status of expats, the UK’s ‘divorce bill’ and the Northern Irish border, rather than on any future trade relations with the European Union. The European Commission said the one-day meeting between its chief […]

Because he couldn’t lie. Some will claim that Tim Farron’s leadership of the Liberal Democrats was doomed from the start. They will protest that you can’t be a Christian and the leader of liberalism in the United Kingdom. They will say that his alleged views on same-sex relationships and abortion put him beyond the pale. […]

Naturally, as a man of ill-concealed principle and conviction, Tim Farron was always likely to come a cropper in a game as flea-pit filthy as politics. That was why we liked him. It helped that he was also the only politician to see that democracy was not a one-off event on June 23, 2016, and […]

Going Dutch – a new blog encourages parents to raise their children the Netherlands way. Two mothers in the Netherlands have found themselves at the heart of the latest parenting craze: be more Dutch. Rina Mae Acosta, a Filippo-American writer from California and Michele Hutchison, a translator originally from London, both married Dutch husbands, run […]

Richard Porritt, Geri Scott and Steve Anglesey tackle another busy week in British politics, take your questions from the mail bag and crown the latest Brexiteer of the Week. In episode six of the New European podcast, the team discuss Tim Farron’s departure, Theresa May’s first week back in Parliament and we take your questions […]

The general election has left the outcome of Brexit more uncertain than ever. June 8 shifted the political centre of gravity. There is now no mandate for the Theresa May-Daily Mail catastrophically extreme version of Brexit. Instead, the Labour Party now has the opportunity to forge a coalition of common sense that can seize the […]

No wonder they kicked the poor bugger out of politics. Naturally, as a man of ill-concealed principle and conviction, Tim Farron was always likely to come a cropper in a game as flea-pit filthy as politics. That was why we liked him. It helped that he was also the only politician to see that democracy […]

Suddenly he is everyone’s favourite Uncle Jeremy – a man on the threshhold of power. Next time he may be unlucky enough to win As the wise old boy selling coffee at our local market put it a couple of days after the general election: ‘First we made a little mistake, then a bigger one. […]

None of us want this great nation to be laughed at … But that is what is happening Let’s be clear: The Conservative and Unionist Party lost the 2017 snap General Election. You’d have to be a corpse – and a certified one – not to win for the Conservatives in the constituency where I […]

Time to reverse the burden of truth and scrutinise Brexit negotiations At the beginning of the general election campaign Theresa May said she was seeking a mandate to negotiate her sort of Brexit; the result denies her that mandate. The Prime Minister’s version of Brexit was set out in the Conservative manifesto; it said that […]

On the panel tonight Emily Thornberry, Tobias Ellwood, Norman Lamb, Rob Delaney and Laura Perrins .

We do not condone this and imagine it makes the editor of the Daily Mail very angry… https://twitter.com/TheNewEuropean/status/874972871801622529 Across the country unknown Remainers have been rearranging news stands to cover Europsceptic newspapers with copies of The New European. The Bournemouth Echo have reported on repeated instances of a mystery vigilante rearranging copies of the New […]

Former chancellor Ken Clarke has urged the Prime Minister to change her approach to Brexit in an effort to restore public confidence in politics. The Tory grandee is the latest high-profile figure to weigh in on Theresa May’s Brexit strategy after former Conservative prime ministers David Cameron and Sir John Major both made rare interventions […]

Is Italy Europe’s most dangerous nation? For a British public which has been so engrossed in a general election triggered on the premise of EU negotiations, it is natural to assume that Brexit is the EU’s all-consuming challenge, since it is so prominent in our own national discourse. In Britain we are still sifted into […]

Listen to Jan Ravens as she channels the Prime Minister in a painfully accurate impression Dead Ringers star Jan Ravens has delivered her most canny impression of Theresa May to date, impersonating the Prime Minister reciting an alternative version of Kipyard’s ‘If’ in the post-election episode of the Strong & Stable podcast. The satirical podcast, […]

Watch as the Labour leader throws Tory campaign slogans back at May in the first week back of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn was on top form at the first day back in the House of Commons since the election, telling May: ‘I’m sure she will agree with me that democracy is a wondrous thing and can […]

Opportunism was the motive for the general election… and now we’ll pay the price. Theresa May’s election gamble has not paid off. She hoped that in holding a snap election she could secure a landslide Conservative majority. She has failed. This election, dubbed the Brexit election, provided very little clarity and specific details on what […]

Voting records reveal the new Environment Secretary and Surrey Heath MP has voted against many green issues Chief Brexiteer Michael Gove is back in the Cabinet after being sacked by Theresa May last year. We take a look at the new environment minister’s voting record when it comes to climate change, wildlife and the environment: […]

The Hard Brexit party has a worrying record on human rights and environmental issues Ian Paisley Jr – North Antrim LGBT rights: Voted against equal gay rights Gay Marriage: Voted against same sex marriage Abortion: Voted against Climate change: against measures to prevent climate change Notable quotes: Called homosexuality ‘immoral, offensive and obnoxious’ and said […]

Without the US, Europe must do everything in its power to stop the backsliding in the Balkans European leaders are already realigning following US President Donald Trump’s visit to Brussels. Given Trump’s refusal to explicitly commit to NATO’s Article 5 collective defence guarantee in his hectoring speech to his fellow alliance leaders, coupled with the […]

We asked an expert on its use in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. Among the consequences of the recent terror attacks has been the calls for the use of internment without trial for those suspected of terrorist activity. There is nothing new in this type of reaction to the threat that the UK faces especially […]

She ran it as the red hot ‘me, me, me’ campaign. And ended it as the ‘woe is me’ bigtime loser. If Theresa May gambled on playing the Maybot churning out ‘strong and stable’ slogans ad nauseam then she lost it in the manner of a weak and wobbly kamikaze pilot. And in the wreckage […]

A defence of the European dream I was deeply honoured to receive this year’s International Charlemagne prize, which I accepted – ‘as an English European’. These days, some people are a little surprised by that combination of adjective and noun: English European. Yet after all, one of the Emperor Charlemagne’s chief intellectual advisers was an […]

The election result has made the Tories dependent on the DUP – the hardest of Hard Brexit parties. But the reality of Northern Irish politics may significantly soften the UK’s stance when it comes to talks with the EU Founded by firebrand Protestant preacher, the late Ian Paisley, Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is […]

Brexit is not a done deal now the General Election is over, in fact the fight is just beginning Seventy three years ago British soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy with American, Commonwealth and European armies and units as the democratic world rose up to save the Continent from the ravages of extreme nationalism. Pride, […]

We pick out the most wrong and unstable Leavers of the week 10. Gordon Elcott Readers who remember the chorus of Jilted John’s eponymous top 10 hit from 1978 would have nodded with recognition when this previously unknown 55-year-old rang into a Five Live programme about floating voters, introduced himself as a traditional Green now […]

What better persons to aid and abet that than the Alpha and the Omega of British populism on US television: Nigel Farage and Katie Hopkins. One day I happened to stumble on Fox & Friends, Fox News’ breakfast show, where the President of the United States gets most of his information. The show has three […]

If the Vice President and a majority of either Congress or the Senate decide that the President is no longer fit for duty, he’s out. I sometimes feel a little semi-detached from my own emotions. Like I’m observing everything which happens to me – and moreover, how I feel about it – at a remove. […]

The debate that never happened, the mauling at the hands of snarling interviewers and numerous car-crash moments … Television has both shaped and scarred the election campaign So that’s it. The General Election is done, dusted and decomposing on the scrapheap of political history. Good riddance, over and out… stand by for the next one. […]

As Theresa May’s Brexit election backfires spectacularly Richard Porritt, Matt Kelly, Geri Scott and Steve Anglesey pick over the bones of a dramatic night. In episode five of The New European podcast, the team relive a surprising election night and consider the fallout for Theresa May following her disastrous campaign. Listen now here.

May has somehow managed to deprive the country of the strong and stable government she claimed that only she could provide. It is hard to know where to start. But one thing is clear – whoever came up with the line ‘make June the end of May’ should be snapped up as a great predictive […]

This has been a dreadful campaign, as shallow and mean-spirited in its way as the Brexit campaign last summer, its proximate cause. In a remote Greek beach village, accessible only by sea, I woke with a start before dawn last Saturday. What if I had been stubbornly wrong in dismissing Jeremy Corbyn’s chances of defeating […]