Opinion

BONNIE GREER on the black swan circling germophobe president Trump. One of the first things that you learn as a scriptwriter is to keep your stories realistic. This means that your tale must be something that so-called ordinary people can grasp fairly quickly. American scripts, no matter how fantastical, are usually rooted in recognisable situations, […]

MITCH BENN says the right-wing media’s reaction to the prime minister’s announcement is hypocritical. So, our prime minister has announced having conceived a child “out of wedlock”, as our recent ancestors might have tersely put it, while still at least technically married to his last wife (one is given to understand that a divorce has […]

JAMES BALL questions whether any of the remaining Democratic party candidates can defeat Donald Trump. The night misleadingly called “Super Tuesday” turned into anything but for the Democratic Party, leaving it with the dismal choice of which of two elderly white men it should pick as its champion to beat the elderly orange man in […]

DON BRIND on why the next Labour leader needs to shift the party position to ensure it has a future. My old boss, the BBC political editor John Cole, had a perceptive test of political leadership. Good leaders, he said, had to be ready to “chip away at the prejudices of their followers”. It looks […]

Readers react to Priti Patel’s new points-based immigration system proposals. My Hungarian mate Ferenc sees a bright future for gangmasters under our new ugly immigration laws. So you can stay in the UK for six months but you’re not allowed to work. That’s really going to stop low-paid illegal work in the unregulated economy! Arrive […]

Tackling the climate emergency a political struggle needs to be won up against right-wing populism. RICHARD CALLAND says the new digital era provides an opportunity to do this. History may in due course record 2019 as the year in which the penny finally dropped about the climate emergency humanity faces. A sense of urgency was […]

It’s not just turning 50 that has made MITCH BENN want to get in shape. He’s dreams of watching the wheels fall off the Brexit bandwagon. I’ve started going to the gym again. There are a few reasons for this: firstly, I’ve found a local gym which is run by and in aid of a […]

Without a change in electoral system the big parties are doomed to keep repeating the same mistakes with their leaders. In Meg Russell’s insightful article (“Why grassroots members shouldn’t choose party leaders”), she says of the move away from MP-only selections, “Labour was the first party to diverge from this… in 1981”. However, the 1976 […]

BONNIE GREER discusses how the Bernie Sanders campaign could spell doom for the Democrats and lead to Donald Trump staying in power. Democratic presidential hopeful Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders speaks during a rally at Houston University, Texas. Photo: MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images – Credit: AFP via Getty Images Question: What do Bernie Sanders and […]

As the Brexiteers celebrate leaving the European Union they are yet to realise that their hopes of ‘sovereignty’ will never truly exist. The government talk of taking back control from Brussels, but then are quite willing to pass over key strategic sectors to the Chinese. First Huawei are able to bid for the sensitive 5G […]

JAMES BALL on the Tory Brexiteer’s realisation that Britain does need experts after all. Britain’s Brexiteer government, it seems, hasn’t had enough of experts after all. In an interview this week, Iain Duncan Smith – the former Conservative leader and prominent hard Brexit backer – made the staggeringly original observation that the UK hasn’t done […]

STEVE ANGLESEY on the similarities between home secretary Priti Patel and her old classmate Geri Horner (née Halliwell). Given the name of a famous person and the instruction to name a single interesting fact about them, most people will come up with the same set of answers. David Bowie? His eyes were different colours. Shot-putting […]

Brexit has been cited as one of the biggest problems for the Labour at the general election, so what approach should its next leader take to the big issue of the day? One of the most striking failures of the Labour campaign last December was any attempt to rebut or counter Johnson’s “Get Brexit done” […]

Readers respond to claims that it would be wrong for Remainers to campaign for associate EU citizenship. Mark Bates might be missing the point of associate EU citizenship (TNE #182). It would not and could not be an easy passage to living and collecting our pensions abroad. What it could do would be to show […]

Dominic Cummings stands for everything that he advocated the country rejecting, writes a reader. Dominic Cummings is the epitome of everything he advocated rejecting, all the reasons he fabricated for leaving the EU. The ‘unelected Eurocrats’ spin was a lie; instead, decisions on our futures are now actually being made by faceless, unaccountable figures, not […]

For all its failings, the BBC needs your support, writes JAMES BALL. BBC Sport Presenter Gabby Logan, Alan Shearer and Michael Appleton during an FA Cup match. Photograph: David Davies/PA. – Credit: PA In the midst of last year’s parliamentary battles on Article 50 and the Withdrawal Agreement – and Labour’s struggle to find a […]

Mary C. Murphy assesses the likely impact on Brexit of Sinn Féin’s election success. Political hostility, historical antipathy and considerable incompatibility on both policies and principles has traditionally sullied the relationships between Sinn Féin and Ireland’s two other largest parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. But while they are reluctant to share power with Sinn […]

MITCH BENN on the tragic death of television presenter Caroline Flack – and how we all played a part in the media’s involvement. I wasn’t really that aware of Caroline Flack; I realise what a tiresomely bourgeois and pretentious-sounding thing that is to say right now, but it does become relevant, so bear with me. […]

As Labour members prepare to cast their votes for their chosen candidates, MEG RUSSELL explains why the process is so flawed and damaging. This Friday, the ballot opens in the Labour leadership election. It will close again on April 2, with the result announced two days later. The three candidates still in the running – […]

BONNIE GREER questions Bernie Sanders’ ‘socialist’ credentials and wonders why political parties and activists ignore the wider electorate when they choose leaders. Some of my family back in the States have been emailing me the one question that I imagine much of America is asking: “What’s the difference between a socialist and a democratic socialist?” […]

Whether it’s his hard Brexit agenda, the barring of journalists or the reforms of the justice system, the latest rows in Downing Street show the prime minister is neither a liberal politician or a Tory. Number 10’s spin machine, controlled by the prime minister’s Svengali, Vote Leave campaigner Dominic Cummings, took a leaf out of […]

A reader claims that the media narrative on Brexit will not change even if it fails to be a success. It isn’t a matter of wanting leaving the EU to be a success or not. Even if the process seems to be an objective failure it is likely the tabloid press will try to frame […]

One reader claims associate EU citizenship is simply Remain cakeism. I don’t see how associate EU citizenship for UK individuals will work, or why it should work. The EU is a noble idea of freedom for all peoples. Its impact and ambition must not be reduced to being an easy passage to living and collecting […]

Washington is considered one of the more progressive states but BONNIE GREER underlines the problems of homelessness, mental health and its opioid crisis. It is easy to believe that the movie Sleepless In Seattle might be the quintessential Washington State movie. But the 1993 romcom is not about the 42nd state of the Union. It […]

JAMES BALL on how Dominic Cummings could bring about his own downfall. A small mind knows to stop digging if you’re stuck in a hole. A small mind knows not to open up another front if you’re already under attack from multiple sides. A small mind knows political advisors shouldn’t be seen and also shouldn’t […]

A bridge over the Irish Sea is never going to happen, says MITCH BENN. So what are we being distracted from? Of all the many kinds of lie one hears over the course of one’s life, be they personal, professional or political, perhaps the most depressing lies are the ones that not even the liar […]

Readers dispute a recent article in which baby boomers are blamed for Brexit. Here some of those in that demographic have their say. Francis Beckett’s article (“Blame us baby boomers for Brexit”) was insulting. I am sick of being told my generation had it so good and easy and are responsible for leaving the EU. […]

MITCH BENN ponders if the UK is willing to sit by and watch the country become Trump’s Britain. Well I don’t know about you but I feel freer already. Seriously though, is it just me or does post-‘Got Brexit Done’ Britain thus far feel a lot like pre-‘Got Brexit Done’ Britain did? As if nothing […]

A Remainer explains what happened when he visited Parliament Square as Brexiteers celebrated on January 31st. I couldn’t resist going to the pro-Brexit celebrations in Parliament Square. At the St Stephens Tavern I was engaged by Steve and his two mates from Sunderland. I find it difficult to understand how they will benefit from Brexit. […]

Brexit was never going to be hell, says JAMES BALL, but the government is making sure it’s purgatory. It was supposed to be done. We were told it was done. We were promised it was done. An hour before the seemingly endless month of January drew to a close, the UK left the European Union. […]

BONNIE GREER says a new era has begun, as Brexit Britain is born into a presidential shakedown A week into Brexit, the UK faces some big dilemmas: Huawei and US opposition to it; and a US/UK trade deal, and who ultimately shapes and controls the agreement that Trump dangles before Boris Johnson. One of the […]

Readers have a mixed reaction to an opinion column from a Brexit Party official telling Remainers to be more measured over a 50p Brexit coin. A bong reverberates for about 15 seconds; a coin will be around for scores, perhaps hundreds of years. Mr Towler, for many the new coin is a permanent reminder of […]