Opinion

CHARLIE CONNELLY profiles the sculptor and painter, starting on the evening that would change his outlook and output. The epiphany came one cold night in a fleapit newsreel theatre. Alberto Giacometti spent the Second World War in Geneva and had just returned to Paris in the winter of 1945 when he ducked into a cinema […]

I’m concerned for the future of Brixton Speaks, my only foray, ever, into public visual arts. I did work as a cartoonist for a few years in the mid-1980s, contributing to publications as august as the New Statesman and City Limits, but my quip about the metier once I began writing in earnest, was that […]

Britain will one day want to rejoin the EU, but will they have us back? Foreign policy expert NICK HOPKINSON outlines a possible route back to membership. Brexit is our biggest retreat from Europe since Dunkirk. We have distanced ourselves economically, and in many respects politically, from the EU as much as any European country can […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY reports on the quest for the remains of a writer likened to the Bard, and the posthumous activities of other great authors. Imagine if William Shakespeare’s remains were no longer in his grave inside Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. Imagine if they’d been lost, possibly in an act of desecration during a traumatic […]

TIM WALKER looks back at a memorable meeting with the great mime artist. Of all the people in all the world, mine artists must seem like the least promising subjects for an interview. Marcel Marceau was, however, a joy to talk to. And just to behold. It was the summer of 1990 and the scene […]

Britpop, I imagine most of you are old enough to remember, was a loosely applied umbrella tern referring to the movement of varyingly retro British guitar bands which rose to dominate the UK pop charts in the mid 1990s. I was in my mid 20s at the time – pretty much the same age as […]

Were the Angry Brigade a mere comedic English counterpoint to the doomed romantics of Germany’s Baader Meinhof gang or a far more sinister, if thankfully incompetent, force? Today anger is an emotion associated with right wing populism, of foaming keyboard warriors and the puce-faced men that are – for better or worse – often dubbed ‘gammons’. But […]

The UK’s departure from the EU not only introduced new phrases, but showed how language can be used to shape political debate. ANDREAS BUERKI reports. A number of expressions have entered everyday use since Brexit started. Terms like ‘Article 50’, ‘no deal’, ‘hard border’ may now seem just part of life but they were seldom, if ever, […]

One of the most alarming aspects of the pandemic is the sight of the mainstream right degenerating into attacks on public health policy. This week, as the virus spiralled completely out of control, they were still spewing out gibberish from the studios and newsrooms of respected British media outlets. “Lockdowns don’t work,” Talk Radio host Julia Hartley-Brewer […]

The UK’s pandemic plight might seem hopeless. But there are some measures which could help alter its course. One of the most frequent complaints levelled at newspaper columnists is that we snipe from the sidelines. Usually, it’s a bit of an unfair one: sniping from the sidelines is, in fact, what columnists are paid to […]

We lost… but we can’t just get over it. First we need to understand why we couldn’t stop Brexit. ALASTAIR CAMPBELL kicks off a crucial debate. On New Year’s Eve, I took a pill at 9pm, so as to be sure of being fast asleep two hours later, when the actual moment of departure from […]

The Government’s decision not to subscribe to the ERASMUS scheme for student exchange is desperately sad.  The scheme has benefited British young people since 1987. In the Guardian, Adam Tickell, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex,  was quoted as saying that “the Erasmus programme transformed the lives of thousands of young people”. My life was […]

Few years produced as many great films as 1946, the first year after the end of the Second World War, says BONNIE GREER. Might 2021 produce a similar post-pandemic glut of classics? 1946 is a year when most of us humans were not even alive. And of those who were, the majority experienced it as children. So our idea […]

Is it time to move on from Brexit and try to reunite the country? Readers have their say.  While I applaud the political logic and humanitarian sentiment behind Ian Dunt’s piece, I am finding it impossible to muster the love of country which he sees a key to post-Brexit recovery. Back in the distant times when […]

An analysis of European populism explores why it has established deepest roots in two former Iron Curtain states. Authoritarian populists almost doubled their share of electoral votes across Europe between 2001 and 2018 – from 11.8% to 22.3%, according to Swedish think-tank the Timbro institute. There was then a decline after, but it is too […]

A set of elections in the southern state next week will shape the future of America. ALBERT SCARDINO explains why Georgia has always been the fulcrum on which the country turns. The race to control the national government in America approaches another mile marker next week with runoff elections in Georgia for two seats in […]

PETER TRUDGILL on how long it took for the accent to appear after English arrived in Australia. In 1788, during the reign of King George III, the English language made a very long journey indeed, penetrating deep into the southern hemisphere. This was on the occasion of the foundation of the British Australian penal colony of […]

Remember the lessons of 2016… A new year doesn’t mean everything will be better. Over the last few weeks, as I’ve read and heard many people express an entirely understandable longing to be rid of 2020, I’ve been reminded of the eerily similar outpouring of relief and/or hope which issued forth four years ago. 2016, […]

What will 2021 bring us? Anniversaries, for a start. JONATHAN SALE flags up the notable events coming up to their centuries, bicentenaries, half-centuries and other round-figure dates which we can mark over the year. January begins with a crucial motoring anniversary, the centenary on the 15th of the day when automatic windscreen wipers reached the UK. […]

MARTYN SLOMAN reflects on a year in politics – and looks forward to life beyond the pandemic. Even if the imposition of Tier 4 in Norfolk had not made it impossible, I was not in the mood to celebrate on New Year’s Eve. 2020 was a disaster year.  Together with many readers of The New European […]

IAN DUNT offers a rallying cry for pro-Europeans. We’re out of the EU. No more Article 50. No more transition. For all intents and purposes, January 1, 2021, is the first true day of Brexit. It’s remarkable that after nearly half a decade it’s still possible to burn with shame and indignation at what is happening […]

This country will continue to suffer from Brexit but we should not despair, says DOMINIC GRIEVE. Geographical and economic realities will make greater co-operation with Europe inevitable. This week the United Kingdom embarks on a new chapter in its relations with its neighbours in the EU. Just as the statue of Janus looks two ways and […]

To say the trade agreement between the UK and the EU weighs in at 1,246 pages is to do it a disservice. The dossier of articles, declarations and annexes totalling some 467,000 words is no-one’s idea of light reading, but would still be less than half the length of Hilary Mantel’s acclaimed Wolf Hall trilogy – an attainable task […]

ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on how the ‘bastard’ tendency which tormented John Major over the Maastricht Treaty has finally got its way. Have a guess where I was in early December 1991, and again in February 1992. Very well done at home, as mega-selling novelist Richard Osman says to viewers of BBC’s Pointless show, if a Dutch city the […]

TIM BALE assesses whether the deal with the EU means politicians on both sides of the debate will finally emerge from the trenches Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda of the Imperial Japanese army took some persuading before he would agree to hand over his sword, his rifle, and the dagger with which he intended to commit suicide […]

Left wing advocates of Brexit labour under a number of misapprehensions, says FRANCIS BECKETT – such as a mistaken belief it will make their aims more achievable and that all Remainers are middle class. Paul Embery is one of the brightest stars of Lexit – the faction that says that all proper socialists are Brexiters. […]

Guy Verhofstadt on his sadness as the transition period ends, and his optimism for the future. “There is one case,” wrote Dostoevsky, “and only one, when a man may deliberately and consciously desire something that is downright harmful even stupid, even extremely stupid, and that is: to have the right to desire what is even extremely […]

WILL SELF on receiving a New Year’s honour. Look, I realise that talk of a ‘happy new year’ must be anathema to readers of The New European this week: what with Britain ending its transition period with the European Union like some bizarre giant plague ship, under the captaincy of a erstwhile hack with a […]

It all started with ABBA, but Stockholm’s association with pure pop music has long outlasted the band, says SOPHIA DEBOICK. Stockholm is the centre of the Swedish New Year’s Eve. Ever since 1895, the Skansen open-air museum – a collection of historical houses on Djurgården island – has hosted the national celebrations. The tradition of […]

At the very moment the Irish border reaches its centenary it is about to enter a new era, as Brexit finally comes into full effect. IAN WALKER presents a birthday biography. In May 2018, Jacob Rees-Mogg – then chairman of the hard Brexit Tory pressure group the ERG – declared: “I don’t think my visiting the Irish border is really […]

We don’t know what we’ve got til it’s gone… Roger Casale on the end of free movement. Free movement of people is one of the EU’s most celebrated achievements. According to the December Eurobarometer survey, 81% of Europeans think free movement has benefitted the economy. Yet in Britain, it is often cited as one of the […]

HYWEL CERI JONES on the government’s decision to reject the EU’s Erasmus scheme as part of the Brexit deal. In finalising its treaty with the EU, to the dismay of many, PM Johnson has confirmed his last-minute negative decision to no longer participate in the EU`s Erasmus programme. This comes as a severe blow to […]