News and Opinion

Has Sunderland changed its mind on Brexit? We visit the city which led the charge for Leave and finds its still-burning rage is directed at cuts, rather than Brussels Children play in the back alley of their homes in Peterlee – Credit: Getty Images Do you remember the Mackem Roar? Not the noise made by […]

The only thing that might restore our standing is a leader who is prepared to say what needs to be done – changing our mind on Brexit – and then leading the country through that process. TNE Cartoons – Credit: Archant It is pretty remarkable the extent to which people in foreign countries – Trump’s […]

To oppose extremism, European Muslims must speak up and be heard by those in power Finsbury Park Mosque used to be a fixture on the front pages and bulletin headlines a few years back. The Today programme on BBC Radio 4 generously provided a pulpit for Abu Hamza, the ranting, zealous self-proclaimed imam of that […]

What led to the devastating loss of life at Grenfell Tower? A former Trading Standards professional examines where decisions made by cuts may have contributed to the causes of the fire. It would be no understatement to say that I am angry about the Grenfell Tower disaster. As each day passes and more information about […]

Labour risk alienating the party’s Remain-backing voters after shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth claimed there was ‘no appetite’ for a second Brexit referendum. In appears the party is now set to back a much harder form of Brexit in the wake of Jeremy Corbyn cementing his power at the top of the party after the […]

Career Brexiteer Boris Johnson backs Theresa May’s EU plan ‘100%’ despite claims he could welcome a softening on the Prime Minister’s ‘red lines’ for negotiations. It comes after Brexit Secretary David Davis’s former chief of staff James Chapman claimed May’s insistence on leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) had ‘hamstrung’ his […]

Less than two weeks after blowing £130 million on an election which served nobody’s interest but theirs, the Tories somehow laid hands on another BILLION. When you’ve been in the entertainment business since your early 20s (and your early 20s are a dim memory receding even more quickly than your hairline) you never know what […]

The Brexit vote has divided us in a new way between the Optimists and the Pessimists. Just to complicate things, both tendencies exist in both Remain and Leave. Now that they’ve finally started a year after David Cameron’s ill-fated referendum gamble, how have the Brexit negotiations been for you? I feel strangely relieved, as if […]

It doesn’t have to be this way Since the Coalition government took power in 2010, we’ve been told that austerity is a necessity rather than a choice. After the financial crash, drastic efforts were made to reduce public spending. The slashing of education, healthcare, social care, in-work and out-of-work benefits and transport – to name […]

We pick the most wrong and unstable Leavers of the week 10. HUGH WHITTOW The Daily Express editor was forced to remove a poll asking readers which way they would vote in a new referendum from his paper’s website after it began to show a clear majority for Remain. By the time the article disappeared, […]

Where can I buy The New European? What stories are in the latest issue of The New European? https://twitter.com/PPA_Live/status/880537327780716544 Another week, another great issue of The New European and we’re excited to announce another award – The Chairman’s Award at the PPA Awards! The New European is on sale in all good newsagents in UK […]

Join in with the reactions and analysis of tonight’s Question Time On the panel tonight: Liam Fox, Stella Creasy, Zanny minton Beddoes, Kerry-Ann Mendoza and Nick Ferrari

Trump is invited to Paris, investor confidence grows in Greece and cladding concerns in Germany FRANCE President Emmanuel Macron has invited US President Donald Trump to a Bastille Day celebration next month to celebrate the arrival 100 years ago of the American troops who fought alongside the French during the First World War. The invitation […]

A profile of the Russian opposition leader who has taken on the perilous task of challenging Putin Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had only one complaint when he was sentenced recently to 30 days in jail for protesting against President Putin. ‘As if robbing the country is not enough for them – now they’re making […]

Are Swedes good for your health? Our culture correspondent on Scandinavian philosophy which – it is claimed – can help you live longer It’s not easy being Swedish. The Danes have their ‘hygge’, the cult of cosiness that swept the globe last year whose fairy-light-festooned remnants are still clinging on for dear life in the […]

Protests against a controversial new production of Julius Caesar, which depicts the assassinated Roman ruler as Donald Trump, miss the point – you can’t take the politics out of the play ‘All the world’s a stage,’ Shakespeare once wrote. In recent weeks, that Shakespearean adage has been particularly resonant, with the New York Public Theater’s […]

The idea that we can become an exporting power house simply by leaving the customs union is yet another Brexit delusion The words ‘customs union’ were not on the referendum ballot paper a year ago and barely featured in the general election which hugely qualified the referendum result, as Theresa May lost her majority for […]

A Scottish minister has stated he is ‘not 100% convinced’ the battle for Brexit is over yet. Michael Russell told a Holyrood committee that while Brexit was ‘still the trajectory’, the result of the General Election – which saw the Conservative government lose its majority – had made it less certain, with ‘many options’ still […]

The year of Brexit AKA The year you’ll want to forget Supporters of the ‘Stronger In’ Campaign react as results of the EU referendum are announced at a results party early in the morning of June 24, 2016 – Credit: AFP/Getty Images When studying for A Level in my small Cornish grammar school long ago […]

Why do officials opt for formal phrases when other more instinctive, natural-sounding alternatives are available? On flights coming into London, airline passengers often hear messages from the cabin crew along the lines of ‘we are about to commence our descent into Heathrow airport’. Anybody who knows anything about English will recognise that this isn’t anything […]

Andrew Scott is magnificent as the Prince of Denmark in Robert Icke’s Shakespeare production Rating: 5/5 ***** There is much to admire in this staging of Shakespeare’s tragedy, but the production is really only about one thing. Andrew Scott’s performance is magnificent. Out of this well-worn, 400-year old character, previously inhabited by every actor of […]

German diplomat Peter Ammon is ‘unnerved’ by the Brexit divorce debate Brexit is not at the ‘top of the agenda’ for Germany, the country’s ambassador to the UK has confirmed in a further indication the European Union is looking to a future without the UK. But Peter Ammon said the UK’s decision to leave the […]

There are growing signs that Trump’s unpredictable Syrian policy stance is the subject of a fierce power struggle in his administration ‘I thought I was escaping the madness, but….’ The ‘but’ spoke volumes as my arriving friend from Washington greeted me at Heathrow this week. She certainly had a point. Since the London trip first […]

Communities must not become havens for the international super-rich who pay next to no tax In the US, housing estates are known as housing projects. ‘Projects’ for short. If you lived in the ‘projects’, you were considered to be one of the losers of the American Dream; the one who somehow (and it had to […]

You can’t have a negotiation when you have literally nothing the other side wants It’s become clear over the course of the last twelve months (has it really only been a year? The pre-Brexit era seems like some dimly remembered Halcyon Age these days) that much as there are people who have no idea how […]

The cracks within the cabinet are growing deeper by the day. Brexit chief David Davis has stated the UK will be out of the EU customs union and single market by March 2019 after Philip Hammond repeated his call for a transitional deal. The Chancellor wants to avoid a ‘disruptive and dangerous cliff edge’ in […]

7 things you need to know about the Government’s offer to protect the rights of EU nationals living in the UK after Brexit. What is the Government proposing? Under the plan set out in Parliament, EU nationals resident in the UK will be able to apply for ‘settled status’ – effectively guaranteeing them indefinite leave […]

After the tower block disaster the mask has once again fallen for embattled Prime Minister It has come to the point where it’s hard not to feel sorry for the dead woman walking of Downing Street whose hubris has plunged the state into a state of disunited nothingness. She’s hopelessly out of her depth and […]

Someone needs to take a stand! The first thing Theresa May said when she called the general election was that she wanted a mandate for the Brexit negotiations. Not only was this a confession that she did not have a mandate already – she was right: there is no democracy in the world where a […]

Two centuries apart, Handel and Jimi Hendrix set up home in the same London property from which they proceeded to redefine music. The house in Brook Street, Mayfair both made their homes 200 years apart – Credit: Archant George Frideric Handel and Jimi Hendrix shared two things: musical genius and a London address. The Handel […]

An unflinching, sadomasochistic vision of masculinity and femininity This article originally appeared on The Conversation Film buffs will have noted the recent death of the great scholar of Italian cinema, Peter Bondanella, whose work on Federico Fellini helped to define him as ‘one of cinema’s greatest auteurs’. Bondanella would have enjoyed the new digital restoration […]

Tim Farron slams Andrea Leadsom over ‘stupid’ calls for ‘patriotic’ Brexit broadcasting Calls by a Cabinet minister for broadcasters to be ‘patriotic’ over Brexit have been branded ‘sinister’ by Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron. Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom drew fire after making the remarks in a heated TV clash. She told BBC Newsnight: […]