News and Opinion

Be brave, Britain. And don’t devalue grief with ostentatious displays As Burnley and Spurs lined up before kick-off last Saturday, I turned to my neighbour and said ‘who’s died?’ Both teams, not just the players but managers and coaches too, were wearing black armbands. Then, once the teams were announced and the stadium announcer fell […]

The French far right, through the generations, has mutated and adapted to the mood of the age. And already, the next generation is moving it in new directions Jean-Marie Le Pen (born in 1928), French politician and president of the National Front political party, with his first wife Pierrette Lalanne and their three children: Marie-Caroline, […]

Having won a great victory, Brexiteers seem thoroughly bored by the prize. But the ennui around Brexit plays into the hands of the zealots PA Wire/PA Images – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images ‘I want to see a truly global Britain that is really outward-looking with good trade deals around the world’. That’s Theresa May’s most […]

The referendum result was clear but not well-founded. If it was a court case it would be considered an unsafe conviction That’s it then, is it?‎ Acquiesce. Knuckle down. Suck it up and get on with it. The message from some (former) Remainers seems to be that it is time to make the best of […]

UK’s attractiveness to overseas investors is being challenged by Brexit The cabinet’s big hitters have been accruing air miles this week as the job of selling the UK proceeds apace. The Prime Minister is in Saudi Arabia promoting long-term business relationships, while the Chancellor is in India, looking for co-operation over energy, fintech and financial […]

What is at stake and what needs to change to ‘save the country’? I write these words in the warm autumn of the antipodes, where incredulous Australians and dismayed, distressed and unhappy British expatriates look at the farce, the lunacy, of Brexit from afar, and shake their heads. I tell them that Brexit will collapse […]

Finding an answer to the cri de coeur: how the promise of a home away from home is vanishing for European students I heard the group in front of me speaking French. They were lost, so I stepped up and asked if I could help. They asked in very good English if I knew of […]

Broadcasters are letting us down over Brexit. They should credit us with a bit more intelligence After Theresa May signalled that apart from meaning Brexit, Brexit also means an uncertain future for European cooperation on security issues, outspoken radio host James O’Brien took to Twitter to accuse the PM of threatening to give terrorists an […]

Unanimously anti-Brexit, unanimously pro-British, Gibraltar must rely on the word of a government without many cards to play. It was depressing enough on the Rock that the first skirmish after the sending of the Article 50 letter should be over Gibraltar. But what was particularly unhelpful was that it came on the same weekend as […]

We sort the chaff from the chaff to bring you another 10 of the worst leavers of the week 10. Nigel Farage (DOWN 9) Brexit’s own Crazy Frog continues his battle to crack America but all the signs are that the end result will be more Cheryl Cole than James Corden. Unknown beyond his Fox […]

We knew it was going to be bad. But even the most pessimistic among us perhaps gave it a bit longer than a few days after the triggering of Article 50 before the prospect of war with an erstwhile European friend was raised. Such loose talk over Gibraltar from powerful figures in the Brexiteer brigade […]

In these increasingly strange days it seems Westminster’s undead, tempted by a whiff of Brexit flesh, are marching back on to centre stage The zombies of Brexit – Credit: Archant What’s with the old folk and Brexit that gets them so excited? No, not those elderly voters who opted last June 23 to restore their […]

IRA man turned peacemaker Martin McGuinness remains a divisive character but we must allow ourselves to change and accept change in others Funerals are so often such healing events, and that was certainly the case with the farewell to Martin McGuinness. I felt privileged to be there, and at the risk of provoking yet more […]

After a series of close encounters with terrorist attacks, Londoners know the correct response to an atrocity Sadiq Khan is right: ‘Terror attacks are part of living in a big city.’ And his cool refusal to engage with Trump Jnr’s retort – ‘are you kidding?’ – is double right. The London Mayor has ‘more important […]

Follow The New European’s live reactions to the BBC’s topical debate broadcast from Gillingham on April 6 On the panel are Conservative MP Suella Fernandes, shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, co-leader of the Green Party Jonathan Bartley, businesswoman and broadcaster Michelle Dewberry, and Gerard Coyne, the West Midlands secretary of […]

The danger to London caused by leaving the EU is well-documented. But it is the regions that face the brunt of Britain’s Brexit woes Rarely a day passes without a section of UK industry – be they car makers, or modest engineering workshops – warning politely of the harmful economic consequences for exporters if no […]

2017 marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution. The Soviet Union which emerged from it may be in the dustbin of history, but we are still living in the long shadow of the events of 1917 A man blasts a policeman with pepper spray during an anti-corruption protest in Moscow, Russia, on March 26, 2017. […]

Donald Trump’s business bible projected his image across the globe in the 1980s – the decade that taught us ‘greed is good’. But now it needs re-writing, and the ending is not likely to be a happy one The most important thing to remember about Donald Trump’s best-selling breakthrough memoir, The Art of the Deal […]

Could you describe Brexit in one word? It’s difficult, but we headed out to meet the people and find out if they could summarise the whole debacle in one word… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80wStMVCHGA Full disclosure: we probably could have made a video by itself of the people who chose the word ‘disaster’ – there were a lot. […]

UKIP’s former leader gets dressing down after ’embarrassing’ rant to EU parliament Nigel Farage has been labelled a ‘clown’ after accusing the European Parliament of ‘behaving like the mafia’. The former UKIP leader’s outburst came during a Strasbourg debate outlining the European Union’s Brexit negotiating red lines. Farage was told to retract his ‘unacceptable’ remark […]

MEPs have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a hard stance with Britain over Brexit The European Union will take a tough line with Britain over Brexit after MEPs voted in favour of a hefty divorce bill and barring the Prime Minister from cherry-picking privileged access to the single market. And European Commission’s president Jean-Claude Juncker […]

The US and Russia endured very different years between the two world wars. But for both, these were troubled times when art helped shape great social change. There are two exhibitions on at London’s Royal Academy, each presenting a contrasting perspective on the visual expressions of the interwar years in the US and Soviet Russia. […]

Baby Boomers must share the blame for Brexit and Trump, but the real rage comes from elsewhere The Baby Boomer Era of great American art shines through the exquisite American Dream exhibition now on at the British Museum. But it made me realise something… every time I see a picture of Woodstock (which is not […]

Comparing EU parliament to the Mafia (or to gangsters) because you’re unhappy with its Brexit demands is ‘unacceptable’. Ouch! https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/849531467273293824 Former UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, was jeered by members of the EU parliament in Strasbourg for his unacceptable remark in which he compared the EU parliament to the Mafia. Farage said: ‘You have shown yourself […]

The Brexit Committee has called on the Government to publish a thorough assessment of the consequences of crashing out of the EU An influential group of MPs has attacked the Prime Minister’s belief that ‘no Brexit deal is better than a bad deal’ saying the claim is ‘unsubstantiated’. The House of Commons Exiting The European […]

The latest film version of the classic tale is said to be infused with a feminist message. But the story’s French roots, and the tragedy from which it was woven, show the feminist aspects of the tale really are as old as time Diane de Joannis de Châteaublanc, Madame de Ganges, the original Beauty. – […]

Britain is ill prepared for the Brexit trade negotiations. They will be gruelling, tense and very complex – and the Prime Minister should re-think her tactics On June 24 2016 the world was surprised to learn that Prime Minister David Cameron, after losing the Brexit referendum, did not have a Plan B. As a result, […]

The Commons Brexit Committee wants the Government to prove how Britain would cope if the Prime Minister fails to get a deal on leaving the EU A parliamentary report has called on Theresa May to provide evidence to back up her claim that leaving the European Union without a trade deal would be ‘better than […]

There is no ‘fall-back option’ for airlines if the UK is unable to secure an aviation agreement during Brexit negotiations, says travel trade organisation Abta The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta) claimed it is ‘critical’ that existing deals are replaced or retained otherwise there could be a ‘hugely damaging’ reduction in flights. All of […]

Tory MPs give stamp of approval to return to the blue of 1980s Britain, claiming the ‘humiliation of having a pink European Union passport’ The UK passport could turn dark blue again after Brexit under a £490 million contract to redesign and produce a new version of the document. The passport is routinely redesigned every […]

Lord Michael Howard has compared the row over Gibraltar to the Falklands War after the PM failed to mention the Rock in her Brexit letter Just days after Theresa May formally triggered Britain’s exit from the European Union the debate has already descended in to threats of military action after a former Tory leader compared […]

Triggered or not, Article 50 makes no difference to our fight So, it has come to pass. Our PM, guided as always by the voices in her head, has fired two proton torpedoes through the two-metre wide exhaust port of Article 50 and set off the chain reaction of bureaucratic and economic explosions which will, […]