News and Opinion

The government says it is confident peers will be “constructive” over key Brexit legislation as a marathon two-day debate began. Lords leader Baroness Evans of Bowes Park said she did not share concerns that peers would ignore the referendum or use the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill to frustrate the Brexit process. She added she expected […]

Tunisia provided the spark for revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East. As PAUL KNOTT reports, tensions are rising once again. And the West is among those to blame. Tunisia is a small, mostly quiet and often ignored corner of the Middle East and North Africa. It burst into the international limelight in 2011, […]

Britain will have to obey the EU rulebook in full during a transition period after Brexit while having no voice in decision-making bodies, under proposals agreed by the remaining 27 member states. In a brief meeting in Brussels, the EU27 gave their approval to new guidelines for chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, ahead of talks […]

PAUL CONNEW takes a look at the unique circumstances surrounding the US government shutdown. It wasn’t so much ‘America First’ as a double first for America. The first time that a US president’s first inaugural anniversary was commemorated by a government shutdown triggered by a congressional stalemate over the funding to keep it fully functioning. […]

MICHAEL WHITE on whether a tapestry is all we get from Le President. Cyber warfare and cuts to armed forces leave UK vulnerable to Russian attack. Illustration: Gary Barker. – Credit: Archant When Emmanuel Macron made his grandiose offer to lend Britain the Bayeaux Tapestry during his Sandhurst summit with Theresa May, one wag suggested […]

Sexism in the media is deep-seated and progress on the issue is glacial, says LIZ GERARD. Sexism is sewn into the fabric of the media, just as it is in politics, big business, banking, the police and the Forces. Which is not to say that these sectors mean or want it to be. Most men […]

Jeremy Corbyn disappointed Labour members and supporters today as he explicitly ruled out supporting a second EU referendum. A week after a poll showed 51% of Labour’s potential pool of support backs a second referendum on the final Brexit deal, against 23% who oppose the idea, the leader told the BBC’s Andrew Marr that the […]

This week, The New European revives Tim Walker’s Mandrake diary column – three years after the much-feared political diary was shut down by the Daily Telegraph. Cameron takes on the paper tigers Although it’s hard to feel enthusiasm for David Cameron’s forthcoming memoirs – it’ll be like hearing from an ex after a messy break-up […]

The New European’s Editor-at-Large, Alstair Campbell, on the reasons why French president Emmanuel Macron is the real heir to Tony Blair. France’s President Emmanuel Macron. Photo: Eric Vandeville/ABACA. – Credit: ABACA/PA Images To Paris, to speak at a conference on geopolitics, en français bien sur, where I was asked to answer this simple question: ‘The […]

Finland is trialling a revolutionary system of giving people a basic income, regardless of whether they are in work or not. WikiTRIBUNE’s LYDIA MORRISH visits the country to see how the experiment is working. Every month, 560 euros (£495) appears in Marja-Liisa Lähteinen’s bank account, courtesy of the Finnish Social Insurance Institution. Lähteinen, 32, who […]

We need to confront the Angry White Man (AWM) emergency before it is too late, says BONNIE GREER. The following is one of the variety of reasons that Toby Young used to explain the campaign directed against him over his appointment to a new government quango: ‘I’m a middle-aged white male so don’t tick any […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has been ambushed with his own words and forced out of the second referendum closet, says ANDREW ADONIS. This is the week that Mogg was Mogged and the path to a referendum on Theresa May’s Brexit deal became clear. Earlier this month the de facto Prime Minister, Nigel Farage, came out for such […]

Failure by Britain and the EU to reach agreement on continuing access to financial markets after Brexit risks creating instability and market fragmentation, a parliamentary committee has warned. The Lords EU Financial Affairs sub-committee said it was in the interests of both sides to reach a deal which allowed the continued free flow of financial […]

James Ball explains why when it comes to Brexit we are all just passengers in the back seat. Imagine, if you will, the United Kingdom as a car on a road. Millions of us are strapped in the back with no real say in where things are going at the moment – except for a […]

Ministers’ failure to address the implications of withdrawal from Euratom could have dangerous consequences, warns MIKE GALSWORTHY. As the clock ticks down to March 29, 2019, more and more European frameworks of collaboration look to be slipping off the Brexit plate. The concept of a ‘no deal’ departure from the EU is dangerous because it […]

Talk of a second referendum has divided pro-EU support in the UK. DENIS MACSHANE asks how it has gone down in Europe itself. Most European countries avoid taking big constitutional decisions by plebiscite. But they are used on the continent, most notably in Switzerland. In February 2014, the Swiss voted in a referendum to ban […]

A London council has become the first in the country to formally call on the government to halt plans for a Hard Brexit and give the British people a second EU vote. Labour-run Hammersmith & Fulham Council has passed a motion asking the government to ‘abandon any plans for a Hard Brexit and give the […]

Lib Dem MP Tom Brake has seen the government’s ‘top secret’ analysis of the impact of Brexit. He reports back on what he found In my 20 years as an MP, I cannot recall any government or parliament embarking on a course of action with such a profound bearing on our economy, security, diplomacy and stature […]

Mitch Benn uses his most tortuous analogy yet to explain why he is not rejoicing over UKIP’s downfall. As I lurch ever further into sullen middle age (notched up another birthday this week; growing old sucks, but let’s face it, it beats the alternative) I find myself taking refuge in nostalgia. BBC Four is rather […]

Steve Anglesey picks out the losers and losers from another week on Planet Brexit – where there are no winners. Rosetta Tickner This Brexiteer Twitter user was outraged by the news that McVitie’s are cutting the number of Digestives in a pack by seven after the falling pound made ingredients more expensive. ‘Aldi & Lidl […]

Former Labour Foreign Secretary DAVID MILIBAND intervenes on Brexit, blasting both Labour and the Tories and calling on Jeremy Corbyn to consider committing to giving voters the final say It is strange to watch the unfolding trauma of Brexit from abroad. As the European economy gathers pace, as America abdicates global responsibility, as the UK […]

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown talks the attempts to silence her and backlash from Brexiters even after the hypocrisy of the Jo Marney scandal. Henry Bolton OBE leader of Ukip is 54, is a married man and father of young children. Jo Marney, his fair young mistress, sent nakedly racist texts about Meghan Markle to a male friend. […]

Remainers have seized on comments made by Brexit secretary David Davis today in which he said he had changed his mind on Customs Union membership – saying the British public could change their mind too. Giving evidence before the Commons Brexit Select Committee today, Mr Davis shrugged off previous comments he had made backing the […]

If there was a second referendum, how could we win it? Mike Hind suggests ten ways. In October 2016 The New European published my ‘How to win the next referendum 10-point plan’. It canvassed expert opinion on how to get it right if there were ever to be a next time. Suddenly, thanks to Nigel […]

The prospect of a soft Brexit may seem to offer some solace to Remainers. But, says former government trade advisor Jim Fanshawe, it is still a path beset with pitfalls. The Irish border deal hammered out to get the Brexit negotiations through the first phase has inadvertently edged Britain towards a softer deal than was […]

The government is heading for a “hotch-potch” Brexit deal amounting to “leaving without leaving” which will not be acceptable to voters, former prime minister Tony Blair has said. He suggested that public opinion may shift far enough to force a second referendum when voters were confronted with the reality that the deal they favoured was […]

Tim Farron has committed another U-turn over whether he believes gay sex to be a sin. And Liberal Democrat activist and LGBT right campaigner Mathew Hulbert thinks it might be the end of his political career. Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa. Mea Culpa. Sometimes, in political commentary as in politics and indeed life itself, when you […]

Paul Connew looks at Donald Trump’s refusal to be interviewed by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller and the storm it could cause. U.S. President Donald Trump is creating a storm for himself. Picture: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images – Credit: Getty Images Let’s adopt the lexicon of the most profane POTUS ever to disgrace the White House. A […]

Why are we so cynical about the foreign secretary’s motives, asks STEVE ANGLESEY? Probably for two reasons: everything he’s said and everything he’s done News that Boris Johnson is to demand in Cabinet a £100m-a-week ‘Brexit dividend’ for the NHS has been greeted with a mixed reception. In some quarters there’s disbelief. In others derision. […]

New laws in Germany are causing anguished debate on the issue of free speech, as well as the country’s dark history. Gavin Fearnley reports. Boris Becker. Picture: PA – Credit: PA Archive/PA Images When he was hanged, Barthel Schink was just 16 years old. His killing in 1944, carried out by fellow Germans in broad […]

Embattled Ukip leader Henry Bolton has resisted calls to quit, insisting that he was focusing on the fight for Brexit. Despite a vote of no confidence in his leadership by the party’s national executive committee (NEC) and the resignation of a series of key figures, Mr Bolton insisted he would fight on. Mr Bolton hit […]

Criticism from Catherine Deneuve and other French writers and actors of the #MeToo movement expose differing national attitudes towards feminism, says Mary Harrod. The recent publication in Le Monde of an open letter by female writers and actors in defence of men’s right to pick up women has left many people bemused. The letter, signed […]