May and her awful approach to this process has been the finest incentive for a Final Say we could have hoped for

As more and more climate change-related tragedies occur across the global south, it is essential that western societies find the empathy required to deal with our global crisis

All political careers end in failure, but this prime minister has never really had any success

We don't like the idea of robots taking our jobs, so why do we think it'd be a good idea to let them lead? Let's stop being ludicrous and consider whether we really would be prepared to sacrifice democracy for technocracy

The prime minister’s angry refusal to countenance any Brexit plan but her own has left her petulant, defiant and doomedAttempting to turn voters’

The prime minister is right: parliament – including her – has let the people down. It is time to put it back to the people for a decision

Sweeping the subject of working mothers under the carpet only implies there isn’t a problemThere are times in every parent’s life when, however much they try to avoid it, the professional and the domestic messily collide. It happened to me a few years ago when, during a teachers’ training day, I took my seven-year-old with me to interview Joan Collins over lunch. Collins was delighted at her presence and ordered her a giant bowl of ice-cream. However, halfway through the conversation, she suddenly looked startled, fumbled under the table for a bit, and then pulled out a sticky, pink-spattered Chanel shoe. “I do believe dear Lily has dropped ice-cream in my shoe,” she announced, looking a little pained.

Unemployment figures are at a historic low but there are also bleaker parallels with the 1970s Britain’s recent jobs record has been remarkable. The economy is chugging along but the last time

A friend of the family who worked with the Trumps told me years ago that 'Ivanka is the brains of the family and she's the one who actually runs things — he just shows up to sign stuff. If it weren't for her, Trump would be broke'

This is a medication which costs $34,000, according to its own manufacturer, and which insurers have yet to evaluate. Will anyone except the wealthy realistically get to access it?

Theresa May would be wise to learn from Tony Blair’s mistake over IraqIt is still just about possible, with a sustained deployment of the imagination, to conceive of a set of circumstances in which Theresa May might still be able to regard her Brexit policy as a success. If, for instance, she agrees in Brussels on Thursday on the conditional short extension offered by Donald Tusk on Wednesday ; if she gets her third “meaningful vote” motion past the Speaker next week; if her MPs take Tusk’s offer seriously; if she proves better at persuading enough of them to back her deal than in the past, then – just possibly – it may all seem to have been worthwhile. Or at least it may do so for about 48 hours, until the leadership challenge begins and the policy conflicts of the next – and longer – phase of Brexit negotiations with the EU start to split her party yet again.

When former Senator Harry Reid of Nevada chose to end the filibuster for judicial nominees in 2013, he received a warning from then-Minority Leader Mitch McConnell that Reid would regret the move he made. McConnell was right

Theresa May has put no deal firmly back on the table in flagrant defiance of parliament and the dictates of responsible governmentTo achieve anything in EU diplomacy it helps to speak European. That does not require a command of continental languages. What matters, when dealing at the highest level in Brussels, is an ability to acknowledge the common political and economic interests that underpin the whole European project. Theresa May has no fluency in that idiom. She cannot even fake it. Since becoming prime minister, her relations with the EU have been marked by tin-eared diplomacy. She is bad enough at cultivating relationships in Westminster. In Brussels she has none.

Damaging both to the producers and the consumers, online pornography is finally being tackledSuccessive governments have been under pressure to control

Readers respond to an article by John Harris claiming Britain’s current crisis is rooted in the power of our public schoolsJohn Harris suggests that obliging elite universities to admit no more than 7% of their students from private schools would obviate the need to abolish these socially and culturally damaging institutions (

Craig Bennett

Margaret Owen

Letters from

Conceptualising this disorder as a disease wrongly suggests the origin of the problem lies within people, writes

Kilimanjaro’s guides and porters | Late Junction | Female priests | Getting to and from walksSkilled, experienced and encouraging local guides and porters ensured we reached the peak of Kilimanjaro in 2017. They supported us and everyone else I know who has reached the peak through the pain, emotion and challenge, but they were nowhere in evidence in the recent BBC coverage of the celebrity ascent for Comic Relief. Is this another example of white saviours doing it alone (

Brexit just got serious. If parliament can somehow take control, EU leaders must take pity and offer a long delayWhen European leaders discuss Brexit on Thursday, they should have in mind a fundamental question: is the EU just a union of governments, or is it also a Europe of citizens, peoples, democracy and destiny? If it’s just the former, they should continue the current mainstream Brussels line of trying to help Theresa May to get her deal over the line, and the UK out of the European Union as soon as possible. If Europe is also the latter,

Pia Kjaersgaard's message to Mette Abildgaard raises the question of how welcoming the country's political sphere can truly be for women and working mothers

A new Tory leader could take us all the way to 2022. That gives them time to deliver the most disastrous vision of Brexit possible

Forget the parent protests. Children need to be taught that their identities are valid – and Andrea Leadsom needs to apologise One of the most dangerous and destructive things in the world is shame. Shame can burrow into you so deep that it shrinks the brain and constricts the heart.

The PM’s insistence on a short Brexit extension confirms her as a broken reed and a prisoner of the hardline ERGNo matter how bad you think Theresa May is, she always manages to get worse. Her record of insisting on one thing, only to U-turn weeks, days or even hours later is almost impressive in its scope. There would be no snap election, she vowed – and then there was one. Her Brexit deal would be subject to a

We live in an age when a slogan on the side of a bus shapes opinion. Headlines can too

The idea that 'national voting' would result in politicians like Warren investing more time in places like Mississippi, rather than freeing them to pour their energy into densely populated coastal cities, is laughable

Charles and Camilla are the latest to arrive and help whitewash the injustices of slavery and empireOnce upon a time monarchs ruled by divine right, then later with

An open letter to Independent readers from supporters of For our Future's Sake

Setting fire to a brasserie frequented by the French elite symbolises the gilets jaunes’ rejection of the ‘president of the rich’It’s become a kind of ritual: every Saturday evening, there are new images of thousands of

The high-speed rail network may never be built any further north than Birmingham. It is utterly nonsensicalYesterday, on the day a

No-deal Brexit, Norway, a people’s vote, a long delay – everything else on the table is bound to failBritain faces a constitutional crisis, according to many, including at least one cabinet minister. But is it a crisis simply because the rules regulating parliament make life difficult for the government? A conflict between government and parliament is almost inevitable when, as with Brexit, the government cannot command a majority of votes in the Commons. But there is a deeper crisis within parliament itself. MPs have put the

No-carbers have brought about an unexpected renaissance for the cauliflower as a basis for flour or rice – while some claim it can be a substitute for meat You wouldn’t think there was much space to innovate with a cauliflower. It’s such an unarguable thing, unmistakeable in appearance, inimitable in texture – dense and grainy, but with an underlying softness, like a gruff prison officer who secretly teaches people to read. But cauliflower is having its own technological revolution, an unexpected renaissance driven by the people who have excluded all the regular stuff from their diet and now need something to eat. Low-carb diets – paleo, keto, Dukan, there are even some old timers still doing Atkins – have been around since the late 80s, and enjoy regular surges in popularity every time obsessions reemerge over whether carbs are bad for you. Call carbs the old-fashioned slimmers’ exclusion. Veganism, pescetarianism and everything else in between are ethical exclusions, with perfectly sound and demonstrable foundations in sustainability and animal welfare; indeed, think too hard about it and we would all have to do it. And gluten is the allergy/intolerance exclusion.

People have a right to know what’s behind their flooding or heatwave. The UK is lagging behind other countries They have a national reach that most climate campaigners would die for. They are familiar and respected experts on the science of meteorology. And they have prime-time slots at the end of almost every TV news bulletin, morning, noon and night. But the weather forecasters who guide everything from our clothing choices to our weekend plans seldom – if ever – mention the issue that is increasingly shaping our beloved British weather: climate change. This week, former BBC weatherman Bill Giles broke cover, and called for the BBC and other major broadcasters

Please send your letters to letters@independent.co.uk

No extension to article 50, a short extension or a long one: the fog of Brexit lies too heavy to see the lie of the landOne thousand days since the referendum and nine to the UK’s formal departure date and the EU does not yet know how, when or even if the UK will leave the union. The mood in Brussels and national capitals remains focused, but there is growing impatience with Theresa May and her government. Even those member states that are traditionally friendly towards the UK have toughened their stance. The overwhelming view is that

Not talking about LGBT+ people doesn't make these people disappear. Erasing our existence from the curriculum will only serve to sigmatise LGBT+ children

We’re begging for an extension and seeking trade deals with the mighty Liechtenstein. Everything is fineAsk any country “what are you doing in nine days’ time?” and it would go something like this: Sweden? “Same old, same old.”

Enduring low productivity, in an era of tight labour supply and weakened collective worker voice, is the big story here

Patients would take comfort in health professionals who know exactly what they're going through. So why don't we embrace that more?

He remains closely involved with his father's political plans and his article in the Telegraph has to be seen as an intervention by the US administration, not a disinterested private individual

For democracy to be restored in Venezuela, Cuba should be pushed into withdrawing its forces

What the Liberal Democrats needed was a dynamic leader, but what they got was a sensible caretakerWhen Vince Cable became leader of the Liberal Democrats in 2017 – almost by default, as one of the few left standing – he deserved it. His had been a career defined by his party colleagues failing to harness his talents, and at last he had secured its top job. But last week he announced

A sport that trades off its environmental credentials is getting used to a life funded by the fossil fuel industries

We can defeat the ruling rightwing populist party – then help Emmanuel Macron to reform the EU French president Emmanuel Macron’s

Politicians have little in common with the people who pay for them. It’s a national failure that they fail to reflect their views You may have heard that Britain is in crisis. Indeed, there’s a good chance that you will have heard little else. Turn on the TV, and a political reporter brings tidings of a fresh crisis for Theresa May. Flick on the radio, glance across the front pages, and one word will be splashed over and over again. Some mornings it seems the UK is under aerial bombardment from a noun. But what a funny, contained emergency it is, full of Westminster people doing Westminster maths and deploying their Westminster terms. It is as if someone has drawn a thick red line along the perimeter of the parliamentary estate and labelled it, in big and self-important letters: National Crisis. Look at the politicians and pundits cramming the studio sofas, chattering about

No one knows if Mary Anning had lovers. But what a new film does get right is the vital role women played in her life

Rightwing populists think voters obsess about immigration. But that’s not the case Democratic politics need drama. Elections are a form of therapy session in which voters are confronted with their worst fears – a new war, demographic collapse, economic crisis, environmental horror – but become convinced they have the power to avert the devastation. “As the election approaches,”

As a software engineer, I know extremist content can be curbed. After Christchurch, it’s more urgent than ever Like so many, I was shocked to the core by the recent

EU officials have started pondering the possibility of an article 50 extension