Opinion

Sometimes, when analysing the actions of politicians it’s worth taking them at their word, assuming they actually want to do what they says JAMES BALL. Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock arrives at 10 Downing Street in London. Picture: Aaron Chown/PA Wire – Credit: PA Sometimes, when analysing the actions of politicians it’s worth […]

US politics tends to be a more colourful and kinetic affair than our own variety, although of course there are always parallels to be drawn says MITCH BENN. Prime Minister Boris Johnson with Home Secretary Priti Patel attending the first meeting of the National Policing Board at the Home Office in London. Picture: Kirsty Wigglewsorth/PA […]

Readers react both online and offline to Alastair Campbell’s letter to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. I don’t feel at all ashamed to say I’m sat here with tears in my eyes after reading your letter. You’re a man who has given his life to the Labour movement and your contribution has transformed lives. I was […]

A car-crash interview on the BBC’s Today programme has put the hapless Welsh secretary in the wider spotlight for perhaps the first time. Welsh secretary Alun Cairns (Pic: Government of UK) – Credit: Government of UK With one of the lowest-profile positions in the Cabinet, many will not have heard of Welsh secretary Alun Cairns […]

A re-elected Trump could be brought straight back down, says BONNIE GREER, and the New England state could lead the way. Maine is known as the Vacation State. That is what comes to mind for most Americans, maybe most people worldwide, when they think of that small New England state bordering on the Atlantic: Holiday. […]

Comedian and host of People’s Vote campaign rallies, MITCH BENN calls on remainers to reclaim the flag in the name of true patriotism. There’s just over a week to go before I head up to Edinburgh to perform my show Ten Songs To Save The World at the Festival Fringe (Underbelly, 3.45pm, in case you […]

Political itinerant and, latterly, Liberal Democrat member TIM WALKER on why the election of Jo Swinson to the party’s leadership fills him with optimism Jo Swinson was barely three minutes into her victory speech when I realised I’d already heard more conviction and good sense than Jeremy Corbyn had managed in the three long years […]

Nelsonian traditions are one thing, but some of our modern political practices need to go out with the tide, says MITCH BENN. A few weeks ago I was asked to perform a short set at a Naval Officers’ Mess Dinner at HMS Sherwood in Nottingham. Attentive readers with a smattering of British geography will already […]

BONNIE GREER looks at the two-horse race emerging in the state of Kentucky where a war veteran is taking on a Trump stooge. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaking at a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Picture: Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images – Credit: LightRocket via Getty Images It is […]

Drop Project Fear and embrace a joyful, demanding, confident message about EU membership, say New European readers – that’s how we’ll reboot Remain and fight Brexit. At the top of the letters page in TNE #152 was a red bus with a doom-laden message (“UK regions face losing £8.4 billion …”). Do you really think […]

JAMES BALL recounts his own experience of hate crime and explains why politicians must do more than pay lip service on LGBT rights. On a summer’s night nine years ago, leaving a gay club night – annoyingly early, to catch the last tube and go into work the next day – I found myself suddenly […]

Broadcaster Clive Tyldesley on the sheer joy of last Sunday’s sporting action, and why Jacob Rees-Mogg clearly just doesn’t get it. I take no pleasure in comparing Jacob Rees-Mogg to a drunken England fan but they simply deserve each other. Both will have enjoyed the Cricket World Cup final for all the wrong reasons. Actually, […]

On a week united in sporting glory, Boris is bowled out by an old pro. MICHAEL WHITE discusses the ups of sport and the lows of a divided Britain. England captain Eoin Morgan (left) stands with his players and youngsters from Highgate Cricket Club for the national anthem ahead of during the ICC World Cup […]

In a powerful open letter, AC Grayling asks Remain-voting Labour MP Lisa Nandy how she can justify her subsequent support for Leave when she knows how harmful it will be to her constituents, who nonetheless voted to leave by nearly 64%. At the recent UK in a Changing Europe conference on July 15, I heard […]

MITCH BENN says it’s time we all call out the lies and expose the liars peddling the myths about the EU and Europe. I’m in the home stretch before heading up to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, so my life consists primarily of coffee-fuelled songwriting and joke-rewriting sessions, interspersed with preview shows, each slightly […]

If Sir Kim Darroch had ever had any doubt about the accuracy of his comments the president’s reaction must have served as vindication. Sometimes, nothing justifies an action so much as its own response. So it has proven – at high stakes, in different ways – for two groups this week. The first is Sir […]

The New York prosecutor terrifying the president President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) – Credit: AP The average American is brought up to see their country’s constitution as a kind of Holy Writ. It holds within it the creation of the union of the 50 sovereign states themselves, small nations which have agreed to […]

MITCH BENN discusses the issue of anti-Semitism in the Labour party. At time of writing, I don’t know whether Chris Williamson has been re-admitted, re-expelled or re-re-admitted to the Labour Party. I do know that Alastair Campbell is still out for the foreseeable, as he told me when we met at the People’s Vote rally […]

The deforestation of the rainforests might seem a remote concern for us. In fact, the causes and the consequences are very close to home. JAMES BALL reports. The Duchess of Cornwall walks through the Rainforest Research Project centre, on the outskirts of Manaus, in central Brazil. Picture: John Stillwell/PA Archive/PA Images – Credit: PA Archive/PA […]

JAMES BALL on how Jeremy Corbyn is in a no-win situation when it comes to deciding his position on Brexit and the parallels this has with a training scenario in the TV series Star Trek. Jason Isaacs who played Gabriel Lorca in the TV series Star Trek. Corbyn faces a no-win situation when it comes […]

BONNIE GREER discusses the importance of Donald Trump winning the presidency vote in Arizona. There is something about the state of Arizona, there is always a kind of question about it. It is undoubtedly the West but unlike, say, Texas there is something that is difficult to pin down. But a kind of answer could […]

While the UK struggles even to roll over its current trade arrangements, the EU has created a market of 700 million people in a historic trade deal. DR PAUL BEHRENS argues why replicating that after Brexit is no simple matter. These are exciting times for the European Union: on Friday, the EU concluded its trade […]

From the Die Hard films to the Proms, via Rhodesia and Tiananmen Square, Ode to Joy has been one of the most malleable pieces of music ever written. SOPHIA DEBOICK traces its varied history back to its year of creation As MPs passed through the division lobbies for the Article 50 bill vote in February […]

The Liberal Democrats’ anti-Brexit spokesperson Tom Brake MP urges Remainers to join the March for Change and tell the new prime minister to put a halt to the Brexit mess. When we think of great moments of political upheaval, social change and protests for justice, the images which often come to mind are marches. There […]

If you’re making excuses for someone on your team you wouldn’t make for someone on theirs, you’re part of the problem says MITCH BENN. Let’s get one thing straight before we start; I don’t know what was going on in Carrie Symonds’ flat in Camberwell the other night, and neither do you. Nor indeed do […]

What optimism there is for the Remain cause is now tied to the fate of the Liberal Democrats – and to see it through, they need to make a genuine appeal to the Left. Recent polls show that the Lib Dems have achieved twice in a month what they couldn’t do for over a decade […]

One reader thinks he has the answer to solving Brexit – and it involves David Cameron. All Boris Johnson has to do to get us out of this Brexit mess is ask the EU to go back to David Cameron’s deal. That took the UK out of ever-closer union, and reinforced our ability to limit […]

Alarm bells are ringing for Donald Trump in Florida, says Bonnie Greer. The moment that I turned my face to the wall as the count rolled in on election night 2016 was when Florida was called. Florida was the defining moment, the signal in the noise that told us all who would become the next […]

While everyone is preoccupied with the Tory leadership election, there is a quieter but extremely consequential contest about to take place. While everyone is preoccupied with the Tory leadership election, the outcome of which is basically already known, there is a quieter but extremely consequential contest about to take place – the Brecon and Radnorshire […]

The favourite to be our next prime minister has links to a motley crew of chancers, losers and far-right agitators, says JAMES BALL The overwhelming favourite to be the UK’s prime minister by the end of July is a political Janus, presented by his supporters as two entirely different characters depending upon who they’re talking […]

The government has cleared itself of any wrongdoing in the #deniedmyvote saga – but this deeply insufficient response threatens our democracy. Large numbers of EU citizens were prevented from voting in the UK’s European parliament elections. In many cases, the problem arose out of a little-known registration requirement: EU citizens, unlike their British friends, have […]

MITCH BENN on watching a video by the campaign supporting Boris Johnson’s (currently swaggering) effort to become leader of the Tory party and prime minister. British Conservative Party politician Boris Johnson gives a speech. Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP – Credit: AFP/Getty Images I find myself in a philosophical frame of mind, so here […]