News and Opinion

MPs may not get to vote on the terms of the UK’s departure from the EU until it has already left, Brexit secretary David Davis warned today. He told the House of Commons’ Brexit Select Committee that the negotiations could drag on to the “59th minute of the 11th hour” and would be “very exciting […]

The Conservative MP who wrote to universities asking for the names of lecturers teaching courses on Brexit and the content of their lessons was doing research for a book, a minister has claimed. Chris Heaton-Harris, a government whip and member of the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Conservative MPs, wrote to vice-chancellors earlier this month […]

Unnoticed by most of the population, the UK has developed a cruel and unjust immigration system, which is ensnaring growing numbers of Europeans. CELIA CLARKE on a scheme which should shame us all It was an email from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) office in Vilnius that confirmed what our legal advisers had been […]

An influential committee of MPs has written to Facebook asking for any evidence it had of Russia using it to meddle in the Brexit referendum. Members of the House of Commons’ Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee have called on the social media giant to hand over evidence of paid-for activity by accounts linked to […]

Come the motoring revolution, the UK will need as little as 5% of the number of cars currently on the road, calculate MARCUS MAYERS and DAVID BAMFORD. The days of car ownership are numbered The traditional model for car ownership is bust. The gleaming steed on your drive may be a powerful status symbol, but […]

A Conservative MP and leading Brexiteer has written to universities across the UK asking for the names of lecturers teaching courses on Brexit and the content of their lessons. Chris Heaton-Harris, a government whip and member of the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Conservative MPs, wrote to vice-chancellors earlier this month asking for the names […]

The outcome of the Brexit negotiations are “up to the UK”, European Council president Donald Tusk said today. In an update to the European Parliament following last week’s EU summit he said the UK would be responsible for whether there would be a “good deal, no deal or no Brexit”. The former Polish prime minister […]

Former – and perhaps future – No. 11 occupants are using uncertainty over Hammond to push their own agenda, says MICHAEL WHITE Under crushing pressure from many sides Philip Hammond made two mistakes in recent days, three if you include dining with George (‘dead woman walking’) Osborne in a public restaurant. In a Sky interview […]

It’s the living, not the dead who should decide this country’s future, says Have I Got News For You writer NATHANIEL TAPLEY The Walking Dead is back on this week. A country in the grip of the undead, whose mindless consumption has caused the end of civilisation as we know it and thrown the world […]

Jeremy Corbyn has called the Prime Minister’s Brexit update ‘Groundhog Day’ and warned her biggest battle is with the ‘warring’ Tory factions rather than the EU. The Labour leader said the Prime Minister is ‘too weak’ to stop the infighting which is increasing the prospect of ‘crashing out’ with no deal. Corbyn’s criticism came as […]

Few footballing powers have fallen as far as the Dutch. NEIL FREDRIK JENSEN asks if there is any way out of the downward spiral For all the pessimism surrounding English football and the gaping void that exists between its current state and its golden era of global domination in 1966, there are some positives. The […]

The killing of an investigative journalist reveals another side to Malta, says BRAD BLITZ. But her investigations spread beyond the island’s shores – and so do implications of her murder The final words written on her blog by Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia this week were heartbreakingly prophetic. ‘There are crooks everywhere you look now,’ […]

The government is desperate to win back support among the young. It could do worse than start by focusing on schools, says FREDDIE WHITTAKER, where Brexit is adding to already acute problems The Conservative Party is on a mission. A mission to persuade the young people of Britain that they should back them, and not […]

US editor PAUL CONNEW on what the Weinstein revelations could mean for Donald Trump’s beleaguered administration One voice has been deafeningly silent in the global war of words surrounding disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Step forward, Donald Trump. It’s a topic on which the normally hyper-active presidential Twitter fingers have been curiously paralysed. The legitimate […]

Our editor-at-large on his new party piece: the speech the PM should have made to her party conference Whether talking to a business, a charity, a conference, school or college, I involve the audience in a show of hands exercise, which I will now ask you all to join. I am heading well into the […]

The ‘missing billions’ are a red herring, says ANGELA JAMESON. There are bigger things to worry about My friend is miserable. We are trying to arrange dinner at a venue that can be accessed from all parts of the city. Our favourite gastro pub, it turns out, has shut down because of difficulties trading and […]

The Leave trajectory has run into the sand, says JANE MERRICK. Now it is not just a ‘no deal’ that is on the cards, it’s a ‘no Brexit’ The morning after the referendum, after the initial shock of the result had subsided, the mood of Leave campaigners could not have been more confident or optimistic. […]

The comedian, musician and writer on the disgraced Hollywood mogul Hmm. Kind of nervous about bringing up The Whole Harvey Weinstein thing as it strikes me as a soundbite minefield; however carefully I measure these 1,000 or so words there’s bound to be at least one sentence I come out with which, if angrily brandished […]

Theresa May’s refusal to tell a radio phone-in show how she would vote in a new Brexit referendum was a new low for the Maybot. Her interrogator IAIN DALE recalls the moment he put the question to her, and his surprise at her failure to answer it ‘I know how I would vote in a […]

RICHARD PORRITT on the week’s big talking points The chlorinated chickens have come home to roost for the Brexiteers this week. First lobby group TheCityUK says Britain stands to lose as much as £10bn in lost investments if a transitional deal is not worked out. Then the Resolution Foundation warned millions of families face shelling […]

STEVE ANGLESEY rounds up the losers and losers (because there are no winners) of another crazy seven days on Planet Brexit 10 Gerard Batten ‘English is not taught in our schools and hasn’t been for decades,’ claimed the UKIP MEP on Twitter, surprising hundreds of English teachers across the nation and enraging thousands of pupils […]

Brexit, and a careless attitude towards British influence in NATO, will consign the country to the margins and weaken the cornerstone of our defence, argues GEORGE ROBERTSON, the former NATO Secretary General The government claims that NATO will remain the cornerstone of Britain’s defence and that fact will not be affected by Brexit. As with […]

Why ‘no deal’ doesn’t work as a negotiating tactic, says JONATHAN POWELL – the man who helped negotiate peace in Northern Ireland At the beginning of the negotiations more than a year ago the Brexiteers breezily assured us a negotiated deal with the EU would be a piece of cake. It was in the Europeans’ […]

Our culture correspondent VIV GROSKOP profiles the greek director – described variously as part of film’s ‘Weird Wave’ and the cinematic answer to Kafka – who Hollywood is taking to heart Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos is the new darling of Hollywood. His latest film, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, stars Colin Farrell, an actor […]

New Ukip leader Henry Bolton named the party’s new ‘shadow cabinet’ today – and what a bunch they are Long-serving (two weeks, five days) Ukip leader Henry Bolton today unveiled his new ‘shadow cabinet’ – inviting mockery for a party with zero MPs and 1.8% of the vote. But that didn’t stop the New European […]

It might seem quixotic, at a time when Spain looks like it is falling apart, but could the country’s future lie in a union with neighbour Portugal? DAVID BARKER investigates ‘Iberism’ As events in Catalonia continue to expose Spain’s core fragility and the Iberian peninsula’s vulnerability to splintering into several smaller states, it is a […]

Catalonians against self-rule came out in their thousands the weekend before last. They, the hitherto unseen and unheard, proved the region was divided. As are we on Brexit and Scotland on independence from the UK. Such fundamental disagreements, counterintuitively, are good for democracy and the world. It’s oh so easy to get carried away by […]

Has history been fair to the Bee Gees? Long accused of cultural theft, arrogance and – worst of all – naffness, they risk being remembered as a pastiche. But behind the band’s baggage SOPHIA DEBOICK discovers a far more complex legacy When Barry Gibb donned a gold lamé jacket thrown on stage at the conclusion […]

ALEXANDRA HADDOW on the Nordic trendsetters who have style sussed A couple of weeks ago when I needed a new pair of jeans and asked around as to who is doing the best denim, the answer was unanimous – Weekday. The Swedish brand has just opened a shop in central London, I bought a pair. […]

A second referendum that reverses Brexit would have a “positive” and “significant” impact on the UK economy, which is on track to be crippled by its EU divorce, an influential think tank claimed today. The latest UK economic survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) projects economic growth of just 1% next […]

The question, in a quiet voice, came from a woman in the audience at the Henley Festival’s Brexit debate, in a quiet voice: ‘So what do I tell my children now? They planned to live and work for a time in Europe. What now?’ The question was aimed at Douglas Carswell: ‘What now?’ Carswell, a […]

Making money is no longer enough for firms, say ANGELA JAMESON Is it possible for businesses to do well and do good? Over the years I’ve discussed ethical sourcing and child labour over a five-star dinner in Mayfair, with a chief executive who has racked up 5,000 air miles to impart his wisdom to British […]