News and Opinion

Mired in their own troubles, both Britain and the US have abandoned their duty to stand up to Russia The Reds aren’t under the bed. They’re in it. While our leaders sleep on. Was there ever a period with so much news, so much noise, in our two countries? In Washington, a never-ending real world […]

The Prime Minister thought she knew the Will of the People. But she has consistently misjudged it https://twitter.com/TheNewEuropean/status/878223259636035586 A fortnight on from her catastrophically ill-judged election, Theresa May is still trying to repair the damage inflicted on her Brexit agenda by the British voters. And yet it seems that democracy might yet have another surprise […]

When Hardeep Singh Kohli cooked for Rory Bremner, the resulting dish – a fusion of Scottish and Indian cuisine – went down a storm Years ago I used to do an Edinburgh show called Chat Masala. Having started my live comedy career cooking curry and telling stories, Chat Masala seemed the perfect way to combine […]

Ulysses is the story of a place – Dublin – as much anything else. So why did James Joyce have to leave the city in order to write his masterpiece? On June 10 1904 James Joyce, whilst walking down Nassau Street in Dublin, saw a young woman named Nora Barnacle. He was instantly infatuated. He […]

Students relying on Hilary Mantel for their Tudor knowledge may irritate historians. But such writers allow us to better understand the past In a recent talk at the Hay literary festival, Cambridge historian and biographer John Guy said he had seen an increasing number of prospective students citing Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning historical novels, Wolf […]

We pick the most wrong and unstable Leavers of the week 10) The Duke Of York Breaking with the tradition that members of the Royal Family don’t normally discuss political issues, Prince Andrew told the BBC that businesses worried about Brexit ‘can either look at it as a glass half-empty… or you could look at […]

A fortnight on from her catastrophically ill-judged election, Theresa May is still trying to repair the damage inflicted on her Brexit agenda by the British voters. And yet it seems that democracy might yet have another surprise for the Prime Minister: polls are now showing a clear and consistent swing towards a majority in favour […]

In the area around Grenfell Tower shock and grief is giving way to anger and tension. Lily Allen, has volunteered there every day since the disaster Lily Allen speaks to the media at a protest outside Kensington Town Hall – Credit: AFP/Getty Images In the maelstrom that has followed the Grenfell Tower fire, it has […]

If you think Brexit has been a disaster after just a year, imagine the damage it will do in a decade Author’s note: This piece is a work of imagination. It may turn out, of course, to be much worse than this. There is always the odd positive you can point to; Norfolk displacing Burgundy […]

Brexit is the ‘third rail’ of politics – touch it and you are dead. But a sane strategy could yet emerge Brexit is a revolution that devours its children. It has consumed three prime ministers – Thatcher, Major and Cameron. It is destroying a fourth – May. In the last year alone it has decapitated […]

Get involved in the conversation which will include the Queen’s Speech and the start of Brexit negotiations .

Theresa May needs to ‘wake up and smell the coffee’ and accept that the British public has rejected her plans for Brexit, Sadiq Khan said. The London mayor said the UK should remain in the single market and warned that any deal which resulted in a blow to the capital’s economy would make the country […]

In an uncertain global landscape, the former deputy prime minister outlines reforms needed to safeguard the international order against nationalism and ‘strong man’ politics Introduction This the tenth, and final, Lord Garden memorial lecture, a series of talks established following Tim’s death by the Liberal International British Group, and in particular Robert Woodthorpe-Browne, who will […]

Where can I buy The New European? What stories are in the latest issue of The New European? https://twitter.com/TheNewEuropean/status/877894208572407808 It’s one whole year since the referendum vote and a year many may want to forget. But one thing we can all be cheerful about is the latest brilliant issue of The New European – which […]

Dinner table debate with Tory voters offers fascinating food for thought… Desperate, dangerous, divisive, devious, deluded, degrading. Just some D-words that sprang up as Theresa May struggles to save her political skin via a ‘deal’ with Northern Ireland’s bastion of bigotry, the DUP. More important, they’re not just words springing from my lips as a […]

The Conservatives deal with the DUP risks undermining the delicate balance of power-sharing in Northern Ireland, says leading Sinn Féin figure The Westminster election on June 8 was truly a political watershed for many different reasons. While the British Conservative Party were elected the biggest party it is the Labour Party, with the wily Jeremy […]

For what do people want more than anything else? It’s not the policies or the ideology, the big political personalities or the budget details, but more than anything they want the roulette wheel to stop turning. The days are ticking by since we cast our votes and watched the results on television, but still, for […]

No plans on June 30? A Facebook event to give the PM a ‘happy send off’ after a difficult year is proving to be seriously popular Facebook – Credit: Archant The last day in any job just isn’t complete without those all important leaving drinks. So Theresa May must be touched at the thoughtful decision […]

Donald Trump’s controversial visit to the UK appears to have been booted firmly to the long grass. There was no mention of the invite Theresa May offered The Donald during a gushing visit to the White House earlier this year in the Queen’s Speech. The address to Parliament usually mentions planned state visits, but this […]

What is in the Queen’s Speech? Theresa May sets out plans for Brexit and the economy BREXIT • Great Repeal Bill: to ensure a smooth and orderly transition from the European Union by replicating Brussels law into domestic law, maximising certainty for people and businesses. • Customs Bill: to ensure the UK has a standalone […]

The Conservatives have been exposed as the opportunistic self-serving incompetents that they are. Like many Corbyn-sceptics I’ve been bombarded with messages this last week demanding I issue some sort of grovelling apology for having said Jeremy Corbyn would lose the election. There’s one thing I feel I should point out in my defence: Jeremy Corbyn […]

Margate is attracting a mass migration of millennials who are transforming the town On Margate Sands. I can connect Nothing with nothing. The broken fingernails of dirty hands. My people humble people who expect Nothing. So wrote T.S Eliot, who penned sections of The Waste Land whilst living in Margate in the 1920s. During this […]

With a critical Queen’s Speech looming the Northern Irish hardliners continue to play hardball for improved terms to vote with the Tories in the House of Commons. Theresa May’s hopes of a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party to shore up her minority government have hit a setback, as the Northern Irish party warned a […]

The seemingly sure-footed Nicola Sturgeon may have misjudged the post-Brexit mood. Since assuming the leadership of the SNP from Alex Salmond after the 2014 referendum defeat, the position of Nicola Sturgeon has seemed unassailable. Party membership increased more than five-fold to 120,000. Sturgeon addressed party rallies that resembled raucous pop concerts, and the SNP won […]

Chancellor Philip Hammond has drawn his strongest Brexit battle line yet as the row over how the UK will leave the EU intensifies within the Cabinet. In a keynote speech to City leaders at Mansion House, Hammond said immigration to Britain will be managed but not ‘shut down’ after a ‘jobs first’ Brexit. He also […]

Anathema to many British voters and stereotyped as inflexible but the DUP have a deserved reputation for dexterity and find themselves as a wildcard in the Brexit mix On the night of February 6, 1991, the then leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) truly earned the sobriquet ‘The Grand Old Duke of York’, a […]

The kingmakers of Theresa May’s diminished government, the Democratic Unionist Party, hold some very controversial views It comes to a sorry pass when a Government which claims to be all about ‘one nation Conservatism’, about being there for every citizen, no matter what their gender identity, race, religion, sexuality or culture, is being propped up […]

‘After Brexit, the sooner we can reach the point of acceptance about our future the better.’ The Brexit negotiations have consistently been compared with divorce proceedings. As talks get under way, two of the UK’s top divorce lawyers discuss the analogy and how Britain should approach the issue. What parallels can be drawn between Brexit […]

Brexit Secretary David Davis will call for a ‘deal like no other in history’ as he heads to Brussels to launch negotiations for Britain’s exit from the European Union. Talks with the European Commission’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier will focus on the status of expats, the UK’s ‘divorce bill’ and the Northern Ireland border. But […]

Inflation and prices are rising, real wages falling. We’re all going to feel the squeeze. Brussels unveiled plans this week to grab large parts of the City of London’s €850 billion a day clearing market. But to the surprise of many observers, the European Commission chose not to take as provocative step as expected when […]

What will Theresa May’s legacy be? When asked Margaret Thatcher’s greatest achievements, older Tories can detain you for some time as they trot out their list. But close to the top for a lot of them will be the UK gaining access to the single market. When asked John Major’s greatest achievements, the list might […]

There is no place in the Conservative Party for 
ethnic minorities Just before the election, someone called Binita Mehta-Parmar, British Asian, wrote a choleric column in the Daily Telegraph. An equally irate riposte was penned in the Guardian by James Cleverly, black British, Territorial Army Officer and Tory MP for Braintree, Essex. Both were responding […]