Editorials and post-Brexit analysis
Researchers at LSE are making a forceful case for funding serious alternatives to GDP-driven economic growth. With climate and inequality pressures mounting, the debate is moving from the margins to the mainstream.
Keir Starmer has been in Downing Street for nearly a year, delivering patchy economic growth but failing to meaningfully ease NHS pressures or tame Channel crossings. Britain’s verdict on Labour is cautiously skeptical — for now.
The BBC has axed Ashley Cain’s BBC Three documentary series Into the Danger Zone following accusations of sexist language, confirming it has no future projects planned with him. The decision came swiftly after recordings circulated online prompting widespread public backlash.
Reform UK has led national opinion polls since early 2025 and converted that lead into 1,454 seat gains in this month’s local elections. The party’s trajectory raises a question that mainstream British politics has spent years avoiding: what happens when a populist insurgent achieves not just protest support but operational delivery?
The revised Victims’ Rights Directive comes to plenary debate today at 13:00 in Strasbourg, ahead of Thursday’s final vote. For the 75 million Europeans who fall victim to crime each year, this represents the most significant reform of EU victim-protection legislation in more than a decade.
The World Bank’s April 2026 Commodity Markets Outlook projects Brent crude at an average of $86 a barrel this year, up from $69 in 2025. For European industry, the question is whether the Continent’s energy-cost competitiveness can withstand a prolonged Hormuz disruption.
The Patrick Bruel #MeToo affair entered a new phase on Monday 18 May 2026 with the singer breaking his silence on Instagram, denying allegations from over 30 women whose complaints have now been regrouped at the Nanterre prosecutor’s office.
The EU-Mercosur agreement enters provisional application on 1 May, but its real significance is strategic, not commercial: it is the EU’s most explicit answer to the Trump administration’s protectionist turn, and a test of whether democracies can still write the rules of global trade.
As the Iran war drags into its third month, the European Union is being forced to confront a question it has spent two decades avoiding: what is Europe’s defence doctrine when the United States is preoccupied elsewhere? The June FAC and the autumn European Council must move beyond the rhetoric of strategic autonomy to deliver something operational.
Why the European Central Bank’s most difficult challenge in 2026 may be holding the line against a premature reaction to a supply-side energy shock.
