Opinion

In a special report, JOHN KAMPFNER explores the failure of the US, Europe, China and Russia to work together on global vaccine provision, and how the developing world can exploit their rivalry Relations between the major powers are at their worst for decades with cooperation thin on the ground, and Covid-19 having deepened suspicions further. In April, […]

England’s success at the Euros tournament has stirred emotions Boris Johnson can only wish he could achieve

The former health secretary’s other misdeeds may have attracted more headlines, but the use of private email and WhatsApp for government business is a serious concern

This was meant to be its moment but across the continent, populism has peaked. So what is replacing it?

This week marks five years since the launch of The New European, a symbol of one of the few upsides to emerge from Brexit, says IAN DUNT

Established a pop-up paper in 2016 due to last only four issues, The New European turns five this week. Former editor of the Financial Times LIONEL BARBER explains why it has found a niche and how it can help shape European debate

Bonnie Greer reflects on living in central London during Covid protests and explains what lies behind the manhandling of chief medical officer Chris Whitty If you appear on TV, even from time to time as I do, one of the facts of life is this: people will come up to you on the street. Most […]

MITCH BENN wants an end to gossip about the divorce of Brexiteers Michael Gove and Sarah Vine HEARTRENDING HUMAN DRAMA OF THE WEEK The parallel universes of politics and newspapers were rocked  with the news that the UK’s leading “power couple”, journalist-turned-perennial political survivor Michael Gove and journalist-turned-Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine, have separated and are […]

Ireland’s former ambassador to the UK BOBBY McDONAGH says political tensions mean many of his compatriots have found it much tougher to lend their support this time When the president of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, made a state visit to the UK in 2014, he expressed the hope that the England football team would “go all the […]

England's footballers have brought joy to the nation. Nonetheless, ROB HUGHES explains how our opponents still have much to teach us

Scotland fan ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on his texts with Gareth Southgate, meeting Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling – and why he’s found England so easy to like this summer I wouldn’t overstate my England football credentials, but I have seen Harry Kane naked but for his underpants (more later); and Raheem Sterling has given me a guided tour of […]

The Faroe Islanders are in the process of connecting up their archipelago with a series of breathtaking tunnels. Could they be setting an example for the UK to follow?

Control of the UK’s borders helped drive the Brexit vote. Now, Priti Patel must hope for European co-operation for her immigration clampdown The desire to have control over the UK’s borders was one of the strongest arguments for the Leave side to win the EU referendum. Now, five years on, the British government is determined to […]

Hotel Inspector Alex Polizzi’s EU workers disaster shows that the Brexit chickens are coming home to roost It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain, and for all the talk of football, one thing we can be certain of coming home are Brexit chickens to roost. As the consequences of […]

One reader has his doubts about Boris Johnson’s plan for unlocking England

The life of Ennio Morricone, the prolific Italian composer responsible for the soundtrack of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and so much more

The unending migrant crisis and mounting death toll in European waters presents the continent with its greatest test... one it is failing badly.

Venice’s music, like the city itself, seems designed specifically to stir emotions There is the Venice of history, the city-state that was a world power for centuries and a musical powerhouse in the 17th century. Then there is the Venice of imagination, of canals, Carnival and decadent beauty – a characterisation fuelled above all by cinema. […]

The fate of a Dublin building which was the setting for a James Joyce story raises interesting questions about property closely associated with literature There are few cities that come to literary life in the manner of Dublin on Bloomsday. June 16 every year, the date in 1904 on which the events of James Joyce’s Ulysses unfold, […]

While ministerial sins make headlines here, ‘father of the EU’ Robert Schuman is on the path to canonisation. The founding father of the European Union may soon be getting a halo. Robert Schuman was the Luxembourg-born French statesman who founded the Council of Europe and masterminded the post-war plan for a single European steel and coal authority. It […]

Five years after she took office, we should resist a rose-tinted view of Theresa May’s time in Downing Street

Making it easier to get on the UK property ladder is a problem that can be solved… but only if politicians are willing to follow other nations, and hit theborn-lucky in the pocket. The Liberal Democrats apparently won the Chesham and Amersham by-election because of three factors: Brexit, HS2, and new planning regulations. Or to put it another […]

Will Self travels to Royal Tunbridge Wells to discover that in modern Britain, even a short journey takes you to another country In keeping with Multicultural Man’s distinctly rooted existence these past 18 months – something, no doubt, many New European readers can identify with – holidays have become a deeply strange phenomenon. Last year, […]

The vice-president faces challenges over voting rights and immigration on the southern border… as well as a battle for the country’s soul In the United States in the early years of this century, the Right and its racist elements created the Tea Party. Named after the Boston Tea Party, the new movement came into being […]

A seemingly unbridgeable chasm is splitting the continent between countries that see LGBT rights as the core of European identity of freedom and tolerance, and those that see them as a threat to that same identity

PETER TRUDGILL on the European language that lingered on Greenland, and another –  of sorts – that still thrives there Greenland is the largest island in the world. As is well known it also lies very far to the north. At its northernmost point, it is only about 500 miles from the North Pole. Iceland lies about 200 […]

Some surprise choices - and some usual suspects missing - as JASON SOLOMONS selects the 50 greatest European movies

Readers have their say on the result of the Batley and Spen by-election

A reader explains their decision to leave Britain following Brexit After having been in the UK for more than 20 years now and it has been some of the best years of my life so far, but now I cannot wait to leave. That will happen the very moment my son leaves school. I am […]

The PM understands the importance of narrative and has turned government into a soap opera… how long can its leading character last?

The weirdest stories in Europe: The pub waiter who says he's a Spanish royal, and a corpse rides for six hours on a Swiss tram

Mitch Benn looks at another wild week in politics – including Joy Morrissey MP’s campaign to put portraits of the Queen everywhere, and the Matt Hancock affair PATRIOTISM TEST OF THE WEEK It’s been a terrific week for mandatory displays of fake patriotism, or indeed just another week of mandatory displays of fake patriotism if […]