News and Opinion

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 […]