Opinion

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 […]

Readers are split over what action Remainers should take next on Brexit. I couldn’t disagree more with Matt Kelly’s injunction to avoid “I told you so” (“Remain must become something bigger”). We now live in a post-truth nightmare. To not throw every single example of the predictions of “Project Fear” coming true back in the […]

Former Conservative adviser BARNABY TOWNS says that conversations in Labour and the Lib Dems must return to working together to stop a second win for Boris Johnson. In 91 years of the universal franchise, parliamentary majorities of 80 or more have rarely been overturned in one general election. The exceptions are 1935, 1959 and 1966. […]

As MITCH BENN neither celebrates nor commiserates the big moment, he has a special message for Remainers, Brexiteers and our fellow Europeans. So how are you going to spend tonight? I’ll be working, I expect; such is the life of the jobbing comedian. This ‘profession’ is the graveyard of friendships and relationships; our job hours […]

Accordance VAT chief Lucy Franklin explains why her firm is marking Brexit Day with a symbol of pro-EU unity After three years of uncertainty, appalling rhetoric and delays, today is the day millions of us hoped would not come to pass. Despite the best efforts of UK politicians, MEPs, business people, academics and individuals up […]

JAMES BALL on how the media coverage of Brexit – caught up in the twists and turns – meant the public consistently missed the story. Anyone who’s lived near the sea – and no-one in the UK lives further than 70 miles from it – knows that it’s the tide that matters. It’s the rising […]

Meeting controversial actor Laurence Fox demonstrates the importance of talking to those we disagree with, insists BONNIE GREER. I did not know Laurence Fox when he tweeted me recently and asked me to meet him for coffee. Like most people who might recognise his name, I knew him as an actor. I have done lectures […]

The Council of Europe is set to take on more, not less, significance for the UK after Brexit, says Labour MP Kerry McCarthy Much has already been written about the contrast between the two events that bookend this week. Monday was Holocaust Memorial Day – a solemn day of commemoration and remembrance in its own […]

Birthday boy MITCH BENN comes up with a proposal to help take the heat out of our polarised times. There’s always a bit of a balancing act to being a columnist; on the one hand you’ve been engaged by the publication you’re writing for to provide your own personal ‘take’ on things and it’s to […]

Remember when the chancellor once claimed that Britain is better off in the single market? Are all the former Remainers now in Johnson’s cabinet as shockingly fickle as Sajid Javid? As David Cameron’s business secretary, and therefore well-placed to know all the facts, he said in the 2016 referendum campaign: “I still believe that Britain […]

Readers question the decision for politicians to centre their Brexit celebrations around London. If the Brexiters want a bell-ringing party, why don’t they hold it in Grimsby, Sunderland, Stoke etc rather than the cradle of the metropolitan elite? I suspect we know the answer: now Johnson and Farage have got what they wanted out of […]

One reader has a suggestion for anyone feeling dispirited ahead of Brexit day on January 31st Yesterday, in driving rain and buffeting wind, I drove six miles home in deep gloom, my default position since December 12. I switched on the car radio and caught the last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – the Ode […]

The fall out between American progressives will only help Trump, aruges BONNIE GREER. While most registered Democrats and just plain “We’re voting Dem in November because we want to beat Trump” people are paraphrasing Martin Luther King Jr’s speech at the 1963 March on Washington (“Impeached at last! Impeached at last! Thank God almighty Trump’s […]

Trump’s crimes are far worse than Nixon’s, but unlike his political hero he is going to get away with it, says JAMES BALL. If headlines are any indication of the era we’re living in, 2020 is off to something of a slow start: a wealthy couple are going to move house and change their jobs, […]

After a recent trip to Dublin, BONNIE GREER reflects on what lessons Ireland can give post-Brexit Britain. Returning from another trip to Dublin, it is apparent to me that Ireland is ready for the ‘Roaring Twenties’. Of course it has its problems. That, no one can deny. For example, one of my previous visits brought […]

Readers respond to an article suggesting a citizens’ assemblies could help pave the way to rejoining the European Union. Although I have the greatest respect for AC Grayling and cannot fault his analysis of the present political situation, nevertheless I find his proposed solution an unbelievably rosy response to it. “Imagine the effect of assemblies […]