#brexit

#brexit

The Birmingham reggae band UB40 began as a quintessential product of the troubled era when Margaret Thatcher was the UK's prime minister, archly taking their name from the attendance card needed to claim unemployment benefit, and singing songs about life at the sharp end of her rule. Their peak period lasted until the early- to mid-1990s. In 2008, there came a rupture due to management and business disputes rather than anything musical which opened the way to the choice that now confronts

It had been trailed for a few months ahead, and I'd sworn off it; the living nightmare that was Brexit was only a few months old and Wetherspoon's Tim Martin was one of its most gracelessly triumphant fuglemen. He could keep his (incredibly cheap) pints and his (superhumanly fast) nuggets. I didn't cave piecemeal as soon as I set eyes on the Royal Victoria Pavilion, renovated, now the world's largest Wetherspoon's, I was overswept by its charm.

"We've been asked to diversify," he said, "and when we try to do that, the local authorities tell us we can't - and that needs addressing."

Bringing in workers to provide services is difficult, it's an obstacle that we want to remove and we are working bilaterally with the British government to allow skilled workers to be brought in to provide services in the United Kingdom,

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier made a rallying cry for Europe's future global competitiveness at a City of London banquet, as he wrapped up the second day of his UK state visit. Addressing guests inside the historic Guildhall in the British capital's financial district on Thursday, Steinmeier urged the continent to adopt some of the so-called Square Mile's innovative "spirit" to counter a narrative of decline.

But the scandal did not begin with a single programme or a single misjudgement. Close to the centre of this crisis is Robbie Gibb, a man who has spent more than a decade shaping the BBC's political coverage, zig-zagging between the BBC and the Conservative government while advancing his own partisan project that has distorted the corporation's journalism on Brexit, Trump and, eventually, Gaza.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Super Dom! At a time of heightened worries about national security, who better than Dominic Cummings to shine a light on the murky world of spying? The man who turned a drive to Barnard Castle into an advert for SpecSavers. The man who gave us Brexit. Which one of us didn't vote for a 4% hit to GDP? The man who gave us Boris Johnson.

It's been nearly a decade since Manchester United last tasted victory against Liverpool at Anfield. Their 1-0 triumph in January 2016 marked the club's most recent success on the home turf of their fiercest rivals Liverpool and it has been a painful trip ever since. As we approach another huge clash between these two historic clubs, why not take a look back at what the world looked like during that time nine years ago?

The EU shocked the UK steel industry on Tuesday with an announcement of 50% import tariffs with no apparent carve-out for metal crossing the Channel. The EU is the UK's biggest customer: 78% of all UK steel exports, or 1.9m tonnes, went to the bloc in 2024. The prospect of punitive tariffs on a large chunk of that would make many British products uncompetitive overnight.

Brexit is never over and it's about to get a bit worse. As the moribund Tories assemble this Sunday, it's still their only tune, as if they haven't noticed how the public mood has changed. Brexit is the root cause of all their woes, with almost all the 61% of those people who call it a failure blaming the Conservatives the most.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls.

Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.