9 h. ago My big night out: I finished the 1990s with fireworks, a funfair, flirting – and furious hope for the future

It was the end of a fabulous decade, when spontaneous, unpredictable parties seemed not just possible but typical. A new millennium was dawning. What could possibly go wrong?‘We wish you peace,” said Tony Blair as the clock struck 8pm. It was New Year’s Eve 1999, a Friday night, and I was on the banks of the Thames. Britain’s fresh-faced prime minister – only two years into the job – was giving a gimmick called The British Airways London Eye its first spin. The Eye was physically unremarkable and harrowingly slow, but it didn’t matter because it only had a five-year lease and definitely wouldn’t still be around a quarter of a century later, littering the skyline.It was the end of the 90s and, as the Thatcher/Major doldrums whizzed out of view like the subplot of Sliding Doors, we maintained a Bridget Jones-like innocence and entrusted the future to guys like Blair, Peter Mandelson and Bill Clinton, who didn’t seem like (respectively) warmongers, abuse excusers or sex pests. Continue...

Events

8 d. ago TRNSMT 2026: Festival stage times could change due to clash with Scotland World Cup game

A source close to TRNSMT also said organisers are considering showing the game after the Friday night performances are finished.

Politics

9 d. ago Flamboyant, furious and full of hope: CMAT is the sound of 2025 | John Harris

The Irish singer-songwriter does what the best musicians do: perfectly crystallising their time while inspirationally taking a stand against itWhat has it felt like to be alive in 2025? The basic answer probably touches on a few aspects of the 21st-century experience. One is the horror and conflict that seem to define the news almost every day. Another centres around the material pressures that increasingly grip supposedly peaceful countries: the never-ending cost of living crisis, and the impossibility for millions of people of a secure job, a dependable home and some halfway viable idea of the future.Something else demands a mention: the all-pervading mixture of absurdity, nastiness and anger fostered by the internet. Bigotry runs rampant. What we still rather laughably call social media now seem to operate on the basis that the ideal story mixes wildly improbable elements with the kicking-up of moral outrage (witness that ghoulish “online content creator” Bonnie Blue, who, having...

Politics

1 week ago ‘The game is gone’: Thomas Frank fumes over VAR decisions in Spurs loss

Manager says the ban Xavi Simons faces is ‘too harsh’Slot says his ‘gut feeling’ on Isak injury is not positiveA frustrated Thomas Frank took aim at two decisions, both involving the use of the video assistant referee system, that helped swing proceedings in Liverpool’s favour during his Tottenham side’s stormy 2-1 defeat on Saturday night.Spurs finished with nine men after Cristian Romero was dismissed while they sought an equaliser in added time. But it was the red card handed to Xavi Simons in the first half, upgraded from a yellow after the VAR had slowed down his late challenge on Virgil van Dijk, that infuriated Frank the most. He cut an animated figure on the touchline as Simons departed, and said later that John Brooks’s original decision should have stood. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago ‘I’ve never been on a river cruise before – one reason amazed me as a solo female traveller’

EXCLUSIVE: I set sail on a luxury seven-night river cruise starting in Amsterdam and finishing in Basel, Switzerland – and it was the perfect Christmas experience

Politics

1 week ago South London hall keeps its licence but late night parties will have to finish an hour earlier

South London hall keeps its licence but late night parties will have to finish an hour earlier  My London

Politics

2 w. ago Man City can unlock double Champions League benefit after Real Madrid win after UEFA decision

Manchester City beat Real Madrid 2-1 on Wednesday night to move a step closer to securing a top eight finish in the Champions League

Sport