Brexit isn’t working, and the British people know it. Poll after poll shows that people are feeling the terrible damage caused by the deal forced upon us by Boris Johnson, Kemi Badenoch and the rest of the Conservative party, and want something different. There’s no doubt that fundamental change is needed. There’s no doubt the … Read more
The fact that ageing Germany’s generous pension system is unsustainable is political Berlin’s worst-kept secret, but a controversial call to save it by hiking the retirement age to 70 has sparked howls of protest and threatened to destabilise the fractious government. The chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has largely sidestepped the ticking timebomb of the greying population … Read more
Karolina Wigura Jarosław Kuisz We were travelling across Poland by train the day after the country’s sensational parliamentary elections in autumn 2023. When news of the results came through, passengers in our compartment fell into each other’s arms, rejoicing as though a great weight had been lifted from their shoulders. Hard as it was to … Read more
Being a Muslim in a country with a long colonial history, which has also had to deal with terrorist attacks carried out in the name of Islam, is an everyday challenge. In January 2015, for example, I was as profoundly shocked as everyone else in France by the massacre of the Charlie Hebdo journalists in … Read more
The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, called for the creation of a European army earlier this year, suggesting that, this time, the continent might finally be serious. Defence budgets are rising. Threats are mounting. The US is distracted. Surely now is the moment. Except, of course, it isn’t. For all the political soundbites that rattle … Read more
The idea that if you really, really believe something you can make it happen seems to be the best explanation for Britain and France’s recent statements that they will recognise a Palestinianstate. No matter how fervent Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are, their fervour will not make an impossible thing happen. There is no Palestinian … Read more
Ursula von der Leyen’s Turnberry golf course deal has been rightly called a capitulation and a humiliation for Europe. Assuming such an accord would put an end to Donald Trump’s coercion and bullying was either naive or the result of a miserable delusion. The EU should now steel itself and reject the terms imposed by … Read more
Once a decade, Ukraine has a moment in which street protests redefine the country’s political direction. The Orange revolution of 2004; the Maidan revolution of 2014; and now, over the past 10 days, the first major wave of protest since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. A series of unexpectedly boisterous and well-attended demonstrations forced … Read more
If they survive Donald Trump’s attacks, the international courts will not deliver their final verdict for several years. But for all those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, there can be little doubt that the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza, slaughtering and starving civilians after systematically destroying all the infrastructure … Read more
A couple of weeks ago, I came across an Amy Poehler joke in which she sums up the different generational experiences of money: “Boomers are all about money. Gen X is like: ‘Is it all about money?’ Millennials ask: ‘Where is the money?’ And gen Z is like: ‘What is money?’” It made me laugh … Read more