Politics

He has been kicked out of the White House, but Donald Trump is now trying to create a rival presidency – an independent powerbase that is tearing at the fabric of US society, says BONNIE GREER. Like the ham actor who refuses to leave the stage, Donald Trump left the White House in the full bloom […]

The unravelling of the deal over Northern Ireland exposes an unresolved issue at the heart of Brexit that is no closer to being resolved now than it was four years ago. STEVE RICHARDS reports.  What is the future for Northern Ireland in the context of Brexit? If the question were posed in an A-level examination the British […]

A route to rejoining the EU is possible, says reader Mark Sullivan. Judging from your readers’ letters, they are being too pessimistic on our rejoining the EU. Just because you can’t see the immediate pathway unfolding, doesn’t reduce the inevitability of market forces which resolutely point to this conclusion. How many commentators for example predicted […]

Readers analyse Brexit’s progress one month on and question whether it was worth it. As Mitch Benn humorously points out, in the face of incontrovertible evidence that Brexit is deeply damaging Britain, Remainers and Leavers must now be asking themselves what was the point of it all. Take the Brexit mantra ‘Taking back control’. It’s actually […]

Readers have their say on the EU vaccines crisis – and what it all means for the bloc. I think Paul Knott with his column was particularly prescient in his views about this ongoing debacle. As readers of this great paper are committed Remainers, it is really hard to reconcile the EU’s recent actions about […]

The SNP should not resist the prime minister’s visits to Scotland. Surely Nicola Sturgeon should have welcomed Boris Johnson’s visit to her patch? It’s difficult to think of anything more likely to further bolster support for independence and alienate more Scots. Maybe this is his first shot, and he’ll be back for a booster in […]

The prime minister of the Netherlands took responsibility for his government’s mistakes. Boris Johnson says he takes full responsibility for our 100,000 Covid deaths. Robert Jenrick says he’s proud of the many things the government has achieved in response to the pandemic. Really? Let’s just list a few of the arrant failures: to heed the […]

Without Scotland and Northern Ireland, England and Wales will need its own campaign to rejoin the EU. There us a simple requirement for a new political party with one objective: for England and Wales to rejoin the EU. (Scotland is going to do under its own steam, Northern Ireland has not left.) This is urgent […]

Readers are sceptical momentum behind Rejoin will come before the 2030s. I have just finished reading the excellent Brexitland by Maria Sobolewska and Robert Ford (recommended in TNE some weeks ago). It provides an analysis, often of survey information over decades, of why the UK divided, and continues to divide, into two camps over Brexit. […]

Readers have their say on how to fix Britain after Brexit. I think Ian Dunt’s list has some excellent ideas  (“15 ways to fix Britain”). However, I take exception to the idea that the only issue with British ‘citizenship’ is its prohibitive cost for new applicants. The fact is, that having now ceased to be […]

The theatrical resignation of the PM’s chief adviser takes ALASTAIR CAMPBELL back to a piece of advice given to him by Princess Diana in the 1990s. Let’s start with a couple of people who are good at their job, and then move on to the government. Emma Corrin is an actress. Peter Morgan is a writer, […]

TIM WALKER’s weekly diary reports on a revamp for Rishi Sunak’s Downing Street pad, and Jennifer Arcuri’s views on the Dominic Cummings affair. With a billionaire father-in-law in N. R. Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of the information technology conglomerate Infosys, Rishi Sunak is clearly not a man used to slumming it. Still, the money that appears to have […]

Two-thirds of people in the UK want the government to request an extension to the Brexit transition period in order to focus on the coronavirus outbreak, according to a new opinion poll. There was agreement that an extension to the transition period should be requested across all age groups, social grades and UK regions, as […]

Those caught up in the momentous events of the fall of the Berlin Wall recall its demise 35 years later

Joan Bakewell says Stanley Johnson, like Boris, is unprincipled and he’s not dared to show his face at her book club. Brexit convert Jo Johnson is, meanwhile, trousering £4,167 a month from Switzerland. Joan Bakewell attending the Virgin Media BAFTA TV awards, held at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Picture: Matt Crossick/PA Wire – […]

Drop Project Fear and embrace a joyful, demanding, confident message about EU membership, say New European readers – that’s how we’ll reboot Remain and fight Brexit. At the top of the letters page in TNE #152 was a red bus with a doom-laden message (“UK regions face losing £8.4 billion …”). Do you really think […]

‘If TIG should call by-elections so should the MPs in the ERG or linked to Momentum’ Labour and Tory representatives say MPs in the Independent Group (TIG) should call by-elections in their seats as they were originally elected on another party’s manifesto. If this is the case, why is it that MPs such as those […]

Laudable as they seem, attempts to tackle terrorism with science risk going horribly wrong

Readers welcome the scrapping of charges for EU citizens and have thoughts on ideas for Theresa May’s Plan B. The announcement of the scrapping of the charge for application for settled status of EU citizens is to be welcomed. The government should go one step further and grant to these same citizens the right to […]

As the vote on Theresa May’s Plan A replica approaches, with the Irish backstop still the critical obstacle, many will find it inexplicable that the party propping her up, the Democratic Unionists, are virtually the sole representative voice in Westminster for Northern Ireland where 56% voted Remain in 2016. Meanwhile the party representing the majority […]

Readers of The New European give their verdict on Channel 4’s Brexit film. Forgive me if I don’t join the chorus of approval for Brexit: The Uncivil War. As well as lying about the £350 million and Turkey, Vote Leave broke electoral rules and have been referred to the police by the Electoral Commission. They […]

A People’s Vote – or a second referendum – is the opportunity to give Britons that second chance to stop and think, writes BOB HALE. How many times have we heard someone say ‘in hindsight I would not have said that or in hindsight not done this’? Those of us supporting a People’s Vote are […]

Why are our institutions and public servants being stopped from doing their jobs, asks a New European reader. The Met Police are stalling on an investigation of the Leave campaigns which broke electoral law because it is too ‘politically sensitive’. The head of HM Revenue and Customs has received death threats after setting out the […]

Anti-Western philosopher Aleksandr Dugin is said to hold sway over Vladimir Putin. But it is not just the Russian president who is in thrall to him

I wrote to my MEP Nigel Farage requesting a financial assessment of the benefits of Brexit. I was expecting a mathematical answer but was astonished to receive a reply blaming those bloody Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle: ‘May I suggest some general reading for you: Hobbes, Locke, Von Mises, Hayek, Fukuyama. The EU is based […]

I voted out in the referendum, but rapidly recovered my senses when Brexit fell prey to the far-right agenda. This stairway to heaven has become a dark passage inhabited by the dark art of data manipulation, and questions about the people behind anti-EU backers. To me it is now crystal clear that the whole Brexit […]

I noted with interest Tory trade secretary, Liam Fox, warning that a no-deal Brexit was now more likely than the UK getting an agreement with the EU. Quite bizarrely, this appears to be the same Liam Fox who little more than a year ago said that a post-Brexit free trade with the EU should be […]

In summer 2016 my wife sent to our MP a detailed response about the conduct of the referendum, outlining all our now too-familiar concerns. In summer 2016 my wife sent to our MP a detailed response about the conduct of the referendum, outlining all our now too-familiar concerns. She received an acknowledgement that her letter […]

The £39billion we have committed to pay to the EU upon our exit is NOT a gratuity or a divorce payment. It represents a legal liability. It represents historic infrastructure commitments and liabilities entered into by our nation that are to be completed by 2030. It represents the remaining 21 months of the seven-year budget […]

It would seem that one of the scapegoats being prepared for when Brexit fails are Remainers who refuse to ‘get behind Brexit’. How one is supposed to support a vacuum is beyond me. Brexit is by definition a negative, dismantling process; there is nothing there of substance to support, even if one wanted to. It’s […]

With her Chequers agreement Theresa May is not trying to dilute Brexit: she is positively trying to deliver it. It would help her cause mightily if she communicated more bluntly to the country that a Boris Brexit, of having your cake and eating it, was and is undeliverable whoever is running the country. People need […]

It was reported this month that 53% of the UK population do not identify as religious. This is what is known in Whitehall as a landslide. This is a tremendous victory for non-religious people. It’s significant and symbolic. To ignore it invites unrest and division. We must obey the will of the people. On Monday […]