Opinion

BEN PUMMELL from campaign group Our Future, Our Choice argues that a no-deal Brexit would widen the north-south divide at a time when the north is demanding greater self-determination. This week, frustrations across the north of England have reached a critical level. Alongside major political and business leaders, more than 30 local and regional newspapers […]

MITCH BENN on Rory Stewart, why good guys can be bad and what sci-fi can teach us about politics. We seem to have arrived at one of those awkward lulls, don’t we; not much is actually happening Brexit-wise but it’s still difficult to talk, think or indeed write about anything else. The big story politically […]

Readers react to Boris Johnson’s attempt to avoid accountability for false claims made during the EU referendum campaign. What astounds me about Boris Johnson’s court summons over accusations of misconduct while in public office is that his defence appears to be “I was campaigning”. For any chance to reconcile division in our society and restore […]

It is simply untrue for Brexiteers to claim that under a no-deal Brexit the UK could simply move to World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules and there would be nothing to fear. Putting aside the major economic damage, the UK will be unable to have frictionless, tariff-free trade under WTO rules for up to seven years […]

Readers have their say on People’s Vote campaigner Alastair Campbell being expelled from the Labour Party. I can’t understand why your editor-at-large is applying to rejoin Labour (TNE #146). The party he feels emotionally close to is dead, Corbyn’s leadership has killed it. Even if they were forced to support to a new referendum, the […]

JAMES BALL on why a US-UK trade deal is nothing more than a right-wing pipe dream. And so the long humiliation is complete: Theresa May has ended her premiership in line with how her term ran, with a week full of frenetic activity for no purpose. May’s decision to host an awkward and unpopular state […]

Trump’s nemesis Nancy Pelosi needs to show the president that no one is above the law, argues BONNIE GREER. The time has come to consider impeachment of the 45th president of the United States. The special counsel looking into Russian interference into the 2016 election and matters arising from it, Robert S. Mueller, last week […]

Ten of thousands of people turned out to protest against Donald Trump’s state visit in London. Protestors get their point across in demonstrations across London against Trump’s state visit. Photo: Mike Kemp/In Pictures/Getty Images – Credit: In Pictures via Getty Images Once again the British people did not disappoint with their creative ways of showing […]

MITCH BENN on why Nigel Farage’s election win was not a call for speeding up Brexit. Right, brace yourself because I’m about to ruin your day. If you’re standing up, sit down; if you’re sitting down, lie down. If you haven’t had breakfast, don’t have breakfast yet and if you have had breakfast, I’m terribly […]

It is entirely likely that a new prime minister could seek a no-deal Brexit by October 31, says JAMES BALL. Whoever wins the Tory leadership race will inherit perhaps the least enviable position in political history: a deadlocked and exhausted parliament, unable to achieve anything; recent election results putting the party on a desultory 9%; […]

BONNIE GREER says Britain should ignore President Donald Trump during his visit next week. To understand Donald John Trump, you have to understand New York City. New York is not only a place, it is a state of mind; and an aspiration. “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere” is not […]

Young Labour activist NATHAN BORODA on why Labour now needs to ditch the ‘constructive ambiguity’ on a People’s Vote and fully embrace a second referendum. Watching last night’s European election results was devastating for me as a Labour member. Seeing our fantastic MEPs across the country lose their seats and the work of our amazing […]

MITCH BENN takes a look at the end of an eight year era as Game of Thrones comes to an end and explores how the ending for our own story has not been written. Game of Thrones main city, King’s Landing, is filmed in Dubrovnik. Picture: HBO/IMDB – Credit: HBO/IMDB So, Game of Thrones then. […]

In JAMES BALL’S Deconstructed he discusses how politics must stop the Brexit Party not allegations of wrongdoings. It wouldn’t be a UK election season without another series of almighty rows about donations and election law. While a few weeks ago Change UK 
were getting the rough end of this from those on Labour’s left, the […]

BONNIE GREER discuses how Boris and Farage have come to stand above their parties and become Lords of chaos. Nigel Farage. Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images – Credit: NurPhoto via Getty Images Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage are the Snow White and Rose Red of what might be called ‘performance authenticity’. ‘Performance auth’ […]

MITCH BENN discusses the parallels between comedians and politicians attracting an audience. As regular readers will know (and as irregular readers won’t, I imagine, be particularly surprised to discover), this isn’t my day job. I’ve mentioned on a number of occasions that in my primary occupation I’ve been toiling away on the lower slopes of […]

JAMES BALL explains why the People’s Vote campaign was wrong to back Labour. Sir Vince Cable speaks at the People’s Vote Rally. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA. – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images Let’s be blunt: readers of this newspaper are unlikely to enjoy next week. While no poll is over until its votes are cast and counted, […]

BONNIE GREER discusses the cultural importance of the birth of royal baby Archie. The arrival of Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor comes like that ancient theatrical device known as the deus ex machina. Literally the ‘god from the machine’, a mechanism created by the Ancient Greeks in which a resolution, or change, is reached in a […]

Mitch Benn discusses why Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party is not what the UK needs. I have good news and bad news. The good news is: you’re not going mad. The bad news is: you’re not going mad. Yeah, sorry about that. There are times when it might be comforting to be able to dismiss the […]

BONNIE GREER outlines why Joe Biden is the USA’s best hope to run as president. Former vice president Joe Biden finally entered the race for the Democratic Party nomination for US president 
and immediately became the front runner. This was capped by an almost immediate attack from Donald Trump, which must have made the Biden […]

JAMES BALL believes both the Conservatives and Labour are playing for a draw when it comes to Brexit, meaning we all lose out. Once again, the Labour and Conservative front benches are meeting up through the week to discuss a possible Brexit compromise. So far, so much groundhog-Brexit-as-usual. But unlike before, there are murmurings – […]

The desire to vote against something or someone you oppose will only get you so far, says MITCH BENN, at some point you have to vote for something. I’ve got a lot of time for Tom Watson. I’ve met him a couple of times and he’s always been personable and sincere. He turned up to […]

BONNIE GREER says it is Notre Dame de Paris’ historic obligation to take the benefice offered to it and to share it with the poor, the sick, the homeless, the elderly and children. The question as to why billionaires would prefer giving money to an historic monument rather than to the poor is a question, […]

JAMES BALL examines how Labour’s director of strategy and communication emerged as the key figure in Corbyn’s office. In Labour circles, he is described as Corbyn’s brain. Or – less flatteringly – Corbyn’s Beria, after Stalin’s most-feared secret police chief. Both reflect the immense power Seumas Milne is said to wield at the top of […]

A former Labour candidate and activist on why the latest Brexit fudge has left him unable to stomach voting Labour at the ballot box. After painfully considering how I would vote in the latest set of elections for weeks, if not months, I have come out of the polling booth not voting Labour. I had […]

In this week’s mailbag readers have sympathy for the Liberal Democrats, who reportedly wanted an electoral pact with other Remain parties. The European elections offered a chance for Remainers to come together to defeat Brexit. As leader of the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable proposed a pact to both the Greens and Change UK. Both parties […]

MITCH BENN on the benefit of taking some time to regroup and plan. Ian Cognito, who died on stage. Picture: Contributed – Credit: Archant Some people have expressed alarm that, having fixed upon the in-no-way significant or ominous date of October 31 as the new deadline for resolving Brexit (one way or another), parliament then […]

Like Trump fans, Leave voters aren’t dismissing themselves as less intelligent. It’s their own leaders who think they’re ignorant. As active and vocal Remainers, we are often reminded of the importance of not yielding to the temptation of dismissing Leave voters as stupid or ignorant (and, moreover, of congratulating ourselves on our supposed intellectual superiority) […]

Bible stories that Brexiteers really shouldn’t try to adapt to their cause. For Christians, Lent – and then Easter – is intended to be a time of sombre remembrance and reflection as much as for others it is a time when you eat your bodyweight in chocolate. Brexit doesn’t merit ‘remembrance’ and, so far, has […]

DOIRE FINN says that the latest Article 50 extension only creates more uncertainty for the people living in Northern Ireland. With a new final date now set for October 31st, the idea that we are in for a ‘trick or treat’ Brexit has been widely expressed in various pictures, memes and suggestions for who gets […]

How Brexit has unleashed something that is both strange and unsettling. A woman I know – a confident, strong West End restaurant manager – came up to me and told me that her daughter refused to speak Polish to her. My friend is from Krakow, multilingual and happy in what she thought was her new […]

BONNIE GREER takes us on a trip to College Green to see what it has become since Brexit. Anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray stands with placards with anti-Brexit slogans near the mobile studios of media broadcasters on College Green. Picture: Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP) – Credit: AFP/Getty Images Before Brexit heated up, you could walk across […]