Opinion

Debates about statues and social distancing suggest Britain is once again going to miss the opportunity to actually engage meaningfully on the issue of race, says BELLA FRIMPONG. Britain’s history and its informal policy of chronically denying its role in years of racism, colonialism and imperialism and their impacts, are finally catching up with it. […]

The government went into this crisis with the country pulling together. As it falls apart, ministers have only themselves to blame, says JAMES BALL. As it became clear coronavirus would not be contained, would become a pandemic, and would hit Britain, there were those of us who said its arrival would mean doing something previously […]

Boris Johnson is one of the worst Covid leaders on the planet, says ALASTAIR CAMPBELL, Here ten ways the government has failed the country are laid bare. A reminder of the 10-point guide to crisis management that I set out, almost three months ago, when Boris Johnson was assuring us that we should trust him […]

The Liberal Democrat leadership election could decide who becomes PM, says ANDREW ADONIS. With front-runner Ed Davey’s support, Keir Starmer stands his best chance. “Unless the Lib Dems swing decisively behind Labour, both in ideology and electoral tactics, it is hard to see a winning strategy for Keir Starmers Labour party in the 2024 election.” […]

At least in their rhetoric, the European Commission seems to have understood the significance of this crisis, but Quaker MARTIN LENG says a greater international effort is needed to save the world. When coronavirus struck Europe, the EU was mid-way through negotiating its Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF), a broad-strokes agreement between Europe’s leaders about how […]

A majority of European countries have now re-opened schools. SAJAD MAHMOOD, chief executive of Charity Right, says the UK must not lag behind on getting children back into education. The cordoned off play area and equipment of a primary school in London. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA Wire. – Credit: PA Many of us have a first-world […]

The EU is holding big online firms to account – but Brexit means the new legislation will not become law in the UK. MARY HONEYBALL explains how we will be the losers because of it. As the date for requesting an extension to the Brexit deadline draws closer, the UK government continues to strut forth […]

With the US leader likely to face a plethora of investigations and possible legal proceedings the moment he is no longer a sitting president, MITCH BENN wonders if Trump might use national crisis as an excuse to delay this November’s election. The trouble with populism is that it’s empty. It’s like a slick advertisement advertising […]

TIM WALKER remembers his 1986 meeting with the distinguished star of stage and screen. When Richard Burton uttered the immortal words ‘Broadsword calling Danny Boy’ on his transmitter in the film Where Eagles Dare, it was Michael Hordern who picked up at the other end. For a distinguished stage actor whose career spanned more than […]

TikTok, the viral video sharing platform, has been one of the biggest hits of lockdown. Content that originated on the app, like nurses dancing in UK hospitals, has jumped to mainstream TV coverage. TikTok even put its first ad on UK television, made in isolation. TikTok’s user base has grown rapidly over the lockdown period, […]

Readers have their say on the EU, and Boris Johnson’s refusal to extend the Brexit transition period, during the coronavirus pandemic. As a European citizen, I feel offended by countries like Austria, Holland, Denmark and Sweden that put financial issues before solidarity even in these times of pandemic. I would like a European government, I […]

Despite beating Jeremy Corbyn at the last election, Boris Johnson appears to be making the same mistakes in his leadership techniques. Up to now Johnson had a triple strength political honeymoon, generated by huge electoral success, ‘getting Brexit done’ (part one, anyway), and widespread deep sympathy after his Covid-19 brush with death. His government’s risible […]

Readers have their say on the government’s response to the coronavirus, and how Dominic Cummings has only made things worse. So, our new not-quite-yet world-beating NHS Test and Trace system is, uh, on the way to being up-and-running and it might take a few weeks to get it fully in place. Of course, it was […]

BONNIE GREER says George Floyd’s death is an old and horrible story – and one that we will continue to hear from America. My teen years were full of burning cities, and one burning prison. Attica. We called them ‘urban uprisings’. Before the 1960s, they were called ‘race riots’. My first produced play, 1919, was […]

JAMES BALL says many global companies will cut UK operations and implement mass layoffs if Brexit is forced through at an idiotic pace. Remember Brexit? It happened roughly a century and a half ago, on January 31 of this year. The UK left the EU and is no longer a member state. A bitterly divisive […]

To protect black lives we must abolish or radically reform the police, says a former press secretary to Boris Johnson Disappointingly, much of the commentary about the protests in the US condemns looting and violence and fails to examine the root causes. In western societies, the police force has historically perpetrated violence against black communities, […]

Former Conservative adviser BARNABY TOWNS on the fight that leaves an important democratic principle and civil rights issue at stake. Just over one year ago this month, over one million people were denied their fundamental right to vote. Britain’s last set of European elections, held on May 23rd, 2019, may not seem of particular importance […]

JULIAN SELF pens an open letter to the Conservative Party following the Dominic Cummings scandal. Dear Conservative and Unionist Party, Have your say Send your letters for publication to The New European by emailing letters@theneweuropean.co.uk and pick up an edition each Thursday for more comment and analysis. Find your nearest stockist here or subscribe to […]

This episode has exposed ministers’ lethal mix of dreadful values as people, and their utter uselessness, says ALASTAIR CAMPBELL. Protesters outside Downing Street, London, as the row over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s top aide Dominic Cummings’ Durham trip continues. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday May 27, 2020. See PA story HEALTH Coronavirus. Photo credit should […]

The #DeniedMyVote judicial review continues in the Courts. JOHN HALFORD, lead solicitor on the case, explains why all those committed to democracy should consider backing it. May 2019 had a very different feel to it than this May does. The news was filled not with the latest COVID-19 mortality statistics and Dominic Cummings’ creative childcare […]

Readers give their views on Keir Starmer’s leadership so far, and dare to dream about the next general election. James Ball’s insightful article on Keir Starmer (‘Opposition rediscovers its mission’, TNE #195) echoed my view that, under the unique set of circumstances, Keir couldn’t have done a better job thus far. The arithmetic does indeed […]

While Labour might be getting its act together again, readers believe the Dominic Cummings saga proves that it’s Boris Johnson who is most likely to bring down his own leadership. Brief moments in politics can have deep resonances. When Ann Widdecombe and her UKIP colleagues turned their backs during a performance of the European anthem […]

TIM WALKER recounts meeting Dame Vera Lynn, the singer of we’ll meet again. When it was said how wonderfully the Queen had uttered the words ‘we’ll meet again’ in her recent address to the nation, one woman would have had every reason to take umbrage. Dame Vera Lynn made them her own in innumerable concerts […]

MITCH BENN on the Durham dash that has everybody talking. So anyway, one day I woke up and thought do you know, I’m feeling a bit wobbly; in fact I’m not sure my sense of balance is everything it should be. Rather than take any chances, I decided to test just how good my sense […]

BONNIE GREER on how masks are becoming another signifier in the culture wars. I knew that the severe part of the lockdown was over when I felt a rumble in my apartment and the sound of the pavement outside being split open. Construction was back, and with it construction workers, practically singing like the birds […]

Britain’s comparison between the coronavirus and a ‘war’ are in stark contrast to the German approach – where they have been more successful at tackling Covid-19. Many political leaders around the world have reached for the imagery of conflict to describe the coronavirus pandemic. In France, President Emmanuel Macron said his nation was at war […]

Boris Johnson may come to regret his decision to allow his senior aide to contradict lockdown guidance, especially with the potential for a second coronavirus spike. Fear has a bad reputation. Nobody wants to live in a society of fear; it’s an emotion to be avoided. As such, the role of the modern state is […]

TIM WALKER reflects on an interview with American actor and political activist Charlton Heston. Charlton Heston was appearing on the London stage in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. He was a big guy in a wig whose views on everything from gun control to gay rights had made him politically incorrect before the term had even […]

MITCH BENN reflects on last weekend’s coronavirus lockdown protests in Hyde Park. For someone who’s ostensibly got nothing to do at the moment I seem to be weirdly busy. If anything I’ve been over-committing myself; I’ve actually had to back out of a couple of projects for which I’d volunteered in a burst of enthusiasm […]

Labour has refound its mission as ministers get used to the new normal, argues JAMES BALL. Sunday mornings cannot be fun for anyone in professional politics, particularly if you’re affiliation is with the Labour Party – what for others is a leisurely scan of the paper over breakfast is for you a nerve-wracking assessment of […]

BONNIE GREER on Donald Trump’s reckless plan to get re-elected this autumn. Like the plot of a Dario Fo play or a scenario from a Mel Brooks movie, the notorious germophobe Donald Trump has met his biggest opponent yet: a killer virus. ‘I can’t get sick! I can’t get sick!’ he is known to cry […]

MICHAEL WHITE on the week an indecisive Johnson tried, and failed, to please everyone. I don’t know what it’s like where you are. But the traffic on the motorway near us has been getting louder all week and it was the cold snap, not the government’s new ‘Stay Alert’ slogan, that kept our park from […]