News and Opinion

Britain will introduce strict curbs on EU migration immediately after Brexit to force all but the most highly-skilled to leave after two years, a leaked Home Office report has shown. The 82-page document. leaked to The Guardian, suggests free movement will end immediately upon leaving in March 2019, with a “more selective approach” to EU […]

Brexit negotiations were proving “tough and at times confrontational”, David Davis admitted today as he told MPs there was a yawning gap in how the two sides saw the UK’s divorce bill. “There were significant differences” and “very different legal stances” over how much the UK owed, the Brexit Secretary told MPs, leaving open the […]

The dog days of summer are traditionally a time for Fleet Street’s finest to get creative as they try to fill the lull in politics. And that has never been more so than this year, as the Brexit press see the wheels coming off their cherished project. LIZ GERARD reviews how a very silly season […]

Leading Remainer Anna Soubry and Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg are two of the most high-profile figures competing to fill Conservative seats on the Commons’ influential Brexit Select Committee. The pair are among 14 Tory MPs vying for 10 places on the committee, which is responsible for scrutinising the Government’s strategy for leaving the EU. The committee’s […]

In the first part of an exclusive serialisation of his brilliant new book, Britain’s foremost philosopher describes how we stand on the precipice of losing democracy in Britain For many centuries the idea of democracy was regarded with revulsion and fear, and not just by ruling elites who saw it as against their interests. This […]

IAN WALKER looks at the complex legacy of Germany’s first post-war chancellor, a man who helped unify Europe and rebuild West Germany but who left a nation divided not only between East and West but also between the war generation and the baby boomers who came after In April 1933 Konrad Adenauer, the former mayor […]

English has many different names across the globe. Here PETER TRUDGILL explores the origins of the names used to describe the languages of Europe Many people in this country won’t know what the word Saesneg means. It’s the name of a language. The same language also goes by the names of Pelekani, Edegeesi, and Chirungu. […]

Attempts to look on the bright side, economically, are – as ever – undermined by the same doubts and uncertainty surrounding Brexit, says Angela Jameson. A press release lands from a private equity company that wants to talk up the economy. ECI Partners, which invests in small-to-medium-sized growing firms, says that the 350 businesses it […]

Uphill struggles, of one form or another, appear to characterise many of the stories generating interest and comment in newspapers and on websites across Europe. Sisyphean tasks BELGIUM: The series of terror attacks across Europe in recent years has dealt blow after blow to community relations that have taken decades to construct, argued the writer […]

Labour’s Brexit chief has sent a stark warning to the Government saying ‘we are not giving you a blank cheque’ on how Britain leaves the European Union. Sir Keir Starmer warned Theresa May she faces a parliamentary battle in the first Commons vote on Brexit legislation if issues raised by Labour are ignored. The Shadow […]

The Government is desperately attempting to halt a rebellion which could derail the repeal bill. Theresa May has claimed rebels risk putting Jeremy Corbyn into Number 10 if they back Labour’s attempts to influence the bill – officially called the European Union Withdrawal Bill. The bill faces the first round of parliamentary scrutiny on Thursday […]

Boris Johnson has long been loathed by Remainers. Now, even the Tory grassroots are turning on him. Jane Merrick reports on the Foreign Secretary’s waning star. This summer, the United States wasn’t the only country to witness a total eclipse.. In the UK, another golden figure was blocked out – and this time it could […]

There is a rare chance of peace in Syria. But, Hamish De Bretton-Gordon writes, Brexit is getting in the way of the UK and the EU playing the role we should. A member of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. Photo: DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images – Credit: AFP/Getty Images There was a time when you turned on […]

Our culture correspondent on an author reaping the rewards of authentic language, gripping life stories and taking inspiration from a murderous poodle. Funny how times change. Once upon a time you might have known that a book was going to do well because it had good reviews in all the literary pages of all the […]

The special relationship is alive and kicking. White Anglo-American establishments are always there for each other when times get rough, like that bridge over troubled waters. The statue of 19th century politician Cecil Rhodes on the front of Oriel College, Oxford. Photo: PA – Credit: PA Archive/PA Images In 1776, the new nation declared itself […]

Steve Anglesey picks out the worst Brexiteers of the week. 10. PAUL NUTTALL The only man to win the Grand National as jockey, trainer AND horse opened an article for the Daily Telegraph with the words, ‘It has been just over two months since I stood down as leader of UKIP after the general election. […]

This week’s podcast looks at what Labour’s Leavers really think of the party’s policy shift, the songs which sum up Brexit and a scary look at Britain’s foodie future once we’ve left the EU. A review of the week’s Brexit news with host Steve Anglesey and broadcaster Neil Perry. Plus the podcast contains all the […]

Long before the internet was invented, the troll held our imaginations and encompassed our fears. Here is one tale: A poor miller, in an attempt to make himself look big, lies to the king by telling him that his rather boring daughter can spin straw into gold. The king loves the idea and shuts her […]

Japanese businesses expect ‘clarity’ over Brexit, a top diplomat said as Theresa May jetted off to the Far East. Minister for public diplomacy at the Japanese embassy Shinichi Iida said his government would prefer Britain to stay in the European Union and will be ‘paying close attention’ to negotiations. He added that Japan has a […]

En même temps… I am guessing many of you know, without resorting to Google Translate, that it means ‘at the same time’. In France, however, it has taken on a political as well as a literal significance, because of Emmanual Macron’s heavy use of the phrase during his audacious bid for the Elysée Palace. It […]

Labour’s new Brexit policy is a step in the right direction – but doesn’t go far enough, say the party’s MPs Heidi Alexander and Alison McGovern. Have you ever had that excited but exasperated feeling when your team’s so close to scoring yet can’t quite manage to get the ball in the back of the […]

As I think I’ve mentioned before, my wife Clara (who is in the process of becoming my ex-wife although we remain best of friends – a neat trick if you can pull it off and thus far we seem to be doing OK) grew up in Berlin both before and after the reunification of Germany. […]

Philosopher, February 3, 1909 – August 24, 1943 When Emmanuel Macron cited Simone Weil in a speech to the French Congress last month most people, including the official government transcriber, assumed he was referring to the feminist lawyer and government minister Simone Veil who had died a few days earlier. Instead Macron, a keen student […]

It’s our continent, but not as you know it. DAVID HURST pays a visit to one of the most unusual spots in the EU. It is Europe at its most extreme. At the height of the day, temperatures here can reach 50°C, touching more than 40°C in the shade, before falling to -5°C at night. […]

One of the ironic elements of the Brexit debacle is that we have a trio of politicians tasked with working together to make it happen, who clearly do not get along with each other. Boris Johnson (Foreign Secretary), David Davis (Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union) and Liam Fox (Secretary of State for […]

It was the year the music business finally got to grips with new technology, Tony Blair quit and Amy Winehouse’s troubles became painfully clear. SOPHIA DEBOICK looks back at a pivotal 12 months Prince gave his Planet Earth album away free. Photo: ABACA USA/PA. – Credit: ABACA USA/PA Images The first decade of the 21st […]

From Lord Beaverbrook to Charles de Gaulle, and Dylan Thomas to Aleister Crowley, Soho’s French House has long attracted an eclectic clientele. MATT BARKER asks whether this most legendary of pubs can cope with its own myth Credit: Archant We Brits have a lot to thank the French for. They’ve influenced the way we eat […]

Hardeep Singh Kohli confesses to a porcine passion and shares his own recipe for a classic Parma ham dish Gammon. Pork. Ham. For me the holiest of trinities. Each has its own application, each offers joy unbounded, each leaves me serenely satisfied and wanting only of the next nexus with the glorious meat of the […]

The wind has no respect for borders, politics or humans. Here literary correspondent CHARLIE CONNELLY tracks one author’s trek across Europe in search of gales, breezes and hurricanes The Castle of Vaduz, Liechtenstein. Photo: Albert Nieboer. – Credit: DPA/PA Images Robert FitzRoy, destined to be remembered as Charles Darwin’s captain on the Beagle rather than […]

Lucian Freud was more than just one Britain’s finest ever artists. Here ADRIAN BURNHAM explores an artist that pursued his subjects like quarry A previously unseen work by British artist Lucien Freud at Tate Britain, London. The painting, entitled ‘Self Portrait, Reflection’, is a study of Freud himself. Photo: PA. – Credit: �2002 Credit:Topham / […]

Dukla Prague were one of
football’s giants of the Eastern Bloc. But, as NEIL FREDRIK JENSEN explains, the club’s cult status abroad is in contrast with how the former state side is regarded closer to home Politicians, indie bands and football hipsters love them. Their small band of supporters in Prague are among the game’s most […]

John Nicholson casts his eye over six more comedy acts performing at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival Matt Abbott – Two Little Ducks – Underbelly – Belly Laugh ***** Performing poetry to a small audience is, I would imagine, a thankless task, but Matt did a great job regardless, throwing himself into every verse with […]