News and Opinion

Regardless of the damage it may wreak, the progress of Brexit is, at least, orderly. As for Trump and the US, the only certainty is volatility It seems a long time since Boris Johnson tried to suggest last summer there was no comparison between Britain’s vote for Brexit and the emerging power of Donald Trump’s […]

As he prepares to head off for talks with Moscow, the Russians easily have the measure of Boris Johnson Sergei Lavrov – Credit: PA Archive/PA Images Russia right now is on a roll. Just imagine the scope of Russian reach in the world: the sheer number of things and people that have the stamp ‘Made […]

During the referendum, Leavers loudly defended the rights of EU citizens legally resident in the UK. Now many pro-Brexit MPs are not practising what they preach. Pro-Brexit MPs have so far refused to back legislation requiring the government to guarantee these citizens’ rights. We’ve gathered below some of the statements made before and after June […]

Why are we obsessed with the nightmarish alternative history of what would have happened if the Nazis had won? Nazis have taken over London – on screens at least. The BBC’s absorbing new series SS-GB, based on Len Deighton’s popular 1978 novel, imagines a world in which the Nazis have invaded and defeated Britain by […]

We’ve asked whether he is a fascist, now – after that press conference meltdown – should we also question whether Donald Trump is mad? During the election, we got used to seeing billionaire businessman Donald Trump as the car-crash candidate, forever coming up with gobsmacking schemes and wild accusations that made him stand out from […]

Forget Harry Potter mania – fan fever for Goethe’s tragic hero Werther was blamed for copycat tragedies and popularising yellow trousers This time 243 years ago, in an attic room at his family home in Frankfurt, 23-year-old Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was sitting at a high desk scribbling away frantically in a sustained fit of […]

The young and old alike can see the coming calamity of Brexit. And recent encouraging events show that they still have the ability to avert it Until late on Tuesday evening, most people were unaware that Michael Heseltine was an advisor to Theresa May’s Government. Hardly surprising, given the veteran Tory pro-European has seemingly never […]

The enduring appeal of the Norse gods and their grandly tragic, absurdly comic, strangely moving tales The Norse gods are back and ready for a new generation in acclaimed fantasy author Neil Gaiman’s newly published book Norse Mythology. Yet the truth is the immortality of the gods was never in doubt. These all too human […]

‘I had to do what I believed in,’ said Lord Heseltine The mean spirited, callous nature of British politics hit a new low this week when Michael Heseltine, a man respected as hard-working and sincere by even his political foes, was summoned from dinner with his wife to be fired by an autocratic control-freak of […]

The Chancellor’s spreadsheets show we are already paying the price of Brexit, yet still nothing is done to protect us from its full, looming impact Sorry is supposed to be the hardest word to say, but for the Chancellor this week it seemed that Brexit was far tougher to get past his teeth. Six thousand […]

Welcome to the first of our new weekly newsletters – our cynical attempt to engage you with the content you SHOULD have read when you bought last week’s newspaper – in an effort to convince you to subscribe to The New European. Each Friday we will be reheating the best of last week’s content and […]

ason Williamson is one half of the Sleaford Mods – probably Britain’s most political band, and certainly its angriest. And there is little that makes him as angry as Brexit. Here, he takes aim at Leavers, trolls and much more I get a lot of trolls on Twitter, and I’d been taunting them the night […]

This is the new political language of the emoji Later this year, emojis for the national flags of England, Scotland and Wales are being released. This will be welcome news for those wanting to cheer on the sporting exploits of the home nations. But does it have any deeper political significance? Is it merely a […]

Immigration was, by most accounts, the deciding factor in the EU referendum. Warnings about the economy, promises of £350m for the health service, even bendy bananas played their part. But nothing pushed the voters’ buttons as much as the idea of more people landing on our shores. Number of immigration stories in the Daily Mail […]

‘We now face the most momentous peacetime decision,’ said Heseltine, as Lords hand government their second Brexit bill defeat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn72WM2MJFk

Confused by another week in Brexit? We round up the losers and the losers (because there are no winners) of another crazy seven days on Planet Brexit 10. Paul Nuttall (RE-ENTRY) Having failed to become the new MP for Stoke – where he once played with distinction alongside the great Stanley Matthews – UKIP’s hapless […]

Despite all the promises made by Brexiteers, immigration may even rise as a result of the referendum Britain has a successful economy because it is open to clever, talented people from overseas. That is not a snippet from Tony Blair’s recent speech nor a pitch for votes made by Nick Clegg at the height of […]

From brown shoes to foreign lorry drivers, computers to oral sex, the list is as varied as it is perplexing 1. Bremoaners An ugly portmanteau (they are ‘Remoaners’ in the Daily Express) with an ugly meaning. Anyone concerned about Brexit is deemed ‘unpatriotic’, ‘whingeing’ and ‘contemptuous’ 2. Dentists After a US dentist killed a lion […]

The latest production at the National Theatre is a Brexit-inspired play based on a national conversation sparked by the referendum. (Sarah Lee) – Credit: Archant Brexit has produced a great deal of talking, but perhaps not quite so much listening. At least, until now. The response to last year’s referendum from the National Theatre was […]

She is married to a Briton, has lived here almost 30 years and raised a family here. Yet Irene Clennell found herself deported from the UK last week. Irene met John Clennell in London in the late 1980s. In 1990, they got married in the city before settling in his native north east. Here, they […]

Brexit has given new life to the Scottish National Party’s obsession for a new vote on independence The geography of politics in the UK has utterly shifted – and in Scotland, as usual, we have our own twist. Labour are acting out some sort of Shakespearean play as Jeremy Corbyn is Theresa May’s ineffective body […]

He revels in his role as shameless self-publicist, aficionado of the feud and defender of The Donald. But the real Piers Morgan is a more nuanced, more sympathetic character than his foes give him credit for. If Gore Vidal was right that every time a friend succeeds you die a little, having Piers Morgan as […]

Whatever you think about Nigel Farage he is blockbuster television. But is the BBC enabling his ring-wing rhetoric? Getty – Credit: Archant We need to talk about Nigel. The last time it was announced that he was to appear on Question Time, an audible groan arose from the audience. His interrogation by Piers Morgan a […]

The Peers should be heeded – most have been around for considerably longer than their friends in the Commons Who says most of the old folk voted for Brexit? Michael Heseltine (84 this month) certainly didn’t, as he noisily made clear again at the weekend. Nor did his more reticent sparring partner and ex-deputy, John […]

With the triggering of Article 50 due this month, Keir Starmer outlines what Labour will fight to achieve from Brexit – and acknowledges what the process cannot resolve It is eight months and eight days since the Referendum. Although there has been no end of debate over Brexit in that time, it has too often […]

In a devastating attack on his own party, former Labour minister Charles Clarke accuses the ‘incoherent’ Opposition of colluding in a damaging version of Brexit Labour’s confusion and incoherence in response to the EU referendum, eight months ago, has given the Conservatives a free ride. It must not go on. Labour’s starting point should be […]

Peers vote by an overwhelming majority of 102 to guarantee rights of EU nationals in UK Opposition parties, who backed the amendment, urged ministers to take the opportunity to rethink their position on EU nationals, amid concern among many Conservative MPs and peers. The Government has always argued that while it wants to secure the […]

Britain isn’t in the last chance saloon yet There’s still an outside chance of avoiding Brexit altogether. As Theresa May hurtles towards triggering Article 50, there are three main scenarios: Hard Brexit; Very Hard Brexit; and no Brexit at all. I put the chances at roughly 60%, 30% and 10% respectively. But these percentages are […]

The world’s most famous Frenchman, a racist hangover of colonialism, the anti-Peter Pan, or simply a very dapper, fun-loving elephant? Babar’s Guide to Paris, out this month, takes an amiable stroll through the main sites and little cafes of the great city for the benefit of our hero’s youngest daughter, visiting it for the first […]

Art no longer has to be hung in stuffy galleries and gazed upon in silence – the streets rule now. Here is The New European’s guide to Europe’s street art hotspots Graffiti was once the scourge of council’s clean up teams who would be dispatched post-haste to scrub the wall that had been defaced. But […]

At present Britons living abroad and EU citizens in the UK are pawns on a political chessboard. What will Brexit mean for expats? | The New European – Credit: Archant Their status remains unclear – and both sides are blaming the other for the impasse. When the Bill to trigger Article 50 was being voted […]

It is the issue that is every bit as toxic as Brexit itself – has Britain become more hateful since the referendum? Hate crime offences recorded by police forces in England and Wales – Credit: Archant When it comes to suggestions about hate crime, Brexit and a possible correlation, there’s not much which isn’t contested. […]