News and Opinion

TIM WALKER gives his review of Fiddler on the Roof at Playhouse London, which is running until September 28. Familiarity can breed contempt with even the greatest shows, so it’s just as well that Sir Trevor Nunn has thought outside of the box with his revival of Fiddler on the Roof. Even the Playhouse’s large […]

A hardline Brexiteer has vowed the UK will derail EU projects if Brexit does not happen, saying Europe ‘will be facing perfidious Albion on speed’. Mark Francois has just read out an entire Tennyson poem.Here it is: pic.twitter.com/8b0ljH4va8— Thomas Colson (@tpgcolson) April 9, 2019 In a series of speeches at a meeting of the anti-European […]

Brexit has contributed to a shortage of some medicines at pharmacies in England, it has been claimed. Supply issues partly blamed on Brexit planning and contingency have caused an official list of ‘concession’ priced medicines to reach its longest since 2014, when it was first introduced. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC), which draws up […]

A no-deal Brexit could cut the UK’s predicted GDP by 3.5% by 2021, the International Monetary Fund has warned. A no-deal departure from the EU which severely disrupts supply chains and raises trade costs would have ‘large and long-lasting negative impacts’ on the UK and EU economies, with Britain the hardest hit, said the IMF. […]

Government aide Huw Merriman MP has been told he is likely to be dismissed as a Parliamentary Private Secretary, after appearing on the platform at a People’s Vote rally. Tory MP Huw Merriman is the most high-profile supporter of Brexit to have backed growing calls for a confirmatory public vote on the government’s deal, as […]

Brexiteer MP Andrew Bridgen has been locked in an escape room for a bizarre television segment. The Brexiteer was put in the room with Remainer Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran and Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi, who backs a customs union plan for Brexit. The aim was to try to put aside their differences to show […]

A Tory MP has quit the pro-Brexit European Research Group (ERG) warning that it is putting Britain’s departure from the EU in jeopardy. Daniel Kawczynski said the government needed to get Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement – which a number of ERG members continue to oppose – through Parliament if they were to ensure Britain finally […]

Benjamin Netanyahu has been a dominant force in Israeli politics for decades, but he could finally be doomed by corruption allegations and a coalescing opposition, says PAUL KNOTT. Until recent weeks, Israeli prime minister Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu looked certain to be returned to power in next month’s general election. Re-election would allow the notoriously egotistical […]

MPs and peers have backed a new law to extend the Brexit process and require Theresa May by law to avoid a no-deal Brexit. The Commons backed a series of Lords amendments to the European Union (Withdrawal) (No 5) Act after it was rushed through both Houses of Parliament. The cross-party move brought forward by […]

Former speaker of the House of Commons BARONESS BETTY BOOTHROYD says the UK lacks courageous leadership, and believes it’s now time for the people to wrestle the Brexit decision back out of the hands of politicians. I thought my rallying days were behind me, but the fight over Brexit matters more than any I have […]

There is a bonus edition of The New European podcast available to download and listen to this week – featuring some special guests. Podcast regulars Steve Anglesey and Richard Porritt took The New European podcast on the road and invited an audience to join them. As part of the Podcast Live event, Anglesey and Porritt […]

A vintage year for the industry saw the most No.1s ever, as attempts to greet the new millennium with gravitas fell flat. SOPHIA DEBOICK reports. The Millennium Dome summed up the pricked pomposity of the year 2000. Tony Blair called it ‘a triumph of confidence over cynicism, boldness over blandness, excellence over mediocrity’. In the […]

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has claimed that there needs to be an inquiry into Brexit. The Labour MP resisted calling for it to take place until it is all finished, but questioned whether or not Britain’s consistution is still fit for purpose because it did not appear to be holding the prime minister to […]

Without irory Brexiteer Mark Francois has called for a second vote on Theresa May’s leadership, prompting amusement from People’s Vote campaigners. Francois said he believed that the prime minister should resign for the sake of ‘the existential future of our party and the destiny of our country’, but he said if she would not, then […]

National treasure Stephen Fry has hit out at Brexiteers like Iain Duncan-Smith and Nigel Farage, and criticised Theresa May’s twisting of facts to suit her politics. Stephen Fry debunks the myth that Theresa May is on your side with her Brexit deal. Photograph: YouTube. – Credit: Archant The comments were made in a newly-released three […]

Boris Johnson breached House of Commons rules by failing to declare a financial interest within the required time limit for a second time in just five months. The standards committee said the former foreign secretary had failed to register a 20% share of the ownership of a property in Somerset within the 28-day timetable of […]

PETER TRUDGILL explains the processes by which phrases can contract to just a shadow of their former selves. It is often the fate of words and phrases, over the millennia, to get shorter and shorter. The Latin phrase hoc die, ‘this day’, famously became so shortened in French – as hui, ‘today’ – that French […]

A new protest against Brexit that they hope will ‘bring the country to its knees’ involves sitting in the dark all day and using no electricity. The ‘national strike’ has been planned for Friday April 12 – the next Brexit deadline which could see the UK crash out of the European Union if there is […]

Fleet Street watcher LIZ GERARD on the contrasting ways in which the national press covered the pro- and anti-Brexit rallies. The March to Leave protesters make their way along Imperial Wharf in London. Picture: Steve Parsons/PA Wire – Credit: PA A couple of weeks ago, hundreds of thousands marched through London to ask for a […]

Political commentator Robert Peston thinks that Theresa May could be considering plans to revoke Article 50. With the risk of the United Kingdom crashing out of the European Union at the end of the week now heightened by some talk of EU leaders being against another Article 50 extension, there appears to be little effort […]

Why Olivia Williams’ new film about Brexit means the world to her, the Brextremist takeover of the Catholic Herald, Arron Banks quits Leave.EU… and could old war films have inspired two evangelists for Brexit? TIM WALKER takes us through it. Not content simply with taking part in last month’s march against Brexit, Olivia Williams, best […]

An outspoken supporter of Brexit has written an opinion column calling for the country to ‘rethink’ the UK’s departure from the EU – citing the ‘deceit’ of the Leave campaign. Peter Oborne, a columnist for the Daily Mail, has argued that the UK should take up the European Council President’s offer of a year-long delay […]

Sinn Fein leaders are due to hold Brexit talks with Jeremy Corbyn later on a day of meetings in London. Party president Mary Lou McDonald and vice-president Michelle O’Neill are also set for discussions with Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley. They will also meet a number of SNP MPs at Westminster. McDonald said she would […]

JASON SOLOMONS on a new film about the remarkable life of Bert Trautmann, the former German paratrooper who became a British hero. Trautmann, Bernhard. Picture: Schirner/ullstein bild via Getty Images – Credit: ullstein bild via Getty Images If you’ve heard of Bert Trautmann, it’s perhaps more as the answer to a football trivia question than […]

A new report has found that charities are fearing the worst from Brexit after a decade of austerity in the United Kingdom. Almost two-thirds (63%) of UK charities believe that Brexit will have a negative impact on their work. Nearly a quarter (23%) of charity leaders said that the EU withdrawal process had already had […]

BONNIE GREER takes us on a trip to College Green to see what it has become since Brexit. Anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray stands with placards with anti-Brexit slogans near the mobile studios of media broadcasters on College Green. Picture: Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP) – Credit: AFP/Getty Images Before Brexit heated up, you could walk across […]

Rembrandt’s epic painting The Night Watch is one of the tantalising and mysterious works ever produced. As it forms the centrepiece of a new exhibition, FLORENCE HALLETT tells the story behind it. Visual trickery, the suggestion of a conspiracy theory, and the ghostly face of the artist’s recently departed wife, Saskia, make Rembrandt’s most famous […]

US comedy show Saturday Night Live has made light of Theresa May’s Brexit woes. Everything goes wrong for the prime minister in the TV sketch, with children giving her the thumbs down as they pass her in the street. She gets a kiss on the lips from Winston Churchill, played by Game Of Thrones star […]

Despite the repeated attempts of fans and critics, Joni Mitchell has always thwarted efforts to pigeonhole her. Portrait of Canadian musician Joni Mitchell seated on the floor playing acoustic guitar, November 1968. Picture: Jack Robinson/Getty Images – Credit: Getty Images Adam Behr on the remarkable career of a universally-acclaimed free spirit. The film of a […]

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey has said that Labour will consider ‘very stongly’ the option of revoking Article 50 to avoid a no-deal Brexit. Asked if Labour would vote to revoke Article 50 to avoid a no-deal Brexit in the coming days, she said it was a ‘hypothetical question.’ But she added: ‘We have promised […]

Labour MP Jess Phillips has said there is a feeling Labour is ‘playing politics’ over Brexit which was ‘irritating everyone and pleasing no one’, and explained why she would continue to fight to do the right thing on the issue. The Birmingham Yardley MP told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday the party’s position had been […]

Sajid Javid has defended the issuing of British passports without the words European Union on the front cover despite the UK still being a part of the bloc. The burgundy passports were introduced from March 30, the day after Britain was expected to leave the EU. Home secretary Javid said the move was ‘sensible and […]