Our chief political commentator assesses the prime minister's chances of survival if she is defeated on Tuesday

Europe does not have a robust plan for effective, legitimate decision-making mechanisms to deal with inequality. It is welcome that some are being suggestedEuropean leaders will gather in Brussels this week and face questions about how responsive the continent’s political systems can be to the voters’ concerns. No one is likely to be pleased with the response. Instead of accelerating plans to meet the challenge of

Everyone expects Theresa May to lose the big Brexit vote this week: what is it, and why is her deal so unpopular?

We need to reduce inequality within countries, not between them, and invest in the future of all EuropeansSince the election of anti-European governments across the EU, and with Brexit looming, it is no longer possible to continue as before. We cannot simply wait for the next departures, or further dismantling without making fundamental changes to present-day Europe.Our continent is caught between political movements whose programme is confined to

Theresa May's offer to give her Brexit rebels a say over the guarantee of an open border in Ireland is not what it seems

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Readers discuss ways to ease the pressures on the NHS, including the role played by volunteersThe appalling statistics on excess winter deaths in England and Wales (

100 academics, authors, politicians and campaigners from across the world call for action to address climate changeIn our complex, interdependent global ecosystem, life is dying, with species extinction accelerating. The climate crisis is worsening much faster than previously predicted. Every single day 200 species are becoming extinct. This desperate situation can’t continue. Political leaders worldwide are failing to address the environmental crisis. If global corporate capitalism continues to drive the international economy, global catastrophe is inevitable.

Joining the EEA and Efta is no solution, says

Banning asylum seekers from working doesn’t make economic sense, says

Technical education | Hope for lefties | First woman to host Question Time | David Szalay | Monarchy referendumThere is a direct correlation between immigration and the loss of places in technical education (

Buckle up in preparation for a week of unprecedentedly feverish mayhem that will end, as it will begin, in a haze of weary mystification

was wonderfully receptive to programme ideas outside the usual formats. I was keen to bring John Gielgud’s great fund of theatrical stories to a national audience, and proposed taking him into the radio studio every day for a fortnight to get them all down on the record. When my producer colleague John Powell took the proposal to her, Monica accepted it immediately, and the 11-part series was so popular that we had publishers queueing up to turn the broadcasts into a book. That led to my new career as a theatrical biographer. So I will always be enormously grateful to Monica for her faith in that unusual idea.

Our politicians are failing to rise to the challenge of finding a calm solution to the Brexit crisis in these populist timesIncredible though it seems, the most important political question facing the nation this week is not the fate of the prime minister. Indeed, the prospect of her resignation, or a vote of confidence in her leadership, is a distraction – albeit a compelling one – from the main event. True enough, the race to succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader is now most definitely up and running. Pressed by the BBC’s Andrew Marr on his leadership ambitions,

The most frustrating aspect of the process is that parliament has been unable to set a path forward for the nation – and the next few days will merely confirm that fact

Even if we manage to achieve the deal, we would be out of the EU yet accepting EU law without a say. It won’t please anyoneSpare a thought this Christmas for the Norwegian tourist board. In the halcyon days before the EU referendum, British minds would have associated the country most with the northern lights, midnight sun and saltwater fjords. Now all anyone can think about is its membership of the single market. If we assume the government does go ahead with the vote on its Brexit deal this week – and loses it – the

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BBC demands re-edit of documentary No Stone Unturned as reporters are arrested This is a story about journalists and a threat to press freedom. It is also a story about journalistic courage and, perversely, one about journalistic failure. Before we get there, however, it is necessary to provide a giant slab of context. We are in Northern Ireland, where farce and tragedy have so often been intertwined, and this latest manifestation centres on the aftermath of six murders committed in 1994. Here is the tragedy. On a June evening, men were gathered in a small bar in a County Down village to watch Ireland play Italy in a World Cup match when two men wearing boiler suits and balaclavas burst through the door.

Many people outside the industry believe drag is only good when gay cis men do it. But queer women, non-binary people, and other trans people deserve access to the art of satire

As Michigan and Wisconsin pass bills stripping newly elected Democrats of power, we need legislative solutions to show the country it’s not business as usual What Republican legislators just did in Wisconsin – passing bills to

We see such a focus on mental health in the public eye, but GPs do not feel the options available for treatment are enough

There is a real danger that if we give the government too much credit before the job of combating financial corruption is even nearly finished, it won't get done at all

Veganism suddenly seems to be everywhere. Here’s why I’m finding it so vexing… Speaking as a meat-eater, I find it annoying how many vegans there suddenly are. I suspect a few other meat-eaters feel the same. Do you, some meat-eaters, if you’re really honest with yourselves? It’s not a good look, I realise, to appear annoyed with groups of people living their lives in the way they choose without harming others – and, in the case of vegans, taking the not-harming-others to considerable lengths. Nevertheless I’m going to stick my neck out (also not a good look) because it’s true. I’m not asking you other meat-eaters to do the same. You never have to seem annoyed, just to privately ask yourselves whether you find all these vegans slightly annoying.

Why are Oxbridge students so dominant in the upper reaches of certain professions? Many will say it's because so many smart children tend to go there. And that may well be true to a certain extent. But it's not the whole story

Peta’s alternatives to ‘speciesist’ phrases trivialise more harmful terminology As a career reptile – the late Denis Thatcher’s word for the class that also includes Paul Dacre and James Delingpole – I can see some merit in Peta’s plan to make people speak more

The prime minister has little chance of winning Tuesday’s vote on her Brexit deal. But at least defeat will open up possible escape routes from this nightmare

Mark Zuckerberg might truly believe that it’s not a normal corporation but emails about its ruthless business practices tell the real story to its users The spell has been weakening for a while, but last week it finally broke: Facebook is just a company, like the rest. We’ve suspected it for a while, thanks in part to the reporting of

The gilets jaunes protests are not only about economics but political disaffection “Can we borrow him?”

Macron’s failure to listen is fuelling the fury of the protesters The French are unhappy with their lot. What’s new? France has a tradition of noisy public protest dating back 50 years to the

After a barnstorming speech in the Brexit debate, the MP makes a patriotic case for EuropeThe European Union was once just an audacious dream. A fragile hope built out of the ashes of two world wars. European integration was not just a project led by the French and the Germans; from its birth, the UK had been an active parent. It was built on the values we sacrificed so much to protect: democracy, equality, human rights and freedom. Many of the Britain’s leaders in the 20th century – Clement Atlee, Harold Macmillan, Roy Jenkins, Harold Wilson – understood this first hand. And it was Winston Churchill who, in Zurich in 1946, first showed the courage and vision to

Readers will forgive me if I’m more than a little boily-hotty about the daily commuteI find little more cheering than a heartfelt plea from a fellow grump, and stepping boldly forward this week is John Williams, who wrote deploring the adding of “y” to nouns to make adjectives. He lays the blame at the door of EH Shepard and his illustration of the

With the exit deal set for a resounding rejection and an abject lack of leadership, it’s finally time to give the voters a sayThe choice facing MPs on Tuesday – whether to approve the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU negotiated by the prime minister – is the most important postwar decision parliament has confronted. It will irrevocably shape our nation’s future, Britain’s status and influence in the world, our economic competitiveness and the rights of future generations to live, study and work across a continent. Theresa

Italy’s harassment of MSF’s efforts to rescue migrants at sea is a stain on EuropeIt was the most shameful piece of news from the past week. Yet it was

Trump might have a point in his anxiety about Xi’s ambitions on the technology frontThe arrest and request for extradition of a top executive of one of the world’s biggest tech companies is scarcely business as usual. But that is what happened to Huawei’s chief financial officer,

How a leaked ‘guide’ on entering such places could show how far compassion can truly stretch A leaked letter from Conservative campaign headquarters has found its way into the hands of the

Teachers aren’t averse to carrying out parental duties in principle – but only if they are given training and resourcesAmanda Spielman states that teachers “shouldn’t have to carry out parental duties” (“

After examining the alternatives, remain-voting Tory MP David Gauke believes parliament has to support the prime ministerThis Tuesday, the House of Commons votes on the deal agreed by the government with the European Union on the terms of our departure. For some of my colleagues, they are concerned that the deal is not sufficiently pure a Brexit to satisfy them. For others, the deal takes us too far away from EU membership.

His association with extremist Ted Malloch is more disturbing than the newfound distaste for his partyNigel Farage clutched his pearls and

Ghosts past and present haunt the Commons vote on Theresa May’s Brexit deal

The interlocking preferences, wishful thinking and tribal loyalties of 650 MPs make the vote, and what follows, impossible to predict

It’s a travesty that her sympathetic psychopath Villanelle was overlooked for a nominationThe announcement of this year’s

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When platforms try too hard to cater to what they think their audiences want, they'll inevitably overstep the invisible line

The choice is May's deal, no deal, or no Brexit (after a referendum). I suspect that Johnson knows that the last of those options represents much the best option for him

To conflate fascism with Leave voters not only provides him with what he wants – leadership – but negates all legitimate criticism of the EU and reasons for voting to leave

I voted for it in the Lords when it looked like a port in the storm. But the ship has now sailed on and there is no turning back

As long as the people choosing where to invest the money are men, the industry will be shaped by the male gaze, which has been proven to denigrate the work of women

Nigel Farage described Theresa May's Brexit deal as the worst in history. Not so fast...

A mix of traditional, Soviet and modern styles, Georgia is a tricky place to pin down. But that’s half the fun of it for Suzanne Moore and her friend We are on the midnight plane to Georgia. In various stages of inebriation, me and Dave WhatsApp this to our grown-up children. It’s not our fault. Nothing ever is. Our Georgian Airways flight, the last one out of Gatwick, is delayed. What else is there to do but dutiful duty free? Dave is my compadre, the finest travelling companion a woman could wish for. The best thing about her is that she will go absolutely anywhere but also has no idea where anywhere is. Except France – which she has taken against to such an extent that even French people speaking French near her makes her extremely annoyed. She can sniff out pretension at 100km, not that she knows what a kilometre is. And God help anyone she calls “piss-elegant”.

Anyone who can’t throw, catch, or touch someone without crashing into them like a concussed bull can derail the whole thing. I was that person There is an elbow of the Thames that is so full of sporty types – towpath riddled with joggers, hockey clubs to the left of you, rowers to the right – that by the time I reached the rugby club, I was sort of done with fitness. It’s 8pm on a Wednesday, I thought; when I was the age of these rugby players, I’d have been out drinking for at least three hours by now. But the O2

The latest mooted Brexit plan won’t do. To achieve Europe-wide social change, Labour must find a way to remain in the EUIn Britain’s unfolding constitutional crisis, Theresa May is living with the consequences of a series of decisions calculated to keep hold of the keys to No 10. By establishing “red lines” she knew were unrealistic, the prime minister presented herself as the custodian of the interests of the 52%, promising to deliver on the

The Brexit coverage has become entertainment – but a sense of formality would dignify the public’s apprehension What is a national crisis? Eighty years ago the social researchers Charles Madge and Tom Harrisson decided it was “one of those things, like epidemics and earthquakes, which suddenly arrive to threaten the security of ordinary lives. In the ordinary way, the interest of private people in public events is fitful and vague: at times of crisis it extends and increases.” As the founders of the