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Ian Birrell

Columnist & Foreign Correspondent

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Feature / Politics

End the farce of MPs taking second jobs

Published by The i paper (8th November, 2021) Sir John Major was on fiery form interviewed over the weekend by the BBC, lashing out at the arrogant, corrupt […]

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Politics

How Brexit could shatter Britain’s two-party politics

Published by CapX (15th March, 2019) On the day the coalition government was formed, I found myself briefly alone with an exhausted David Cameron as he was about […]

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Policy / Politics / Transport

A symbol of corrosive failure

Published by The i paper (11th February, 2019) Flying home on Saturday night from Denmark after reporting on another European nation demeaned by nativism, I flicked through a […]

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Europe / European Union / Politics

When will we define Brexit?

Published by the ipaper (14th January, 2019) Even the word sounds like a curse now. Once the idea of Brexit was wrapped up in flickering images of past […]

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Policy / Politics / Transport

Whoops – there go the railways, says Westminster’s answer to Mr Bean

Published by The Guardian (20th September, 2018) Imagine you were running a business and one of your senior managers left a trail of disaster in their wake. First, […]

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Politics

Stand up to the incompetent Brexit bullies

Published by The i paper (11th June, 2018) You might think an outbreak of trade war would make even the most ardent Brexiteer question the wisdom of quitting […]

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Europe / European Union / Politics

So many arguments for Brexit. They can’t all be right

Published by The i Paper & The Independent (22nd February, 2016) During one of last year’s election debates, Nigel Farage tried to grab the public’s attention with a […]

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Crime / Policy

To get really tough on crime, we must help prisoners

Published by The i Paper & The Independent (8th February, 2016) For many years ministers privately complained that even the most carefully chosen chief inspector of prisons rapidly […]

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Politics

Tories would do well to read those deleted speeches

Published in The Guardian (November 15th, 2013) Lynton Crosby, the hard-nosed Australian strategist being paid £500,ooo to ensure the Conservatives win the next election, has a phrase regularly heard […]

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Crime / Policy / Politics

One step forward on probation, then one giant step back on jails

Published in The Guardian (January 11th, 2013) According to the latest figures there are 83,632 locked up in English and Welsh prisons. This is an obscenely large number […]

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Crime / Policy / Politics

Could Chris Grayling be the ultimate Tory moderniser?

Published in The Independent (September 22nd, 2012) So here we go again: an apparently hardline new justice minister throwing red meat to the baying wolves. Chris Grayling, having […]

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Ian Birrell is an award-winning columnist, foreign correspondent, feature writer and investigative journalist. He is contributing editor of The Mail on Sunday, a weekly columnist in The i Paper and writes frequently for other papers and platforms. He is also co-founder with Damon Albarn of Africa Express, the acclaimed collaborative music project. (Pictured: Talking to refugees in Iraq fleeing Islamic State)... Read More.

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