Opinion

With the government’s white paper set to be published, JAMES BALL argues that a hypersoft Brexit just doesn’t work – despite its appeal. Whenever a complex political deal is presented to ministers – but not to those of us who vote for them – a good rule of thumb to judge it is usually to […]

Chaos. Disarray. Mayhem. But is anyone really surprised? itemtype='https://schema.org/VideoObject'> Brexit has been bedlam since the beginning – and there will be more confusion and tumult to come. There will be no tears shed over the resignations of David Davis or Boris Johnson. Both were inadequate at best. But Theresa May needs to take some of […]

Many years ago, I was among environmentalist campaigners who were labelled ‘terrorists’ in the press. We did not deserve this because we were seeking not to damage the country but to save the world, based on scientifically-agreed, evidence-based, truths. Our crime was to protest against new coal-fired power stations. But now it is my turn […]

It’s interesting that Theresa May lectures other EU leaders on security, even though it has always been low on her agenda if present at all. It’s almost as though she was trying to generate supportive headlines in the British press rather than negotiating with other EU leaders. It looks to me like May knows that […]

The fact that there are actual positions regarding a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit, when in fact there is just Brexit, is one of the hallmarks of our current Age Of Absurdity writes BONNIE GREER The fact that there are actual positions regarding a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit, when in fact there […]

Two years on from the referendum, the public call for a People’s Vote vote is clear. Some 48% of voters now say they want a second poll on the final deal Theresa May negotiates with the EU, compared to just 25% who disagree. This is hardly a surprise. A report from the Centre for European […]

Does Tony Blair help the cause to remain in the European Union – or does he hinder it? I was pleased to read Alastair Campbell’s article in last week’s TNE defending the Blair government’s record. I am astonished how much liberal vitriol there is against Blair until I realise that it largely comes from younger […]

I discovered I was truly European a long time ago. I am 87 now and was 20 then. We were cycling in Holland and Belgium and there was devastation everywhere. Among the ruins of Rotterdam, which the Germans had flattened, the piledrivers were at work. My family had earlier been bombed out in London and […]

You wait years for a bus question at PMQs and then six come along all at once. Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn during Prime Minister’s Questions – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images And fair play to Jeremy Corbyn. He is right to use his unique opportunity to quiz the prime minister every week to highlight the […]

The resistance against Donald Trump has been led by women. But, says CAROLINE CRIADO PEREZ, plans for a protest in London have proved problematic When Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, women around the world said: ‘Enough.’ It wasn’t just that a man had beaten a woman. It was that this man […]

The People’s Vote march received just the kind of snarky criticism we have all come to expect, says MITCH BENN. Like many of you in body and all of you in spirit, I imagine, I spent Saturday last taking part in what became known as the People’s Vote March, and have the badly sunburnt ever-expanding […]

Readers that marched in London last weekend have a lot to say about the Labour leader missing the event and those that are defending his position. The world is certainly changing. I attended the very inspiring People’s Vote march in London. It was the biggest demonstration I have ever been on without either Jeremy Corbyn […]

Surely even Theresa May must agree that Boris Johnson’s alleged response of ‘f*** business’ to a question at a diplomatic event about business concerns about Brexit renders his position untenable. For most of us in the UK, business is essential to our very survival. Business provides employment. Business enables us to put a meal on […]

Government ministers call the Airbus warning ‘part of a new Project Fear’. They would do well to take this warning seriously. Shortly before his death, I sat with one of the team who had negotiated the agreement for Broughton to manufacture the wings of these multinational European projects. He told me of the determination, of […]

The events of the referendum night, writes JAMES BALL, shine a fascinating light on the world of finance, polling and politics It was the week a major news organisation accused Nigel Farage of perhaps the most cynical manipulation of financial markets in history Bloomberg, the international financial news agency, suggested the former UKIP leader might […]

With another chaotic week for the cabinet unravelling, this should have been like taking candy from a baby for Jeremy Corbyn – but once again he flattered to deceive. Theresa May speaks during Prime Minister’s Questions Photo: PA – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images Don’t get me wrong, he has certainly had worse outings at the […]

Why are so many immune to the impending disaster facing us? Geroge Orwell would recognise the answer. George Orwell wrote in The Prevention Of Literature that ‘freedom of the press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose’. And: ‘In the past… the idea of rebellion and the idea of […]

A quick puzzle for you and your readers… the following quote belongs to who? ‘Any new law needs to be debated, We don’t have legislation by decree – that is what they have in Putin’s Russia or Erdogan’s Turkey. ‘What is our defence against legislation by decree? It is our parliament and the right of […]

Theresa May plainly took notice of Boris Johnson’s desire to see what Brexit would look like if it was negotiated by Donald Trump. In the last few days she has moved from hapless jargon-spouting bureaucrat to brazen liar. She has lied to Dominic Grieve and the rebels and lied that extra money for the NHS […]

With only nine months left before our EU exit, we have no coherent government proposal for Brexit which even meets Theresa May’s own commitments. With only nine months left before our EU exit, we have no coherent government proposal for Brexit which even meets Theresa May’s own commitments. At the same time, there must be […]

Wearing Thatcher blue, a defiant Theresa May looked steely and confident as she walked into the Commons amid cheers from her MPs. Prime minister Theresa May speaks during Prime Minister’s Questions Photo: PA – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images But Jeremy Corbyn appeared determined as well – going on the Brexit dividend and asking ‘what taxes […]

JAMES BALL deconstructs Corbyn’s economically illiterate talking heads If Brexit is the biggest issue affecting your life then you must be doing alright. I'm happy for you. Most people have to worry about more pressing issues than the UK's post-Brexit institutional arrangements. Stop confusing your only concern with the country's main priority — Matt Zarb-Cousin […]

Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership was built on democratic foundations, it’s time for him to give us a say on Brexit, writes Antony Thomas. As a long-time socialist and Jeremy Corbyn supporter (from the days when it was unfashionable to be one), I am mystified not just by Labour’s response to the absolute Tory chaos of Brexit, […]

The co-ordinated Twitter bashing by key Corbynistas shows what the Labour leader really thinks of Brexit, writes Jonathan Hendrick. https://twitter.com/mattzarb/status/1005410512522407936 The co-ordinated Twitter bashing of Remainers by several Corbyn surrogates ahead of this week’s big parliamentary votes leave us in little doubt what Labour’s leadership really thinks of Brexit. We’re told by Matt Zarb-Cousin, Aaron […]

Your editorials advocating a People’s Vote on whatever terms Theresa May may negotiate in Brussels are welcome but do not explain the democratic necessity for such a ballot. So here it is. The UK entered the common market in 1973. Heath pushed the decision through parliament. There was no national debate ahead of accession on […]

As the World Cup kicks off in Russia, MITCH BENN is inspired by David Beckham’s never-give-up attitude to his England career. The World Cup is upon us again; I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t seem to be capturing the public’s imagination quite so inescapably as on previous occasions. Perhaps the genial madness attending […]

In the end it was another fudge, another desperate bid to avoid a spat with either Tory Leavers or Remainers. And now the next five days will be key for Theresa May: the battle over exactly what will be in the Brexit Bill when it goes back to the House of Lords starts here. In […]

At a pedestrian crossing in Bucharest a woman overheard us speaking English and said to us: ‘You are English, why are you in Romania?’ When we looked bemused at her question, she added: ‘The English, they hate the Romanians. I know. My sister lives in England.’ It turned out she had visited her sister here […]

However much hardship a straight white guy may have to deal with, there are whole worlds of hardship he’ll never experience, says MITCH BENN. Something which most outwardly progessive-thinking people can generally be expected to agree upon is the principle of the level playing field. This is, of course, the idea that a person should […]

It was striking to note the portents of doom heralded by various sections of the media around the issue of the so-called constitutional crisis besetting Italy. This was, as they saw it, yet another nail in the EU’s coffin post-Brexit. Much to their disappointment, this issue was quickly resolved, with a new populist government comprising […]

The whole country now has a real need to step back and do a reality check as to where we actually are with regard to Brexit, and the unbelievably ridiculous proposals being put forward by people in charge. The justice secretary David Gauke has stated that prisoners will be able to fill the post-Brexit workforce […]

Following the cancellation of sitcom Roseanne, BONNIE GREER looks at the changing landscape of American television. America is and was built on myth. It is impossible to understand the US, to live and thrive there, without knowing this and somehow, in the end, becoming a part of it, too. Every American carries within herself/himself myth […]