News and Opinion

It seems an absurd issue to be dominating discussion in the lead up to an election, but debates over swimwear and the role of the state in governing what individuals may wear are a barometer of a divided France. Although the country’s high court has now stuck down the so-called ‘burkini bans’, images of a […]

‘Trump is reinforcing harmful stereotypes and offering a dog whistle to his most hateful supporters.’ Those were the words of Hillary Clinton as she called out her Republican rival for the way his campaign is stirring up discord, division and hatred. His has been one characterised by the dog whistle effect – the way in […]

The Vote Leave campaign was without doubt the most cynical, opportunistic and dishonest political operation of my lifetime. The sickly concoction of invented statistics, warped facts and impossible promises was enough to make anyone feel queasy. Tragically, they won the referendum. But all that means is that pro-Europeans should redouble their efforts to hold these […]

Last month, Donald Trump named an unlikely new head for his presidential campaign: Stephen Bannon, executive chairman at the Breitbart News Network, which is probably best known as a leading voice of the dopey, oleaginous lump of outright neofascism and joking-but-not-really-joking meme-based irony that calls itself the alt-right. Breitbart’s website in the US is home […]

The Norway model – of life outside the EU – is one that excites many Brexiteers, and comforts many Remainers. But here, Anne Elizabeth Stie and Jarle Trondal, two of the country’s leading political experts, explain why the Nordic nation is on a path that may satisfy neither side – one that relegates its politicians […]

The London media recently converged on my home city of Sunderland, choosing it as the idea place to rake through the ashes of the post-Brexit fallout. After all, the city’s shock 61pc Leave result was the first real signifier that David Cameron’s gamble was about to seriously backfire. A couple of weeks ago, I inexplicably […]

It’s nine o’clock, family viewing primetime, and I’m watching a young woman bare her huge, surgically-enhanced breasts while she pole-dances for an enthralled roofer who we’re asked to believe is a rising star. He wasn’t before the current barrelscraping series of Celebrity Big Brother. But he is now. Call it the reality TV effect. Warhol […]

When William Hague became Foreign Secretary in 2010 he grandly announced that he would transform the Foreign and Commonwealth Office into a giant trade promotion bureau as the business of diplomacy would henceforth be business. Ambassadors who had turned their embassies into exhibition centres for British goods – the sight of a Range Rover in […]

The hottest book in America right now is a memoir by Silicon Valley executive J. D. Vance. It’s called: Hillbilly Elegy. It is the poignant and eye-opening memoir of a son of what are called in the US ‘white trash’; ‘rednecks’; ‘hillbillies’. They are the descendants of the Scotch/Irish-people who came to America as indentured […]

Aged 13 and newly converted to vegetarianism, the discovery of The Smiths’ album Meat is Murder was genuinely revelatory for me. It kickstarted a nearly 10-year-long obsession with Morrissey, the band’s charismatic and pugnacious lead singer – an obsession that carried on well into my early-20s. Until last year I continued to travel up and […]

Nigel Farage used mob tactics to hijack the vote on the UK referendum to leave or remain in the European Union. Of all the politicians I’ve seen in my lifetime, he is the one that’s changed the country the most, apart from Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill. Farage has turned UKIP into Frankenstein’s monster – […]

In June most of England decided that ‘enough is enough’, that ‘we are full’ and that, infamously, it is at ‘breaking point’. But London didn’t. Along with a handful of enlightened towns and cities across the country from Cheltenham to Manchester and Newcastle, London sent a quite different message out to the world. That we […]

In a career spanning more than 50 years, Britain’s leading economics writer William Keegan has reported on some dark days for the country. Here, he explains why nothing so far compares with what lies ahead In the course of writing about the British economy for half a century, I have covered many a crisis and […]

Barack Obama recently baptised ‘rising inequality’ the defining challenge of our time. A challenge that most commentators widely suggest lies behind the UK’s decision to exit the European Union. It is true that, despite the post-Brexit rhetoric about a north-south divide, across the length and breadth of the nation we are seeing a yawning gap […]

There are five fundamental points that have to be repeated without cease until the folly of ‘Brexit’ is reversed and the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union is reaffirmed. Each point is obvious to Remainers, and has been clearly stated and restated already: but the point is to keep stating them all until everyone […]

Within weeks of its greatest triumph, UKIP is imperilled in its deepest crisis. Here Matthew Goodwin, the party’s leading chronicler, explains how it got here, and what lies ahead. When it comes to chronicling the story of just how Britain came to vote for Brexit, there at the centre will be Nigel Farage, and the […]

Europop has to be the most maligned genre in the past 50 years. Music writer, broadcaster and record collector Pete Paphides hails its influence. You’ll find it somewhere amid the sweeping strings and disco drums of Boney M’s Daddy Cool; between the hesitant verses and defiant chorus of Yes Sir I Can Boogie. It’s abundant […]

Fifty-six per cent of people in the north of Ireland voted to remain in the EU. Martin McGuinness, the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, explains why Brexit is an affront to democracy and explores its consequences The island of Ireland is facing the biggest constitutional crisis since partition as a result of the Brexit […]

Arriving in Saint Denis, the northern suburb of Paris one leaves the Hausmannian dreams of Parisian romance far behind. This impoverished banlieue, home to a mediaeval basilica that was for eight centuries the burial place of French kings, is now one of the most notorious parts of France, a symbol of ethnic division and considered […]

Theresa May says: ‘Brexit means Brexit.’ What she’s not telling you is that Brexit means bugger all. Not only might we never leave the European Union, but even if we do not a lot is actually going to change. Can you imagine the chaos if it did? There’d be border checks with queues stretching into […]

Not all older people are selfish individuals who are indifferent to the interests of their children and grandchildren. You can be a university graduate of high intelligence and still vote against Britain’s economic interest. And while you may live in a town that has attracted few immigrants to date, you can still believe that your […]

Number of page views, number of likes, number of tweets, number of retweets, number of shares, click-through rates, site traffic, bounce rates, and measures of engagement. In our digital media world every click is captured, every view, every engagement. Captured, categorised, and then used to filter, prioritise and judge communication. We see this most clearly […]

There was the initial shock and furore of the referendum result itself, followed by the inevitable panic in the markets. But after that initial shock a sense of denial has set in – a misplaced hope that perhaps it’s all somehow going to proceed without a hitch after all. You can see it in the […]