Opinion

The diplomatic incident which left Ursula von der Leyen without a chair in her meeting with the Turkish president revealed more than just protocol problems. It exposed deep tensions not just between Europe and Turkey but within the EU itself It was a day of bounty for memes, hashtags and headlines when European Commission president Ursula von der […]

Britain needs its theatres back because Britain IS theatre – a country obsessed with role-playing When I stumbled on the English National Opera’s rendition of Handel’s Messiah recently and watched it for a while, I suddenly burst into tears. There, in the empty London Coliseum where the ENO were performing amidst the shadows of the empty […]

Bill Kenwright’s Love Letters and the National’s After Life have announced opening dates – but a full return for the London stage seems as far away as ever As a theatre critic, I am sometimes asked when am I going to start reviewing theatre again. It is not an unreasonable question, especially now that there appear […]

Will Self looks at the differences between the mourning for Princess Diana and Prince Philip – and the Vanuatu tribe who worshipped the Duke of Edinburgh To Buck House, to check out how the collective hysteria was manifesting itself in the wake of Phil the Greek’s demise. There were cut flowers lined up along barriers […]

Britain’s slack system for regulating politics is responsible for a devastating lack of public trust. If he were a more sympathetic figure, David Cameron would have a certain air of pathos about him – the longer he lives, the worse his reputation gets. Born to riches and elected to the highest office in the UK, everything since […]

The pandemic might finally be giving the party a purpose, but it will also highlight the tensions of its dual heritage of economic liberalism and social democracy For the first time since the last election the Liberal Democrats are getting some national attention. In his unqualified opposition to vaccine passports and some of the other pandemic constraints […]

Former Conservative politician Alan Duncan’s new memoir In The Thick Of It contains much criticism of Boris Johnson – but why didn’t he say this earlier? “NOW YOU TELL US” OF THE WEEK Former Conservative politician Alan Duncan, whose new memoir In The Thick Of It (can’t imagine where he came up with that title) […]

Misunderstood and mischaracterised by the rest of the UK, the plight of Northern Ireland’s Unionists, trapped between London and Dublin, is a melancholic one The Unionist identity in Northern Ireland has always been a difficult one for outsiders to understand. The stock images that travel so reliably abroad – of towering bonfires and Orangemen in bowler hats […]

In this second extract from his new book on fairness, BEN FENTON asks how it affects the way we see politics, and how societies have dealt with coronavirus. When did you last vote? At an election? For an MP? A mayor? A president? Perhaps in a referendum? Or did you fill in an online survey about […]

A very limited review has been set up to look into the Greensill lobbying affair – do not expect much from it. Alexander “Lex” Greensill, formerly of Morgan Stanley, is clearly a forceful and persuasive personality. The Autralian farmer-turned-financier was adviser to the government from 2012 to 2015, during which time, he appears to have […]

AMS or STV could bring electoral reform to Britain - and still bring us a step closer to full PR.

IAN DUNT on what the death of the Duke of Edinburgh tells us about our country. The royals help define an age. It doesn’t matter if you support the monarchy, couldn’t care less about it, or want to overthrow it. As long as they’re there, they become part of the country’s sense of self. They […]

“How many divisions has the Pope?” sneered Stalin at Yalta in 1945 when asked to lessen persecution of Catholics in the USSR. Today that question is being asked around the world about Britain as the British Army is being reduced to its lowest numbers in 300 years.  The figure of 82,000 men currently in the […]

The German giant caught in one of industry's biggest-ever scandals, 'Dieselgate', is now making its play to dominate the world of electric cars

How did this Greek, Danish and German immigrant come to be lauded as the epitome of Britishness by many who most dislike immigration? Had home secretary Priti Patel been around a century ago, we’d never have heard of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.  His father, Prince Andrew of Greece and Denmark, may have been a terrific […]

Where was the outrage over Boris Johnson's appearance when he paid tribute to Prince Philip?

It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain, as the only export that appears to be booming post-Brexit is the glut of UK companies rushing to set up in the EU. The government’s botched trade deal has left firms with two options: Relocation or red tape and regulations that will […]

The city of Paris has mislaid two 10-tonne art deco fountains that stood near the Port de la Chapelle metro station. The landmarks were built in 1935 but were moved temporarily in 2014 to clear a new tram route for the 2024 Olympic Games. However, no-one now seems to know where they were put. Local […]

The many chapters in the career of Shirley Williams tell the story of post-war Britain For all her recent reputation as a well-loved grandmother of British politics, Shirley Williams was not unfamiliar with its sharper edges. At a 1959 rally in support of independence for Nyasaland (later Malawi) at the Royal Albert Hall, racist hecklers […]

What does it mean, ‘to be fair’? In this extract from his new book, BEN FENTON explains the concept of ‘fairness’ came to have such a central role in modern society, particularly in the English-speaking world. In 1690, the English philosopher John Locke, a man whose work influenced Rousseau, Voltaire, Tom Paine and Kant, published […]

Not even the Albanian regime’s determination to seal itself off from the rest of the world could stop the sounds of the country’s capital. Music thrives off cross-pollination. How, then, do musicians survive – let alone create – in an isolationist country where only a meagre diet of state-approved culture is on offer? Albania, and […]

Amid the moralising and propaganda, the Soviet Hollywood also produced dark fantasy movies that were a world away from Disney’s saccharine output – and created a troubled relationship with the communist authorities.  In the grand scheme of things, there are worse things about dictatorships than them telling audiences what they were allowed to watch, but […]

Born 200 years ago this month, Charles Baudelaire continues to inspire memes, musicians and even Monty Burns in The Simpsons. CHARLIE CONNELLY explains his remarkable relevance. The most famous image of Charles Baudelaire is a portrait taken in or around 1863 by the Parisian photographer Etienne Carjat. It was part of a series called Galerie Contemporaine, in […]

Northern Ireland is still a peacemaking success story. But 23 years after Good Friday Agreement, the region should be further towards reconciliation and social justice There is no mystery about the grassroots unionist anger that has led to street violence in Northern Ireland in recent weeks. Telling communities to be angry has been the political […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on the life of photographer Robert Doisneau, a man who portrayed Paris to the world and captured one of its most famous and romantic images. When a teenage Robert Doisneau first took a camera onto the streets of Paris he was so cripplingly shy that all he came back with were pictures of cobblestones. Gradually he […]

For Ian Lavender, who played Private Pike in Dad’s Army, the magic of the series came from the way it was written to suit the actors’ personalities. By TIM WALKER. There have been 10 prime ministers since the first episode of Dad’s Army was broadcast, but the Guardian has suggested that the show resonates now more than ever because of […]

Concerns about inequality in Britain is much higher than in any other European country, a new study has revealed. The end of lockdowns is in sight but the road out of these restrictions is only the start of a much longer journey to a full recovery from the pandemic. The crisis has ruthlessly exposed how […]

It is essential that lessons are not just identified, but robustly implemented to ensure the UK is more resilient to such events in the future. Where there is much to be positive about regarding the UK’s strong vaccine rollout, a public inquiry into how this pandemic has been handled in the country since the first […]

Leading pollster PETER KELLNER on the ways that public opinion on the issue has changed, and what it means for pro-Europeans. Two big lessons can be learned about public opinion since Britain’s agreement with the EU came into force in January. The first is that there has been a clear rise in support for Brexit. […]

The recent Dutch elections show how European politicians – and their electorates – can no longer separate EU affairs from national concerns. The recent Dutch elections kicked of a series of national parliamentary elections on the European continent: German elections are scheduled for September this year, followed by the French elections in May 2022. Given […]

A year into his leadership, being ‘not-Corbyn’ is not enough. The Labour leader has to be visibly ‘post-Boris’. Here is some advice for the leader of the Labour Party from an unexpected source: “It’s odd, the Keir Starmer thing: he’s articulate, intelligent, good in the Commons, lots of common sense. But, for some reason, he […]

JAMES BALL on how the launch of the former first minister’s new party might play out at the polls. Alex Salmond and the intricacies of the Scottish voting system are not what Nicola Sturgeon wanted to be the focus in the run-up to this May’s Holyrood elections. Until just a few months ago, it felt like the […]