Opinion

Labour needs to set out a vision on Brexit that the whole country can get behind, says JOHN LEHAL Parliament may have risen for recess, but the Brexit secretary is already heading back to Brussels. This summer could well see the government’s chickens come home to roost. Far from a relaxing recess, the next few […]

Amid political stalemate a second referendum might be an idea whose time has come, writes BARNABY TOWNS With only 12% of voters backing the government’s ‘Chequers compromise’ in the latest poll, there are increasing calls for a People’s Vote, in which electors would be asked to choose either the government’s Brexit deal, assuming there is […]

Donald Trump’s visit to the UK showed Brexit is an existential question, as well as a political one, writes Bonnie Greer. The problem for the press now is in covering empty gestures. Donald Trump has reduced the presidency of the United States to a series of campaign slogans, ‘promises kept’ to his base, and grandeur. […]

There is a lot to support in Justine Greening’s idea for a three-option People’s Vote but, as Christopher Wylie so memorably put it, Brexit is a crime scene. The side which won by 4% overspent by 10%. Three senior people in the Vote Leave, Leave.EU and BeLeave campaigns have been referred to the police. There […]

We should look to the England football team at the World Cup for some life advice, says Martin Deighton. We quite rightly persist in our efforts to win football’s World Cup and no-one suggests giving up because we have not succeeded since 1966. Making changes to the structure, the rules and the nature of the […]

Piers Morgan is mistaken, we’re not jealous about his interview with Donald Trump, it’s cozying up with the president which worries us, writes Mitch Benn. OK; I’m going to do something now which, I suspect, many of you may not entirely approve of. I’m going to give Piers Morgan the benefit of the doubt. In […]

In another Deconstructed, James Ball looks at how the European Research Group is exploiting the dark arts of the US. It has become common to hear warnings that US-style politics – where a far-right fringe has captured the country and so come to dominate public life – is coming to the UK. Some say such […]

Theresa May’s spineless capitulation to the European Research Group moves us closer to the no-deal exit of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s sepia-tinted dreams. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The toxic shock of austerity led us into Brexit and arguably only the toxic shock of becoming a third-rate dumping-ground country will lead us out of it. […]

The New European must continue after Brexit is rejected to provide news about the EU neglected by our mainstream media and, also, to campaign to reform our archaic parliament and voting system. Take the processes established by our parliament pre-referendum to scrutinise EU legislation. They were subject to only minor reforms despite the various changes […]

In some ways Boris Johnson was right, we are trying to polish a turd, writes Peter Roberts. Who knows what will happen over the next days and weeks, but surely this must now be clear. 1) There’s no form of Brexit that will benefit the nation. We really are polishing poo; 2) The national interest […]

Those summer holidays are looming large in everyone’s mind. But for the prime minister and the leader of the opposition the final PMQs before recess offers one last chance to land a blow that would have the other wincing well into the holiday period. Jeremy Corbyn hit a raw nerve immediately pointing out some cabinet […]

Brexit is moving into a new and hopefully terminal phase. Aware that they have no majority in the parliamentary Conservative Party, the Brexiteers are in retreat. I expect this new era will be soundtracked by moans about how their special Brexit has been ruined and how all its golden opportunities have been lost in a […]

Boris Johnson’s use of the term ‘the dream is dying’ is revealing. Dreams always end when reality intrudes. The Brexiteers have now received their wake-up call and know that the central thesis on which their argument was based – that ‘they need us more than we need them’ and therefore that at zero cost we […]

Despite his attempts to escape the real world, Bonnie Greer says Donald Trump is in for a shock. London is set to be the backdrop this weekend to a Carnival Of Resistance, a self-styled extravaganza of protest to be staged during the first visit to the UK of the 45th president of the United States. […]

Why we don’t have to drive over the cliff like Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon. Ok, time out. Cool your boots. Easy, tiger. Whoa there. Hang fire. Take five. Hold your horses. Phrase it any damn way you want to but please, for the love of whatever it is you pray to, just STOP. ENOUGH. […]

With the government’s white paper set to be published, JAMES BALL argues that a hypersoft Brexit just doesn’t work – despite its appeal. Whenever a complex political deal is presented to ministers – but not to those of us who vote for them – a good rule of thumb to judge it is usually to […]

Chaos. Disarray. Mayhem. But is anyone really surprised? itemtype='https://schema.org/VideoObject'> Brexit has been bedlam since the beginning – and there will be more confusion and tumult to come. There will be no tears shed over the resignations of David Davis or Boris Johnson. Both were inadequate at best. But Theresa May needs to take some of […]

Many years ago, I was among environmentalist campaigners who were labelled ‘terrorists’ in the press. We did not deserve this because we were seeking not to damage the country but to save the world, based on scientifically-agreed, evidence-based, truths. Our crime was to protest against new coal-fired power stations. But now it is my turn […]

It’s interesting that Theresa May lectures other EU leaders on security, even though it has always been low on her agenda if present at all. It’s almost as though she was trying to generate supportive headlines in the British press rather than negotiating with other EU leaders. It looks to me like May knows that […]

The fact that there are actual positions regarding a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit, when in fact there is just Brexit, is one of the hallmarks of our current Age Of Absurdity writes BONNIE GREER The fact that there are actual positions regarding a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit, when in fact there […]

Two years on from the referendum, the public call for a People’s Vote vote is clear. Some 48% of voters now say they want a second poll on the final deal Theresa May negotiates with the EU, compared to just 25% who disagree. This is hardly a surprise. A report from the Centre for European […]

Does Tony Blair help the cause to remain in the European Union – or does he hinder it? I was pleased to read Alastair Campbell’s article in last week’s TNE defending the Blair government’s record. I am astonished how much liberal vitriol there is against Blair until I realise that it largely comes from younger […]

I discovered I was truly European a long time ago. I am 87 now and was 20 then. We were cycling in Holland and Belgium and there was devastation everywhere. Among the ruins of Rotterdam, which the Germans had flattened, the piledrivers were at work. My family had earlier been bombed out in London and […]

You wait years for a bus question at PMQs and then six come along all at once. Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn during Prime Minister’s Questions – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images And fair play to Jeremy Corbyn. He is right to use his unique opportunity to quiz the prime minister every week to highlight the […]

The resistance against Donald Trump has been led by women. But, says CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ, plans for a protest in London have proved problematic When Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, women around the world said: ‘Enough.’ It wasn’t just that a man had beaten a woman. It was that this man […]

The People’s Vote march received just the kind of snarky criticism we have all come to expect, says MITCH BENN. Like many of you in body and all of you in spirit, I imagine, I spent Saturday last taking part in what became known as the People’s Vote March, and have the badly sunburnt ever-expanding […]

Readers that marched in London last weekend have a lot to say about the Labour leader missing the event and those that are defending his position. The world is certainly changing. I attended the very inspiring People’s Vote march in London. It was the biggest demonstration I have ever been on without either Jeremy Corbyn […]

Surely even Theresa May must agree that Boris Johnson’s alleged response of ‘f*** business’ to a question at a diplomatic event about business concerns about Brexit renders his position untenable. For most of us in the UK, business is essential to our very survival. Business provides employment. Business enables us to put a meal on […]

Government ministers call the Airbus warning ‘part of a new Project Fear’. They would do well to take this warning seriously. Shortly before his death, I sat with one of the team who had negotiated the agreement for Broughton to manufacture the wings of these multinational European projects. He told me of the determination, of […]

The events of the referendum night, writes JAMES BALL, shine a fascinating light on the world of finance, polling and politics It was the week a major news organisation accused Nigel Farage of perhaps the most cynical manipulation of financial markets in history Bloomberg, the international financial news agency, suggested the former UKIP leader might […]

With another chaotic week for the cabinet unravelling, this should have been like taking candy from a baby for Jeremy Corbyn – but once again he flattered to deceive. Theresa May speaks during Prime Minister’s Questions Photo: PA – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images Don’t get me wrong, he has certainly had worse outings at the […]

Why are so many immune to the impending disaster facing us? Geroge Orwell would recognise the answer. George Orwell wrote in The Prevention Of Literature that ‘freedom of the press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose’. And: ‘In the past… the idea of rebellion and the idea of […]