Opinion

Mitch Benn says the Remain movement is still in full voice as Brexiteers call for the government to get on with it. It’s exhausting, this Brexit thing, isn’t it? Even if you’re not tasked with following and commenting on the whole slowly unravelling fustercluck on a semi-professional basis, just trying to keep up with each […]

Labour held on to Newport West in a by-election battle which saw turnout slump – with just a majority of 1,951 votes over the Tories. Green party candidate Amelia Womack poses for a photograph as she awaits the results of the Newport West by-election. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire. – Credit: PA The contest was triggered […]

Will the thickest group of MPs in history ever be forgiven for the stupidity that jeopardises the future of 70 million? James Ball delves deep into the Conservatives take on Brexit. Mark Francois and Jacob Rees-Mogg as they might have looked as Spud and Renton in Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting. Picture: Archant. – Credit: Archant In […]

ADRIAN WAITE says people voted for Brexit as a protest about poorer communities being marginalised, but he says this will be made worse by the UK’s departure from the European Union. There is a housing crisis in all parts of Britain. A cross-party review has concluded that Britain needs three million more social homes by […]

I jointly run a local campaign group, Wilmslow for Europe. Last Friday we were planning to hold a peaceful protest of about 30 members outside the constituency office of our MP, Esther McVey. The local police gave our plans their blessing but in the end we were urged to cancel because we learned that the […]

BONNIE GREER on why white supremacists seeking to whitewash Europe’s history rely on a faux-medieval past. The doctrine of white supremacy is underpinned by a faux-medieval past and the look and feel of a 1930s Busby Berkeley movie. First, the phony white Middle Ages: The idea that Europe, from about the year 1000 to the […]

MITCH BENN says there should be awkward questions for the people who’ve been making a living peddling so-called ‘polite racism’. I found myself being interviewed on Turkish television last week, on the subject of Brexit in general and Mr Tragical Misery Tour himself, Nigel Farage. I was asked if I thought Nigel Farage was a […]

JAMES BALL on why, with ‘grim, awful inevitability’, the UK appears to be moving towards a general election. The UK is firmly and squarely in the doldrums. The saying might now refer to being dull, sluggish and in a terrible mood, but originates from the maritime world – referring to a few sections of the […]

MP JANET DABY explains that now, more than ever, ethnic minorities need to have their voice heard. https://twitter.com/EM4PV/status/1109060315369693191 With just a week before we’re due to leave the EU, parliament is yet to agree a deal. The prime minister’s deal has been roundly been rejected by parliament on two occasions. There is even an attempt […]

An friend’s experience of the American healthcare system showed BONNIE GREER the horror of a US-style NHS. A true story… About a decade ago, an old friend of mine from America and her husband Jerry were about to make the trip of a lifetime – a train journey through Europe. It was their first visit […]

Life as a Brexit true believer would be so much easier, writes MITCH BENN, but self-righteousness helps no-one in the long run. Something remarkable – indeed perhaps unprecedented – happened on last weekend’s Andrew Marr Show. A Brexiter told the truth about Brexit. Jeremy Hunt – for ’twas he – reflected on how easy it […]

As Theresa May’s deal falls again, this week marks the week British politics lost the plot, writes JAMES BALL. The principle of this column – Deconstructed – is to try to take Brexit (among other issues) apart, in order to make sense of them. It is possible that this is finally the week which poses […]

Dr Dani Loughran, the ‘lady in the maroon jumper’ who was labelled a hero for taking on Jacob Rees-Mogg on Question Time, on why we need a final say. https://twitter.com/Reasons2Remain/status/1096378829759758336 I am the ‘lady in the maroon jumper’, who asked Jacob Rees-Mogg about his complacency over Brexit’s destructive effect on UK industry on BBC Question […]

Donald Trump’s get out of jail card could sentence the US, writes James Ball. From this side of the Atlantic, it can feel like any day now Donald Trump will be moving from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to the confines of a jail cell. The walls certainly seem to be closing in on the embattled president. […]

While much of the country consists of the sort of constituency wherein, to quote the late great Alan B’stard, they’d elect a hatstand if you stuck the right colour rosette on it, hatstands is what we’ll get. Events are developing at a dizzying rate, and I’m currently suffering the after-effects of some not entirely successful […]

If you have the misfortune to be paying close attention to Brexit – a sensible choice, even if not one likely to spark joy – this week has, on the surface of things, looked like an exciting one. If you have the misfortune to be paying close attention to a Brexit – a sensible choice, […]

‘We are in a time – and rightly so – when we believe people who say that they have been victims of assault of any kind. We have to, because so many people have lived their pain, their lives unbelieved.’ Jussie Smollett poses for a booking photo after turning himself into the Chicago Police Department […]

‘If TIG should call by-elections so should the MPs in the ERG or linked to Momentum’ Labour and Tory representatives say MPs in the Independent Group (TIG) should call by-elections in their seats as they were originally elected on another party’s manifesto. If this is the case, why is it that MPs such as those […]

SARAH PENNIE says Remain still does not have a clear message to put to voters. Anthony Daly (Letters, TNE #132) is right, and I wonder too why a positive Remain message is not being put across. We have accused the Leavers of failing to offer a plan, but where is ours? Leave had a campaign […]

Readers write to The New European after seven Labour MPs quit the party to create The Independent Group. Leave aside for a moment The Independent Group’s mostly justifiable reasons for breaking with Labour, what I am concerned about is the damage this potentially does to the fight of our lives as we head towards March […]

Why The Independent Group must work to earn the support of Remainers. There is, as they say, nothing new under the sun; every event, however startling and novel, has its roots and causes in previous events, and similarly, every event, however unusual, will find its echo somewhere in subsequent events. It’s not often, however, that […]

Bonnie Greer pays tribute to the prize-winning writer who was driven by her determination to tell stories of burning importance. I moved to London to write. Usually African American writers went to Paris because of the lure of the French capital that stretched back to the Harlem Hellfighters returning in triumph wearing their Croix de […]

It’s finally happened. After more than two years of dithering and indecisiveness, the UK has a new sort-of-but-not-quite political party. Labour MPs Chris Leslie, Luciana Berger, Chuka Umunna, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith, Mike Gapes and Ann Coffey have announced their resignation from the party. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA – Credit: PA On Monday, seven MPs finally […]

We are writing as active and committed members of the Labour Party because we feel our voice is being ignored by our own party. We enthusiastically voted for Jeremy Corbyn precisely because he promised to listen to his members and put them at the heart of everything he did. We believed that and went on […]

There’s precious little in the news other than Brexit, but not much in the overall situation is actually changing. I think I’m experiencing a kind of Brexit numbness. On the one hand, there’s precious little else in the news right now, as is entirely appropriate given that we’re about six weeks away from an act […]

The reality of Britain’s position after it leaves the EU is becoming clearer As the Brexit discussion continues, at ever-higher volume with ever-decreasing coherence, its enthusiasts have found a new concept, a new mantra, to shout it at ever-increasing frequency. It has become impossible to say that the UK will get a fantastic deal from […]

Liam Neeson’s comments have given license to others to expound extreme views One of the more embarrassing stories my late mother would relate about my childhood concerned one of her friends. This lady, it seems, really mystified me. I could not understand why her dress stuck out in front. I would ask my mother over […]

By picking a fight with Ireland, the UK might turn one of its closest allies against it, writes BONNIE GREER. My primary school in Chicago long ago was primarily African-American and Latino. But every March 17 we became something else: Irish. Each St Patrick’s Day we wore ‘the green’ – hats or shoes. The boys […]

With so many reasons to abandon Brexit, writes MITCH BENN, Remain is winning the battle by a significant margin. There are literally hundreds of compelling reasons to abandon Brexit, and precisely one reason to go ahead with it. Every week that passes provides us with another couple of dozen entries for the ‘really very good […]

March 29 is a full stop, writes JAMES BALL, and it is hard to see a way back for Remain afterwards. March 29. It’s the date we’ve heard more than any other – a new contender for Groundhog Day – and the latest Brexit-related issue that Theresa May is digging in on. She is insisting […]

The Queen has attempted to rejoin the current political extremes over Brexit by pleading for a (presumably) centrist common ground on the issue. As a staunch Remainer, this for me will be impossible unless and until we have a second referendum. The first one was based on lies, alternative facts, deceit, project fear, financial irregularities […]

MITCH BENN discusses why links between Brexit and how it compares to past wars Britain have been involved in should not be made. I’ve long thought that there should be some sort of ‘swear box’ system in operation in political journalism, except with interviewees being required to cough up for clichés rather than profanities. I […]