News and Opinion

People in Northern Ireland want the UK to stay in the customs union and single market, an in-depth analysis of public attitudes to Brexit has shown. Researchers from Queen’s University Belfast found that there was “substantial and intense opposition” in Northern Ireland to possible north-south border checks between Northern Ireland and the Republic. One in […]

George Walden reviews recent books on Brexit and finds himself asking who can truly consider themselves patriots. Feelings about the European Union tend to be personal, and in the early years mine were positive. When the UK joined the Common Market in 1972 I was Soviet desk officer in the Foreign Office, working on the […]

When she suffers a break-in, Emma Jones is left with no alternative but to turn DIY detective. As needs must, I’ve come up with my own plan to help Sadiq Khan improve the clear-up rate for crimes in the capital, so the mayor can concentrate on more pressing matters, like tackling obesity. My solution is […]

I’ve just had ten days in France and North Italy. As I was wearing my EU/UK badge, I got Brexit chat – three types. My summaries may be useful to readers who discuss more vigorously than this octogenarian. (1) Leavers in the group I travelled with were polite but firm: ‘Bureaucratic gravy train’; ‘Under the […]

Last Friday on the Daily Politics I watched a rather smug Peter Bone and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown discussing the mental stresses caused by the Brexit process on Remainers. The debate was good-natured and none the worse for that. Bone clearly feels the war is won and he can afford to be comfortable with his vision of […]

Britain’s departure from the EU has sparked enough anger at home. But, as Alastair Campbell writes, Brexit is giving our foreign friends sleepless nights as well. RIGA: It says something about my old hyper-stressed, too-much-flying life that I cannot remember if I have ever been to Latvia before. I have a vague memory of having […]

By ignoring his members, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour has become a party for the few, not the many, argues student activist Rosie McKenna I joined the Labour party in the summer of 2015, shortly after Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour’s leader. Like many of my generation, I was enthused by his authenticity, values and left-wing principles. […]

TIM WALKER gives four stars to 3Women at London’s Trafalgar Studios 2 3Women Trafalgar Studios 2, London, until June 9 **** (Four stars) The playwright Alan Bennett once noted that every family has a secret – and the secret is it isn’t like any other family. Katy Brand’s new comedy drama 3 Women certainly doesn’t […]

I have just done Kay Burley and Jacob Rees-Mogg a favour: earlier this month, at the multi-millionaire’s imposing country house, the pair had an cosy, giggly 25-minute interview whose obvious intention was to depict Jacob as ‘just like the rest of us, really’. An absurd concept, but a real gift for him. So I have […]

Mandrake discusses the deliberate disappearance of the former Prime Minister as the public debate around Brexit sours. Anxious about his safety as public anger about Brexit grows, David Cameron – who decided to hold the EU referendum – has more or less gone into hiding. ‘He sees this as a difficult year and has battened […]

STEVE ANGLESEY picks the losers and the losers – because there are no winners – from another week on Planet Brexit STRIPPER ‘KIPPERS A plotline worthy of EastEnders in the East Anglian resort of Great Yarmouth, where the sole remaining UKIP councillor has defected after claiming the party’s home affairs spokesman said his partner looked […]

With Brexit negotiations due to come to a close this year, Michael White suggests that its time for the characters to step aside and the real politicians to step up Surely not when the tawdry name of Silvio Berlusconi is back on Italian front pages as a deal-maker – or breaker – for the eurozone’s […]

At a time when Labour is putting so much emphasis on becoming a movement-led party it is conspicuous that Brexit is left out, says JASMIN BECKETT Labour’s direction on Brexit is fraught. As former foreign secretary David Miliband described it this week, the policy runs the risk of our party becoming a ‘midwife to Brexit’. […]

Steve Bannon is back and has the ear of Trump – but in a more back-room role than ever before. You won’t see him back inside a West Wing office. You probably won’t see him fist-pumping the air alongside president at a rally of the faithful. But make no mistake – Steve Bannon is back, […]

Join the team as they delve into another bonkers week in Brexit Britain. Richard Porritt, Steve Anglesey and Geri Scott are joined by guest co-host Neil Perry as they chat about the promised White Paper, the continuing row over the customs union and David Miliband’s return to British politics. Also Geri takes an in-depth look […]

The royal wedding is supposed to be a moment of modernity and progress for the Uk. But that is not the current mood of the nation, says Jane Merrick. Whatever you think about the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle this weekend, there is no denying what the royal family want it to be: […]

Comedian, musician and writer Mitch Benn discusses the similarities between Avenger’s character Thanos, and a certain MP. I don’t know what your favourite thing is about this newspaper. Perhaps it’s the publication’s mere existence, a printed voice of sanity in the maelstrom of blimpish Brexit lunacy which otherwise dominates the newsstands. Perhaps it’s the cast […]

Let’s cast our minds forward. Parliament has ruled out the ‘no-deal Brexit’ and we’ve had a People’s Vote on Mrs May’s final Brexit deal. She lost: the people support the status quo. Then what happens? Well, the next morning, Mrs May is still PM and she says: ‘I delivered on my promise to get the […]

Test yourself on the continent’s films with our great quiz Test yourself on Europe’s films with our fiendish quiz. Caution – it’s harder to solve than Brexit…

Meghan Markle will be joining the last of the silent movie stars; the Royals. But for the American actress, this is her greatest role yet. The Royal Family are the last, great silent movie stars. Because if there is anything that is ‘the will of the people’, it is the Royal Family. We, the people, […]

It will be an encounter between two of the world’s most unpredictable leaders. But former diplomat Paul Knott has some idea of what we might expect​ when Donald Trump meets Kim Jong-un It is possible Donald Trump’s repeated threats to launch a military attack against North Korea are what jolted Kim Jong-un into the talks […]

Racist, sexist, ageist or just funny? Zoe Williams on the insult du jour The controversy over the insult ‘gammon’ has nothing to do with what it means: everyone knows what it means. Men the colour of ham, who hold a variety of nostalgic, socially conservative views, often a bit brutishly expressed. Their natural habitat is […]

Rachel Johnson reprises her fortnightly column to pay tribute to Tessa Jowell and venerated French publisher Bernard de Fallois. I checked into the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras, very hungover, and made for Pret before boarding the train to Paris. I ‘grabbed’ a flat white and then found a table. Someone had left a plastic […]

Who is on Question Time tonight and where do they stand on Brexit? Here’s your guide… The BBC’s flagship current affairs programme tonight comes from St Peter’s church in Notting Hill, home of artists, derivative romcoms and purged Cameroons (remember them?). But who’s on the panel – and where do they stand on Brexit? Here’s […]

Tory hardliner Peter Bone has called on the government to make June 23 a bank holiday called “Independence Day”. Commons leader and brief Conservative leadership hopeful Andrea Leadsom said she was “personally very sympathetic” to the idea. It comes despite the government last year rubbishing Labour plans to introduce more bank holidays – which are […]

Theresa May has insisted the UK will leave the EU customs union amid speculation the departure could be delayed for years until a replacement system is agreed. The Cabinet remains divided over a solution to the issue and neither of the two proposed models being considered by ministers is acceptable to Brussels. The Brexit “war […]

With Trump backing out of the Iran nuclear deal this month, James Ball questions whether the EU alone has the power to keep the policy together. Foreign policy has always been a difficult and contentious policy area for the European Union – and always a point of friction with the UK, where even before the […]

The debate continues around this political cartoon. The Sajid Javid cartoon we printed in The New European last week. Image: The New European. – Credit: Archant Why I laughed at Neil Kerber’s cartoon had nothing to do with racism. It was because, although the Windrush issue, thanks to the Guardian, had been public knowledge for […]

Last year was a record one for the UK’s tech firms. But there may be trouble ahead. By ANGELA JAMESON ​ Two years ago there was no sector more vocal in its opposition to Brexit than the UK’s tech community. In the run-up to the referendum the industry’s leading lights argued that leaving the EU […]

Alastair Campbell discusses how the government is dismantling Tess Jowell’s finest political achievement. I loved Tessa Jowell to bits. So did my partner Fiona and our three children. For them, memories of Tessa are as much about Halloween and holidays, birthdays and barbecues, as about the hard grind of politics that she did so well. […]

Officials in the UK and US administrations directly involved with trade negotiations are “sceptical” that a deal of any significance between the two countries can be forged after Brexit, according to a report. The report by Harvard University academics, including former shadow chancellor Ed Balls, warns that the kind of free trade agreement (FTA) likely […]

Benedict Cumberbatch will star as Vote Leave’s leading strategist in a Channel 4 drama about the data-driven political campaign for Brexit. The political thriller will be set during the EU referendum. The one-off drama will explore the “myriad tactics employed to swing one of the most surprising referendum results in living memory”. Doctor Strange star […]