News and Opinion

A new poll has found that almost three-quarters of Britons do not expect a Brexit deal to be agreed between the UK and EU by October 31st. The Ipsos Mori poll found that 74% of Britons do not think the UK and the EU will be able to agree by the deadline currently set. Just […]

WILL SELF on the similarities between legalised marijuana culture and Brexit culture. A sign points the way to to a cannabis shop. Picture: Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images – Credit: MediaNews Group via Getty Images “What do you make,” asked my film agent conversationally, ‘of our legalized marijuana culture?’ It was an […]

The boss of JD Wetherspoon has insisted that there will be no economic hit with Brexit – despite making the comments in the same week that the pound hit a two-year low. https://twitter.com/talkRADIO/status/1156644447112716288 The pub chain owner was asked about the impact of Brexit by Alastair Stewart on talkRADIO in his capacity as a businessman. […]

On the afternoon of August 1, 1943, Lydia Litvyak was heading back to the Soviet airbase at Krasnyi Luch in south-eastern Ukraine after a sortie escorting a squad ground attack planes taking part in the vicious fighting on the Eastern Front. It was her fourth mission of the day and the 268th combat flight of […]

PETER TRUDGILL explains why some old childhood favourites no longer seem to rhyme. Many of us remember from our childhood the well-known nursery rhyme which goes: “Jack and Jill/Went up the hill/To fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down/And broke his crown/ And Jill came tumbling after.” Jill rhymes with hill, and down rhymes […]

Even when staging a musical like Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! there’s a perilously thin dividing line between magnificence and naffness says TIM WALKER. A lot of the problem is that there can be few, if any, punters who haven’t now heard all of the big numbers in a sturdy old classic like this at least […]

SOPHIA DEBOICK kicks off a new feature, looking at the musical history of a different city each week. First an examination of Berlin’s remarkably creative heritage, from Dietrich to Depeche Mode, with many in between. Depeche Mode, group portrait, Berlin, July 1984, L-R Martin Gore, Dave Gahan, Alan Wilder, Andrew Fletcher. (Photo by Michael Putland/Getty […]

JOE WALSH on how the tragic murders of rural South Africans are being exploited by global extremists. Leader of the conservative Afrikaner Freedom Front Pieter Groenewald joins newly elected Members of Parliament as they are sworn in for the 6th Democratic Parliament on May 22, 2019, in Cape Town. Picture: RODGER BOSCH/AFP/Getty Images – Credit: […]

Brex Factor looks at the pro-Leave fundraising campaign chaired by former Ronald Reagan staffer Peggy Grande. Mike Parry. Picture: Twitter – Credit: Archant On the day Boris Johnson became prime minister, Nigel Farage had his eyes on a different prize. As the unelected PM moved into Downing Street, the Brexit Party’s unelected leader was in […]

It took him longer to form a government – six days – than anyone else since the war, because his no-deal loyalty pledge reduced the field even among ambitious Tory MPs and peers, says ANDREW ADONIS. Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid, Works and Pensions Secretary […]

A clock that costs at least £500 has been installed at Downing Street, counting down to the date the UK is intended to leave the European Union. A package containing a digital countdown clock is carried in to 10 Downing Street in London. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Wire. – Credit: PA The clock will be displayed […]

Indisputable certainty no longer exists in politics. Lee McIntyre examines how reaction to the Mueller probe shows how partisan responses took ownership of the facts. Listening to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s keenly-anticipated testimony to Congress, America heard a duel over the facts. Not what the facts imply, not our response to them, but what […]

Neither Akiro Kurosawa’s masterpiece Seven Samurai, nor the greatest remake ever made and not based on it, the Magnificent Seven, are about Wisconsin, says BONNIE GREER. Ivanka Trump joins the US president at the G20 meeting of world leaders. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire/PA Images – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images The plot of both films is […]

From commemorative Brexit stamps to how Princess Diana would have voted on Brexit. How well do you remember these stories? We have pulled together a quiz of ten questions which will test your knowledge of the irreverent news surrounding Brexit from the past three years. How much do you remember?

European citizens in the UK who claim they were denied a vote in the recent elections have not given up their fight. Lawyer John Halford explains what happens next. Boris Johnson at Conservative party conference. Pictue: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images – Credit: Getty Images But does this really matter now? We have a new prime minister […]

MEP DAMIAN BOESELAGER voted against new European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen because he believes her election sends the wrong message. At a time when national parliaments across Europe are besieged by populists, and when one of the main arguments of the UK Brexit Party is that the European project lacks democratic accountability, the […]

The opportunity now facing the Lib Dems is immense, says JOHN KAMPFNER. But the challenge is far more complex than it might first appear. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Picture: Leon Neal/Getty Images. – Credit: Getty Images Rarely has there been a more propitious time to become leader of a liberal party. The space normally […]

An obedient press and a parliamentary recess have given Boris Johnson a free hand. LIZ GERARD is very, very worried. New customs posts under construction at Dublin Port in preparation for a no-deal Brexit. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images I’m scared. First I was scared of Brexit. Then I was scared […]

More than £2 billion has been set aside to prepare for a no-deal Brexit, which has been branded a ‘appalling waste of taxpayers’ cash’. Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid announced that the funding includes £1.1 billion for departments and the devolved administrations to spend immediately, with a further £1 billion in reserve. Javid said […]

Brexiteers may dream of a return to a glorious Anglophile past, but Canadian CONNOR MacDONALD has some bad news for them The flag of Canada on a pole at the Commonwealth Games – Credit: PA Archive/PA Images Hard Brexiteers love to imagine that one day the Anglosphere will come running to reunite with the mother […]

A thousand people packed out a rally in Birmingham to declare that Boris Johnson’s plan to force his destructive Brexit on the country would disgrace the democracy. The “Let Us Be Heard” rally was the latest in a series being organised across Britain as part of a long hot summer of protest, against the imposition […]

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 […]

Right tools for the job? MICHAEL WHITE on the week the inmates took over Number 10 with a vengeance… literally. Britain’s International Trade Secretary Liz Truss, Britain’s Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock, Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid, Britain’s Work and Pensions Secretary […]

A Labour MP has accused the founder of the Brexit Party of ‘stoking racism and anti-immigrant propaganda’ after a tweet claimed NHS operations were being sold in Pakistan. Catherine Blaiklock’s tweet about Slough General still appears on Twitter. Photograph: Twitter. – Credit: Archant Catherine Blaiklock tweeted that “major operations” were being sold in Pakistan to […]

Turkey Twizzlers could be back on the menu in schools in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Bernard Matthews Turkey Twizzlers. Photograph: Angela Sharpe/Archant. – Credit: Archant � 2005 According to new advice to schools from the government, seen by the Telegraph, cooks would have to “to adapt menus to allow for product substitution” if […]

The new television series Fosse/Verdon gets to the dark heart of complex and controversial film director Bob Fosse, a man drawn to the seamy, seedy side of showbusiness. RICHARD LUCK reports. American dancer and choreographer Bob Fosse (1927 – 1987) works out routines alone at the Broadway Arts Studio (1755 Broadway at 55th Street), New […]

A new exhibition focusing on Pompeii’s eating and drinking habits provides a powerful, often poignant, portrait of a dynamic city frozen in time. Richard Holledge reports. pompeii – Credit: Archant Cheers. Or salus as the drinkers in the taverna would have said as they quaffed another mug of wine or two. Why not? An autumn […]

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 […]

There has been so much information and misinformation about Brexit that it is difficult to separate fact from fiction. Campaigners from the Ethnic Minorities for a People’s Vote group have put together a list of the most common questions and statements that we have received in order to provide some clarification on Brexit, supported by […]

When Do The Right Thing was released it was considered an incendiary polemic for racially-charged times. Thirty years on, JAMES OLIVER finds it has lost none of its power. Spike Lee and Danny Aiello in Do the Right Thing (1989) – Credit: Archant It gets hot in New York city and as temperatures rise, tempers […]

A musician created a podcast to trace his family’s European roots in the wake of the Brexit vote. Andrew Evans created his podcast Unbordered to trace his grandfather’s life from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Brookmans Park. Picture: Andrew Evans – Credit: Archant Andrew Evans, who is 37 and from Hertfordshire, started delving into his grandfather’s […]

Our Future Our Choice’s DOIRE FINN thinks the future looks bleak for Northern Ireland if Boris Johnson presses ahead with his no-deal Brexit plans. But, as she explains, there is still time to change course to save the Good Friday Agreement. Boris Johnson today has finally come to Northern Ireland. Or I should say last […]