Leader: The year of living dangerously
In a new era of permanent crisis, the past 12 months demonstrated the power of leadership – for good…
ByThe Magazine
In this week’s issue
Christmas Special
Letter of the week: Devolved thinking
Write to [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
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Tory MP Stuart Andrew finds himself an unlikely hero of the left
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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Immigration isn’t undermining British religiousness – it’s the only thing sustaining it
From Stormzy to Bukayo Saka, the future of Christianity is often to be found in black and brown people.
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Ian Hislop’s Diary: Getting the choir back together, remembering John Sessions, and what politicians forget about A Christmas Carol
If Jeremy Hunt is “playing Scrooge”, he should give a free goose to every household.
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Discovering Britain’s lost rainforests
The environmentalist Guy Shrubsole on saving our ancient woods.
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Can Keir Starmer’s vision of the great “unbinding” of Britain save the Union?
Labour hopes its devolution proposals will hold the country together.
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Even in a season of goodwill, I look back in anger at the Tory mess that was 2022
It will take us a long time – far more than a single parliamentary term – to recover.
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We held a Christmas ceasefire in 1914. Surely we can manage a Brexit truce now?
Let Remainers drop the gloating while Brexiteers take their fingers out their ears.
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Estonia supports Ukraine because we know the devastation of Russian imperialism
Moscow’s full-scale war did not come as a surprise to us, but we didn’t believe it would so closely…
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Nick Robinson’s Media Notebook: On Berlin’s dark past, and in defence of the Today programme
Gazing down from the Reichstag’s glass dome, I was reminded that Britain is not alone in facing unstable politics.
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Gareth Southgate’s real legacy will be measured not in trophies but in happiness
This is one of the most united England squads in recent memory.
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The worst of the pandemic may be past, but the NHS is struggling to recover
The total number of patients waiting for some form of investigation or specialist treatment has topped 7 million.
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Steve Platt’s Notebook: Memories of class war, the broken housing system, and struggles with mental health
Thirty years ago I was thrust into the limelight by John Major’s libel action against me; it was brutal,…
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Keir Starmer: “Am I aiming to be just a one-term prime minister? No, of course not”
As the Conservative Party unravels, Starmer is plotting a route to No 10. Is he the radical leader the…
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Winter Reflection: Fellowship of the flock
The pied wagtails delight in urban environments, and display a communality during the darkest, hardest months of the year.
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The restoration of the coffeehouse
How a centuries-old institution can save today’s faltering social media culture.
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The year woke broke: a brief history of a contested word
From Suella Braverman to Elon Musk, war has been declared on liberalism. How did one word come to mean…
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As an Albanian, I know first-hand the cruelty and contempt of UK immigration
Lea Ypi has suppressed the worst things about being an immigrant in this country. But the government’s anti-Albanian rhetoric…
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The delusions that bind communism and liberalism
The self-deception that fuelled Bolshevism did not die with the end of the Cold War: it persists in Western…
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From second homes to food banks, Cornwall is a land of widening extremes
There are many more Airbnb rentals than long-term rentals here – and nothing pushes families to catastrophe quicker than…
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The rise, fall and rise of Suella Braverman
She is the daughter of immigrants, a Buddhist and a Francophone. Colleagues reflect on the making of the Home…
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My life flashed before me. Hang on: where were the good bits?
That first evening in hospital was difficult – more difficult than I knew at the time. I was weak…
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The dark heart of Roald Dahl
A streak of pure nastiness runs through the author’s anarchic, beloved children’s literature – just as it did through…
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The wonder of children’s art
A new book of pictures and drawings is an attempt to help adults recall what the world looks like…
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Why Rome had no culture wars
The clash between Caesar and Cato offers lessons for today, but also reveals the gulf between modern and classical…
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The NS Poem: A brief note on the interregnum
A new poem by John Burnside.
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The rise and fall of the British music press
In their glory days magazines such as NME and Melody Maker defined youth culture – but the quality of…
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The false promise of grammar schools
In his new book, A Revolution Betrayed, Peter Hitchens overstates the merits of selection in state education.
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How David Milch reinvented TV drama
The memoir of the American creator of NYPD Blue and Deadwood is a rich story of drink, drugs and…
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From Marguerite Duras to Anthony Seldon: recent titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Bandit Country by James Conor Patterson and Looking To Sea by Lily Le Brun.
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The best children’s books of 2022
From magical picture books to thrilling young adult novels, courage and joy are in abundance.
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The New Statesman’s best books of 2022
Our choice of the year’s essential fiction and non-fiction.
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An A to Z of Carmen Callil
Her friend recalls the “fiery and bewitching” founder of Virago Press.
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Golden Mean: A parable for Christmas
A new short story by Alan Garner.
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Winter wonderlands: writers on their favourite artworks
Ali Smith, Julian Barnes, Ai Weiwei and others choose seasonal scenes.
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How Sensation turned British art into big business
Twenty-five years ago, the Charles Saatchi-backed exhibition heralded a new era – one in which profit would reign supreme.
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Who the green movement leaves behind
We should be learning from indigenous people such as the Sámi. Instead, in the rush to embrace green energy,…
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The best new films to watch this Christmas
This year’s festive offerings, from The Silent Twins to Avatar.
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The best films of 2022
The New Statesman’s critic picks his top ten movies of the year.
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The highs and lows of Christmas TV 2022
From the Motherland special to the return of Happy Valley.
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The New Statesman’s best TV shows of 2022
The highlights of the year, from The English to The White Lotus.
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Why brass music has such a special relationship with Christmas
There is something particularly cheering about horns playing festive favourites as the temperature drops.
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How I went viral at Spurs, why believing isn’t magic, and Jack Grealish’s calves go global
It feels weird having it in the desert, but the highlight of the season is still the World Cup.
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Christmas, for me, has never been quite what I imagine it should be – so Bali beckons
Perhaps I will fall in love with a Brazilian man, Eat, Pray, Love-style.
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The manager of my former favourite pub calls and the years slip away
“Hello!” he says. “You sound grumpy as ever!”
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This England: Going, going, gone
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain…
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David Shrigley Q&A: “I’m getting weak in my old age. I should start lifting weights”
The British artist on Stewart Lee, plasticine portraits and why you should be happy right now.
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