News and Opinion

BONNIE GREER reports on the US Capitol riots and what they tell us about modern populism. Was the storming of the US Capitol by the supporters of Donald Trump the beginning of the end of populism? Was this the lethal highpoint, the death knell for the crusade that went under the banner ‘Make America Great Again’? With the banning […]

Think you’re on top of what’s been going on across Europe in the past seven days? Take The New European’s tricky quiz and find out just how much of a Europhile you are…

This is the time when I traditionally look back on the shows I’ve reviewed over the previous 12 months and select the ones I’ve most enjoyed. I have, however, a practical problem that will no doubt soon be confronting the judges of the big theatrical awards: there isn’t an awful lot to choose from. I […]

Like most British people of my age, I first encountered spaghetti in a tin, in tomato sauce. In our house it was kept in the pantry alongside the tins of baked beans, and we ate it in the same way as the beans: on toast, for breakfast. When I was a child, spaghetti on toast […]

JASON WALSH reports on Europe’s varying fortunes on vaccination roll-outs. The European Union performs many roles for its citizens. The most important – if one of the least-discussed – is to keep them safe from harm. And that is the issue causing grave concern across the continent right now, as the EU and its member states try desperately […]

Polling expert PETER KELLNER on how the Scottish elections could supercharge the SNP’s campaign for independence. If Boris Johnson thinks that life will get easier in the spring, he should think again. Even if the current lockdown and vaccine programme both succeed, a fresh crisis is almost certain to erupt in its wake, to last […]

Former Commons speaker JOHN BERCOW on the US president, the British politicians who indulged him, and the Trumpian tactics which have spread to the UK. The chorus of execration of the Capitol rioters, and president Trump’s evil incitement of them, has been loud, eloquent and justified. Global media outlets have simply reflected the overwhelming sense […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on a new book telling the story of Rotwelsch, a secret language developed by the thieves, beggars and itinerants of central Europe. Back in the 1990s I spent several summers working on a travelling music festival. For four months every year a group of us would be on the road, travelling the country […]

Trump’s refusal to accept the end of his presidency was predicted by Mitch Benn in 2017… because he had seen it foretold in Game of Thrones.  Here’s the thing: I’m not an expert. On anything. I know a fair bit about a fair few things, but the capacity to store and retrieve biggish reserves of […]

HELEN PARKINSON on the history of the dirndl, a clothing co-opted by the Nazis but which has successfully shrugged off this association. Its feminine frills are more likely to conjure images of Oktoberfest’s beer-slinging or Julie Andrews spinning on a hillside than a catwalk. But when fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, on a visit to Austria […]

It might have vanished with Brexit, but the UK’s rebate was crucial to understanding UK-EU relations. John Elsom explores its history In 1979, within six months of winning her first election, Margaret Thatcher attended her first European summit in Dublin. She went with a specific request. Britain was paying too much annually into the EEC’s budget and receiving too little in […]

Matt Withers talks to the Poet Laureate of Brexit Britain about Europe, lockdown and cultural appropriation in music This time last year Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods, the Poet Laureate of Brexit Britain, was writing the first songs for the band’s sixth studio album. The themes would have been familiar for those who know the […]

TIM WALKER reports on the latest on a scheme to modernise Downing Street, the long wait for Paul Dacre’s TV show, and those mystery Michael Gove press briefings… Having  blown tens of thousands of pounds on new offices for his former henchman Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson is now focusing on making Downing Street a sufficiently opulent place for […]

New Brexit red tape causing friction at Britain’s borders are an “obvious and inevitable” part of leaving the EU and are here to stay, former chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said. Barnier said businesses could expect to overcome “glitches, problems, and breakdowns” caused by new paperwork in the weeks and months ahead but warned that other […]

Less than four months before Scots go to the polls for Holyrood elections, Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard has announced his resignation.  In a statement to the Daily Herald on Thursday afternoon, Leonard said: “I have come to the conclusion it is in the best interests of the party that I step aside as leader […]

A Labour MP has claimed Afghanistan was quicker and more effective at implementing restrictions at its borders to contain the coronavirus than Britain. Siobhain McDonagh said No 10’s border policy during the pandemic had been “a mess”. Panellists on BBC 2’s Politics Live were discussing a ban on flights to and from Brazil in light of a new variant originating […]

It’s the 1246-page document that changed the lives of millions at the stroke of 11pm on New Year’s Eve – but has Boris Johnson read it? The prime minister’s spokesperson was earlier repeatedly unable to confirm whether Johnson had read every word of the treaty setting out the UK’s new trading relationship with the EU. […]

A former Ofsted chair has called for education secretary Gavin Williamson’s resignation, amid the continuing lack of certainty over what will replace cancelled GCSEs and A-Levels. In a letter to exams regulator Ofqual yesterday, Williamson said he would like “to explore the possibility of providing externally set tasks or papers, in order that teachers can […]

A man has got a tattoo of Boris Johnson’s face on his stomach in order to raise money for a woman to receive life-saving cancer treatment. Kenny Wilding, 41, from Kidderminster, said he got the tattoo to raise money for a family friend who was diagnosed with stage four rectal cancer in January 2019. Megan Smith […]

Last week, editor-at-large Alastair Campbell kicked off a debate as to what more Remainers could have done to stop Brexit. Here, writers, politicians and campaigners have their say. Mary Honeyball Former Labour MEPWe pro-Europeans must show humility. We lost. Leave won. Many Leave voters were on low incomes, over 50 and male. They viewed the EU […]

Jacob Rees-Mogg has claimed fish captured after the Brexit deal came into effect were “British and happier for it”. Rees-Mogg suggested Scottish fishermen should be happy that Britain “got our fish back”, even though many faced financial difficulties caused by stock rotting at British ports due to Brexit-related hold-ups. Responding to the SNP’s Tommy Sheppard’s question on compensating those […]

Katie Hopkins has joined UKIP, the party has confirmed. The right-wing media figure was welcomed by the Eurosceptic party in an announcement on Twitter earlier today. In a video posted on the party’s Facebook page, the 45-year-old said she was joining the group in order to “stand with ordinary Brits”. Hopkins claimed that she “maybe […]

The government has dismissed calls from Labour to publish the economic impact assessment of Boris Johnson’s Brexit trade deal with the EU. Speaking in the Commons, shadow international trade secretary Emily Thornberry said: “Over the last two years the government has placed, as the Secretary of State tells us frequently, more than 30 new trade agreements […]

Two of Britain’s most popular cars will cost £1,700 more this year thanks to new post-Brexit tariffs. Ford has increased the price of sport versions of its Fiesta and Puma ranges, which were both made in the EU and exported for sale in the UK. The motoring giant said it was passing on the costs to customers and […]

Liz Truss has been told to “do better” with her answers in the House of Commons as the speaker asked trade ministers to end the “political games” in the chamber. Sir Lindsay Hoyle claimed Truss’ team were giving better answers to Conservative MPs than to opposition MPs over similar questions. At one point the speaker […]

Home secretary Priti Patel appeared to spark more confusion with an appearance on This Morning alongside Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby. The minister appeared confused about coronavirus rules once more as she stressed the importance of exercising alone. The guidance makes clear that in England someone is allowed to exercise outdoors with one other person from […]

Colour was always at the core of Wassily Kandinsky’s art. Claudia Pritchard reports on a stunning exhibition which traces his creative journey as he was shifted around Europe by the events of the early 20th century The career path from lawyer to artist is not often taken. Tchaikovsky managed to duck out of jurisprudence and […]

Northern Ireland’s agriculture minister Edwin Poots has claimed the region’s hospitals and schools risk running out of food when post-Brexit Irish Sea trade arrangements are fully implemented. A grace period that limits the level of red tape required to move retail food products from Great Britain to Northern Ireland runs out at the end of […]

The UK’s vaccination programme started well. But JAMES BALL detects some wearily and worryingly familiar signs of over-promising and under-delivering. No-one ever imagined the UK would end up in a third national coronavirus lockdown, let alone that thanks to systematic government failure it would end up with the NHS in an even more parlous position even […]

Miriam Margolyes’ blunt assessment of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson has won her a heap of praise online. The British actor said the US president was an “a*****e” and the British prime minister a “clown”. Asked for her reaction to recent events in the US during an appearance on Good Morning Britain, Margolyes said: “Like anybody […]

Don’t assume it couldn’t happen here, warns ALASTAIR CAMPBELL. There was something almost comical about the way Boris Johnson and his media sycophants sought to distance him and his cabinet from their previous ‘upsucking’ to Donald Trump. Whether Johnson backing Trump for a Nobel peace prize; Dominic Raab even quite recently refusing to criticise Trump’s […]

A government minister has defended Boris Johnson’s record on dealing with the emergence of coronavirus variants around the world – as fears rise over a new Brazilian mutation. Under-secretary of state for safeguarding Victoria Atkins was asked by Sky News’ Niall Paterson why the air corridor between the UK and South America remains open. Atkins […]