Opinion

Boris’ cheap shots are part of a pantomime – allowing him to discover who his real troops are, says BONNIE GREER. Mark Twain once said: ‘The trouble ain’t that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.’ I thought of that quote as I watched a crowd standing in awe in […]

The first signs of Labour’s erosion under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership might just be appearing, says JAMES BALL The country, the polls suggest, may finally be starting to seriously change its mind on Brexit. For the first months – and then the first year – after the UK voted to leave, polls stubbornly bounced around within […]

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 […]

There’s more than just misguided coverage behind the Today programme’s malaise, says MIC WRIGHT The Today programme — required listening for anyone who works in politics — took a beating in the latest Rajar figures. The body, which monitors UK radio listening, reported last week that the audience for Radio 4’s flagship current affairs show […]

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 […]

There is no such thing as bad attention in the world of Alex Jones, says MIC WRIGHT It’s a world of globalist conspiracies, Super Bowl half-time shows that re-enact satanic rituals, Kanye West as an emissary for ‘the bigger plan’, a bomb that turns frogs gay, and inter-dimensional demons that smell of sulphur (and just […]

I’m concerned that so far, too few Leavers seem to have changed their minds and holding a second referendum before the time is right may be counterproductive. I suspect that right now the best that could be expected would be a mirror-image of two years ago – 52/48 for Remain. The whole issue of Brexit […]

Besides the turkey, the tree and the pudding, there are two other perennials at Christmas: one is a broadcast of Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life. The movie is the supreme exemplar of the genre known as ‘Capra-corn’, the credo that there is goodness in the world and a good person will always find it. […]

It was rich for Boris to say we were dithering about Brexit, writes Anthony West. I wonder if Boris Johnson was using the ‘royal we’ during his resignation speech. Near the beginning he says ‘we have dithered’ about Brexit. This is of course exactly what our unlamented ex-foreign secretary did in 2016 (shall I, shan’t […]

Comedian MITCH BENN looks forward to how we can all spend our first summer after leaving the EU Hi! I hope you’re all enjoying your final pre-Brexit summer! Oh, were you trying not to think about that? Yeah, me too. Sorry. Well, chin up! Brexit isn’t the end of the world! Not LITERALLY, anyway. Economically […]

British holidaymakers will see their favourite trips changed forever, so make the most of it while you can, says James Ball. As MPs and schoolchildren alike finally reach their summer holidays, millions of us will be looking towards the continent for a quick summer getaway – especially given the chances for all sorts of Brexit-related […]

If espousing politics was good enough for Muhammad Ali, it’s good enough for the presenter of Match of the Day “Stay in your lane”. That was the message from Katie Perrior, Theresa May’s former communications adviser, today in response to Gary Lineker coming out in favour of a People’s Vote on a Brexit deal. In […]

Labour needs to set out a vision on Brexit that the whole country can get behind, says JOHN LEHAL Parliament may have risen for recess, but the Brexit secretary is already heading back to Brussels. This summer could well see the government’s chickens come home to roost. Far from a relaxing recess, the next few […]

Amid political stalemate a second referendum might be an idea whose time has come, writes BARNABY TOWNS With only 12% of voters backing the government’s ‘Chequers compromise’ in the latest poll, there are increasing calls for a People’s Vote, in which electors would be asked to choose either the government’s Brexit deal, assuming there is […]

Donald Trump’s visit to the UK showed Brexit is an existential question, as well as a political one, writes Bonnie Greer. The problem for the press now is in covering empty gestures. Donald Trump has reduced the presidency of the United States to a series of campaign slogans, ‘promises kept’ to his base, and grandeur. […]

There is a lot to support in Justine Greening’s idea for a three-option People’s Vote but, as Christopher Wylie so memorably put it, Brexit is a crime scene. The side which won by 4% overspent by 10%. Three senior people in the Vote Leave, Leave.EU and BeLeave campaigns have been referred to the police. There […]

We should look to the England football team at the World Cup for some life advice, says Martin Deighton. We quite rightly persist in our efforts to win football’s World Cup and no-one suggests giving up because we have not succeeded since 1966. Making changes to the structure, the rules and the nature of the […]

Piers Morgan is mistaken, we’re not jealous about his interview with Donald Trump, it’s cozying up with the president which worries us, writes Mitch Benn. OK; I’m going to do something now which, I suspect, many of you may not entirely approve of. I’m going to give Piers Morgan the benefit of the doubt. In […]

In another Deconstructed, James Ball looks at how the European Research Group is exploiting the dark arts of the US. It has become common to hear warnings that US-style politics – where a far-right fringe has captured the country and so come to dominate public life – is coming to the UK. Some say such […]

Theresa May’s spineless capitulation to the European Research Group moves us closer to the no-deal exit of Jacob Rees-Mogg’s sepia-tinted dreams. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The toxic shock of austerity led us into Brexit and arguably only the toxic shock of becoming a third-rate dumping-ground country will lead us out of it. […]

The New European must continue after Brexit is rejected to provide news about the EU neglected by our mainstream media and, also, to campaign to reform our archaic parliament and voting system. Take the processes established by our parliament pre-referendum to scrutinise EU legislation. They were subject to only minor reforms despite the various changes […]

In some ways Boris Johnson was right, we are trying to polish a turd, writes Peter Roberts. Who knows what will happen over the next days and weeks, but surely this must now be clear. 1) There’s no form of Brexit that will benefit the nation. We really are polishing poo; 2) The national interest […]

Those summer holidays are looming large in everyone’s mind. But for the prime minister and the leader of the opposition the final PMQs before recess offers one last chance to land a blow that would have the other wincing well into the holiday period. Jeremy Corbyn hit a raw nerve immediately pointing out some cabinet […]

Brexit is moving into a new and hopefully terminal phase. Aware that they have no majority in the parliamentary Conservative Party, the Brexiteers are in retreat. I expect this new era will be soundtracked by moans about how their special Brexit has been ruined and how all its golden opportunities have been lost in a […]

Boris Johnson’s use of the term ‘the dream is dying’ is revealing. Dreams always end when reality intrudes. The Brexiteers have now received their wake-up call and know that the central thesis on which their argument was based – that ‘they need us more than we need them’ and therefore that at zero cost we […]

Despite his attempts to escape the real world, Bonnie Greer says Donald Trump is in for a shock. London is set to be the backdrop this weekend to a Carnival Of Resistance, a self-styled extravaganza of protest to be staged during the first visit to the UK of the 45th president of the United States. […]

Why we don’t have to drive over the cliff like Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon. Ok, time out. Cool your boots. Easy, tiger. Whoa there. Hang fire. Take five. Hold your horses. Phrase it any damn way you want to but please, for the love of whatever it is you pray to, just STOP. ENOUGH. […]