Opinion

Boris Johnson failed to provide a coherent plan for Brexit – is it any surprise he is floundering over the lifting of the coronavirus lockdown? So we are promised a comprehensive plan from the Johnson stable setting out how and when we might eventually come out of lockdown. If memory serves me right, we were […]

TIM WALKER on a man who never lost that childlike need to please and to make people happy. I first met Donald Sinden in the mid-1980s when I showed up too early at his home in Golders Green in north London. He came to the door in his dressing gown and slippers and his hair […]

Britain’s future with Europe remains unclear, but one thing is certain, it needs to request an extension to the Brexit transition period. BARNABY TOWNS explains that unity is strength. Europe Day is celebrated by the European Union on May 9th, commemorating the 1950 Schuman Declaration, signed by France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux nations 70 […]

Unlike other Boris Johnson efforts, The Perils of the Pushy Parents is not racist or sexist – it’s just ‘rubbish’. Two earnest and connected hopes for young Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson: One, that on December 13, 2024, his dad suddenly has a lot more time on his hands with which he can spend reading to […]

Only a few months ago, the BBC was in the government’s crosshairs. Now, says MATTHEW D’ANCONA, it has a new lease of life. Dominic Cummings is believed to be the senior source who, in February, told The Sunday Times that the government would press ahead with plans to axe the BBC licence fee. Picture: Getty […]

Former Liberal Democrat MEP LUISA PORRITT writes that young people’s determination for a shared European future makes Brexit unsustainable. Luisa Porritt in the European Parliament chamber. Picture: Harry Taylor/Archant. – Credit: Archant For those living in one of the European Union’s 27 member states, today is a celebration. It marks 70 years since the Schuman […]

BONNIE GREER uses television to examine and investigate what it means to be ‘English’. David Suchet as Hercule Poirot. Picture: ITV – Credit: Archant Among the consequences of living in lockdown are the things that you suddenly see. That you suddenly know. For example, I have come to realise that I have been a Londoner […]

Coronavirus has escalated Donald Trump’s breaking down of everything that holds Amercia together, writes JAMES BALL. Can it survive another four years of this? It is impossible not to wonder, when you read about or watch a documentary on certain periods of history, whether the people of the time knew what was coming. Given how […]

While our TV news is still fairly responsible, according to MITCH BENN, our newspapers are even worse for bias and recklessness than their American counterparts. There’s a sort of numbness setting in now, isn’t there? A hollow, aching, weary resignation punctuated by periods of gnawing dread (and perhaps searing grief) when the virus’s crosshairs hover […]

At a time when the public is clapping for the NHS the government is entering post-Brexit talks with the US which could put in danger the future of our health service. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss and the US trade representative Robert Lighthizer (on screen) as they formally begin the UK-US trade talks. Photograph: Andrew […]

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed a host of global dangers, says ANDREW ADONIS. Now we need a strong, united Europe more than ever. Boris Johnsons intention to crash out of the European Union looks worse with each passing week of the coronavirus pandemic, says Andrew Adonis. Picture: PA – Credit: PA Saturday is Europe Day. […]

A watershed moment is approaching for Britain, says Francis Beckett. Alas, it looks certain to lead us the wrong way. The end of this virus emergency, whenever it comes, will be a political watershed. As Britain’s most trusted historian, professor Lord Peter Hennessy, has said: ‘Those who write the history of Britain post-1945 will divide […]

Boris Johnson idolises himself on Winston Churchill, but he becomes the latest in a string of politicians to lead the country away from the wartime leader’s vision for Europe. Once again, we are having a wondrous warm wallow in the waters of WW2 nostalgia, the sense that Britain paid the highest price, won the most […]

MITCH BENN says it will be up to those of us left standing to ensure the lessons are learned, and it will involve fighting the very powerful to make sure it happens. First of all, many thanks to those of you who sent messages of support and condolence after last week’s column; Harry’s family send […]

Having the worst coronavirus death rate in Europe would be a statistic hard to spin for Boris Johnson’s government. MICHAEL WHITE says the prime minister is already looking for scapegoats. Boris Johnson. Photo: PA / Dominic Lipinski – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images When the Daily Telegraph reported that Boris Johnson was returning to work under […]

TIM WALKER looks into the life and career of Christopher Lee, best known for his portrayal Dracula. There are certain parts – and Dracula is one of them – that require of the actor playing them some sense of being in on the joke with film-goers. Christopher Lee never saw anything funny about what was […]

While our attention is elsewhere, we are hurtling towards a catastrophic no-deal, says Caroline Voaden. She says the government must urgently rethink its Brexit strategy. Former Lib Dem leader in the European parliament Caroline Voaden. Photograph: Supplied. – Credit: Archant It’s hard to believe that something which had dominated our lives for so long – […]

Government negligence over coronavirus comes as a result of Tory preoccupation with Brexit, and we are all paying the price. Thousands of deaths in the Covid-19 pandemic is a tragic if inevitable statistic. Dozens of deaths of NHS frontline staff and care workers, however, represents negligence of stupefying dimensions. Now that a leaked Department of […]

The government is once again dragging its feet over the coronavirus – this time over face masks. I just don’t get it. Why on earth is the government not advising us all to wear face-coverings? OK, not the masks needed by hospitals and front-line workers. But scarves or home-made masks. Imagine that a face-covering gave […]

Health staff are rightly receiving praise, but don’t forget those other workers still at their posts on the frontline of the virus battle, says BONNIE GREER. This was the beginning of May, yet the weather was temperate, variable and cool enough…the city was healthy …St Giles buried two and thirty… This passage comes near the […]

JAMES BALL on how Boris Johnson needs to keep his eye on the long game to protect his political legacy. Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a daily press conference at 10 Downing Street. Picture: WPA Pool/Getty Images – Credit: Getty Images Boris Johnson is back at work, at least in part, after several weeks of […]

The Good Morning Britain host has been a force for good during the coronavirus crisis, says ANTHONY CLAVANE. Piers Morgan – Credit: Archant If Ian Hislop is short of an idea for Private Eye’s next ‘Apology’ column he should bury the hatchet with his arch-enemy Piers Morgan and feature the Good Morning Britain host. The […]

Readers are sceptical that there will be any change from the Tory government after the coronavirus outbreak. For the past few years, politics has been dominated by matters of principle and personality: the principles of Brexit (pure sovereignty versus shared sovereignty); the personalities of Johnson, Corbyn and Farage. Now, all governments, will be judged on […]

A year after the official launch of Change UK, and her own unveiling as one of its candidates, RACHEL JOHNSON looks back on the doomed party with some affection and admiration. On the day after Easter Monday, I tweeted: ‘I became a candidate for Change UK on Easter Tuesday last year and was so unsuccessful […]

BONNIE GREER on the strengths female world leaders have brought to their nations during the coronavirus pandemic. Have your say Send your letters for publication to The New European by emailing letters@theneweuropean.co.uk and pick up an edition each Thursday for more comment and analysis. Find your nearest stockist here or subscribe to a print or […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL has compiled a list of what he misses the most about normal life, from Pret to Burnley Football Club. Scottish Celtic rock band Skerryvore have topped the charts with fundraising single Everyday Heros. Alastair Campbell plays bagpipes on the track. Picture: Alan Cruickshank – Credit: Archant Easter Monday. I woke up, sat down […]

Boris Johnson’s return to work will bring more obsessing over Brexit, at a time when he should be fully focused on coronavirus. As he savoured his moment of glory after his triumph in the polls in December followed by Britain leaving the EU Treaty in January, Boris Johnson thought he had Europe at his feet […]

TIM WALKER recounts meeting Harry Andrews, an actor who never went public about his sexuality. When I arrived at the home of Harry Andrews in the Sussex countryside, I was greeted at the door by his lover of the past 30 years, who led me into the living room where the ‘tough guy’ star of […]

MITCH BENN on a death which represents far more than a statistic. I met Harry McFarlane in the late summer of 2018, when my girlfriend Leslie – Harry’s granddaughter – and I called in at her old hometown of Prestwick on our way back from that year’s Edinburgh Festival. Harry was on good form that […]

JAMES BALL on why this crisis must result in a renewal for our health service. It was, of all people, the former Conservative chancellor Nigel Lawson who noted in his memoirs that the ‘National Health Service is the closest thing the English have to a religion’. The observation was intended as a complaint, more than […]

Former Downing Street director of communications ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on how the government can improve its messaging over coronavirus. Given I’ve written thousands of words on my blog of well-intentioned advice about the government briefing operation, which seems to get worse not better, I’m not sure another ’20 ways to improve your communications strategy’ memo from […]

Readers have their say about Boris Johnson and the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. It is an observable fact that organisations and even countries rapidly take on the characteristics of whoever is leading them at the time. The UK response to the COVID-19 crisis is no exception. Bluster, half-truths, unrealistic future projections and avoidances […]