News and Opinion

TIM WALKER on a man who never lost that childlike need to please and to make people happy. I first met Donald Sinden in the mid-1980s when I showed up too early at his home in Golders Green in north London. He came to the door in his dressing gown and slippers and his hair […]

WILL SELF is left pondering the impact of the coronavirus crisis on his night-time visions. On my night time promenades through south London I often find myself in the purlieu of the Imperial War Museum, close to Waterloo Station. Some might surmise from the pair of 15-inch naval guns set in front of this gaunt, […]

Tory Brexiteer MP David Davis has said that the government’s job is not to ‘follow polls’ as he called for a relaxation of the lockdown. Appearing on Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday the former Brexit secretary was asked for his view on the government’s new messaging. Sighing he said: ‘I don’t want to see […]

Shadow health minister Jonathan Ashworth has accused the government of causing the public to flout lockdown rules by briefing newspapers about future plans to ease the measures. Shadow Health Minister Jonathan Ashworth questioned the new coronavirus slogan, labelling it “ambivalent” on the Andrew Marr show today, May 10. Picture: The BBC – Credit: Archant Speaking […]

Communities minister Robert Jenrick has attempted to explain the meaning behind the government’s new coronavirus slogan, as critics have roundly attacked the message. The new government ‘stay alert’ slogan. Photograph: Downing Street/Twitter. – Credit: Archant ‘Stay Alert, Control the Virus, Save Lives’ has replaced the previous slogan of ‘Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives’, […]

For a time, Krzysztof Kie?lowski was perhaps Europe’s most fashionable director. A timely retrospective reminds us why, as JAMES OLIVER reports. Poster for ‘No End’ (1985). – Credit: Archant Over the years, there’s been many an upset when the Cannes film festival hands out its prizes. But what happened in 1994 was a doozy. That […]

The government should have introduced a 14-day quarantine period for all travellers coming to Britain two months ago, an expert has claimed. The government will reportedly enforce the mandatory quarantine within weeks as part of measures aimed at avoiding a second peak of the coronavirus pandemic. The Times has said prime minister Boris Johnson will […]

The music of the Big Apple is every bit as brash, bold and brilliant as the city itself, says Sophia Deboick. The musical soul of New York is the musical soul of America. The vagaries of 20th century history have rarely dented the confident, even arrogant, spirit of the music from and about the city, […]

Actress and comedian Miriam Margolyes has been criticised for claiming she initially wanted to see the prime minister die from coronavirus after he tested positive for Covid-19. Miriam Margolyes appears on The Last Leg. Photograph: Channel 4. – Credit: Archant The 78-year-old appeared on the new series of The Last Leg to give her thoughts […]

CLAUDIA PRITCHARD on an epic Titian blockbuster exhibition almost 500 years in the making – for which we will now have to wait a little longer. Titian’s ‘Danae’ (1551-53). Picture: Wellington Collection, Apsley House, London – Credit: Archant The memo from the artist Titian to Philip II of Spain just before Christmas in 1574 is […]

Comedian Michael Spicer has torn apart the health secretary’s latest appearance in front of cameras at 10 Downing Street. Matt Hancock’s attempts to answer questions from journalists on a new app designed to help with contact tracing during the coronavirus outbreak became the feature of Spicer’s new video in his series ‘The Room Next Door’. […]

Boris Johnson has invited Russia to play a more integrated role in global efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine. The prime minister, during a phone call with president Vladimir Putin to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, suggested Russia take part in a global vaccine summit next month being hosted by the UK. While […]

Britain’s future with Europe remains unclear, but one thing is certain, it needs to request an extension to the Brexit transition period. BARNABY TOWNS explains that unity is strength. Europe Day is celebrated by the European Union on May 9th, commemorating the 1950 Schuman Declaration, signed by France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux nations 70 […]

STEVE ANGLESEY looks at the Brexiteers making the headlines for the wrong reasons this week, including one Tory who wanted to overturn the result of two referendums. DANIEL KAWCZYNSKI Last year the Shropshire MP was ranting about ‘MPs wishing to overturn the will of the British people’ but now he seems willing to overturn the […]

Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to make a decision on how and when the government’s furlough scheme will be phased out this weekend, after an official in Downing Street said people were becoming ‘addicted’ to it. Talks on the future of the costly support programme will be held in advance of prime minister Boris Johnson’s […]

Unlike other Boris Johnson efforts, The Perils of the Pushy Parents is not racist or sexist – it’s just ‘rubbish’. Two earnest and connected hopes for young Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson: One, that on December 13, 2024, his dad suddenly has a lot more time on his hands with which he can spend reading to […]

Only a few months ago, the BBC was in the government’s crosshairs. Now, says MATTHEW D’ANCONA, it has a new lease of life. Dominic Cummings is believed to be the senior source who, in February, told The Sunday Times that the government would press ahead with plans to axe the BBC licence fee. Picture: Getty […]

Former Liberal Democrat MEP LUISA PORRITT writes that young people’s determination for a shared European future makes Brexit unsustainable. Luisa Porritt in the European Parliament chamber. Picture: Harry Taylor/Archant. – Credit: Archant For those living in one of the European Union’s 27 member states, today is a celebration. It marks 70 years since the Schuman […]

The Liberal Democrats have used Europe Day to urge the government to grant foreign healthcare workers tackling the coronavirus the right to remain the UK. The campaign to give staff and their families indefinite leave to remain comes on the 70th anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, which kick-started the EU project. The proposals have been […]

BONNIE GREER uses television to examine and investigate what it means to be ‘English’. David Suchet as Hercule Poirot. Picture: ITV – Credit: Archant Among the consequences of living in lockdown are the things that you suddenly see. That you suddenly know. For example, I have come to realise that I have been a Londoner […]

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has sent a letter after being visited by police after flouting coronavirus lockdown guidelines. In the letter, posted on his Twitter account which was headed ‘the office of Nigel Farage, the Brexiteer complained of being ‘extremely unhappy’ following a home visit by Kent Police on Monday night. Farage ignored government […]

HELEN DEVEREUX reports on the forgotten plight of merchant sailors trapped on their ships by the coronavirus. At the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, much attention was paid to the plight of cruise tourists. Governments around the world closed their ports to cruise ships and refused to allow passengers to disembark. While all those tourists […]

A new mobile app launched by the government as part of its ‘track, trace, and test’ programme to slow the spread of the coronavirus has had major technical issues, an analysis has found. UK privacy charity Privacy International has claimed the NHSX app, built to track and trace people who have had Covid-19, does not […]

The Met Police has dropped an investigation into two pro-Brexit campaigners who were accused of breaking electoral spending rules during the 2016 EU referendum. Boris Johnson speaks at a Vote Leave rally with Priti Patel and Michael Gove (right) in Preston town centre, Lancashire, as part of pro-Brexit campaigning. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA. – Credit: PA […]

A Question Time panellist has slammed praise of Boris Johnson’s coronavirus response, labelling it ‘insulting’ to victims’ families. Writer Aufa Hirsch was responding to a viewer’s question over the UK’s Covid-19 death rate when she said the government needed to be more transparent in its handling of disease, downplaying claims its response had been a […]

Coronavirus has escalated Donald Trump’s breaking down of everything that holds Amercia together, writes JAMES BALL. Can it survive another four years of this? It is impossible not to wonder, when you read about or watch a documentary on certain periods of history, whether the people of the time knew what was coming. Given how […]

A BBC Question Time viewer has claimed the government’s coronavirus response makes her feel ‘disappointed’ to be British during Victory in Europe (VE) Day. Margaret Collins asked the Question Time panellists why the UK’s Covid-19 death toll had become one of the highest in the world, saying she did not feel ‘particularly proud’ to be […]

While our TV news is still fairly responsible, according to MITCH BENN, our newspapers are even worse for bias and recklessness than their American counterparts. There’s a sort of numbness setting in now, isn’t there? A hollow, aching, weary resignation punctuated by periods of gnawing dread (and perhaps searing grief) when the virus’s crosshairs hover […]

Think you know Europe? Take our latest lockdown quiz As a New European reader, you probably reckon you know the continent inside out. Test yourself with our fiendish quiz…

Coronavirus cases in care homes and hospitals are driving up the transmission rate of the virus, experts have warned, in contradiction of Dominic Raab’s comments at the latest Downing Street briefing. Ahead of Boris Johnson considering an easing of lockdown measures, Dominic Raab tried to present good news by revealing that the rate of infection […]

Ex-Brexit Party MEP John Longworth has claimed the UK would do better exiting the transition period than staying in to reboot its economy after the coronavirus. Longworth told talkRADIO that Brexit was only a ‘minor disruption’ to businesses compared to the coronavirus and that the UK needed to leave the transition period before December if […]

Foreign correspondent Christina Lamb on what covering conflicts abroad has taught her about life – and good and the bad – carrying on in extraordinary circumstances. In these strange times in which we find ourselves, I started listing things that make me happy. Listening to bossa nova. Eating grilled sardines in the alleyways of Alfama, […]