Why Britain matters in Europe
Our strategic alliance with the Baltic states has survived centuries of upheaval. Now the mission is to contain the Russians…
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End of the affair
Where are we now?
The Prime Minister is more popular as a leader than progressives would wish – but does he know his…
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A kingdom of fragments
The SNP is likely to win a resounding victory in the Scottish Parliament elections. How long can London hold…
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John Carpenter: “Movies don’t scare me. Real life scares me”
The master of horror could write, direct and score his own films. So why did he give it all…
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How the German painter Lovis Corinth found his many moods reflected in a Bavarian lake
Corinth’s national aspirations weren’t enough for the Nazis, however. In 1937, 12 years after his death, seven of his…
By
Reply All’s “The Test Kitchen” investigates a scandal at a US food magazine
Former staff accused Bon Appétit of fostering a racist work culture. Now, a new podcast series explains exactly what…
By
BBC One’s Imagine… We’ll Be Back? explores the state of the arts in the pandemic
Alan Yentob’s film was predictably starry: he favours big guns, mostly male, at whose wisdom he can nod, thus…
By
Tom Hanks breathes humanity into the Civil War-era Western News of the World
It is Hanks’s curiosity, his intentness as he watches and listens, which lends him definition.
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How Joan Didion broke free
Joan Didion has died aged 87. In this essay, Leo Robson explored how the chronicler of American counterculture was…
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Why the British empire alone cannot explain the politics of the present
As two new books make clear, we cannot deny the influence of our colonial past on our society. But…
By
Francis Spufford’s Light Perpetual: shame and redemption in postwar Britain
Spufford’s new novel is a quiet, contemplative book about the imagined future lives of children killed in a German…
By
NS Recommends: New books from Fiona Sampson, Samira Shackle, Stella Duffy and Steven Hall
Two-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning by Sampson, Karachi Vice by Shackle, Lullaby Beach by Duffy and Maxwell’s Demon…
By
The NS Poem: Midland
A poem by Grey Gowrie, the former Conservative cabinet minister, who has died aged 81.
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Why the US is perfectly designed for living in a post-Covid world
Americans on both sides of the cultural divide are content with the twin risks of the coronavirus era: death and boredom. …
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First Thoughts: The DUP’s reunited Ireland, Andrew Neil’s revenge channel, and academic espionage
Andrew Neil needs GB News to get even with Rupert Murdoch and the Beeb. Nobody else does.
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Covid-19’s “Doctor Data” Tim Spector on new symptoms, official inertia – and switching off No 10 press briefings
The epidemiologist behind the Covid Symptom Study app reflects on the challenges of marrying real-time science with the priorities…
By
Commons Confidential: Machiavelli was a Boy Scout
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
By
How the Nobel-winning chemist Paul Crutzen changed the way we see nature
The scientist, who has died aged 87, effectively ended a 12,000-year-old geological era when he invented the “Anthropocene”.
By
In the Covid-19 vaccine hub I see a dignified procession of elderly patients receiving their shot at life
None of us GPs and nurses have been thanked so often and so fulsomely.
By
This England: Men who Zoom with goats
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s Richard II, refers to the whole of Britain –…
ByEmail [email protected] if you would like to be the New Statesman‘s Subscriber of the Week.
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Adam Grant Q&A: “What would make my life better? Outsourcing sleep“
The psychologist on character building, the myth of the hunter-gatherer, and why we need a four-day week.
By
Fearing for the future of the music business, I’m haunted by the ghosts of gigs past
Glastonbury’s cancellation comes as another blow upon the painful bruise being felt by the whole music industry. Yet the…
By
A reader accuses me of banality. I object to being singled out like that: aren’t we all banal now?
This accusation is a problem that the observational, humorous or lifestyle columnist is going to have to run into…
By
What wine teaches us about the joy of sitting still and savouring what we have
I dream of sipping Champagne in Paris. But, while I’m stuck at home and looking at wine even more…
By
Letter of the week: Not all about shareholders
A selection of the best letters received from our readers this week. Email [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced…
By
Leader: The end of the affair
A majority at the Scottish parliamentary election would give the SNP an unarguable mandate for a second independence referendum,…
By
France faces a reckoning over historic child sex abuse
A new book alleging child sex abuse by a member of the Parisian intellectual elite has caused a sensation in France –…
By
While Boris Johnson remains in charge, the Scottish independence movement is unstoppable
The biggest political test facing Johnson’s government is to keep the UK together. It is currently failing.
By
Crisis is engulfing the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games – but does the world still need the Olympics?
TV ratings for the Olympics have steadily fallen, especially among the young – as a crisis of relevance and the issues…
By
Europe’s vaccine crisis has revealed to the UK and Ireland the true nature of the European Union
The moment that Brexit appeared advantageous, Ireland became collateral damage in the EU’s need to cover its own vulnerability.
By
Keir Starmer needs one big, defining idea if he’s to avoid being another doomed Labour leader
Margaret Thatcher and Harold Wilson show the way for a struggling opposition leader: offer a serious argument, not a set…
By
Joanna Cherry’s Diary: Why I was sacked, coming out as gay in the Aids pandemic, and turmoil in the SNP
A small but vocal cohort of my SNP colleagues has engaged in performative histrionics redolent of the Salem witch…
By How the Nobel-winning chemist Paul Crutzen changed the way we see nature
The scientist, who has died aged 87, effectively ended a 12,000-year-old geological era when he invented the “Anthropocene”.
By First Thoughts: The DUP’s reunited Ireland, Andrew Neil’s revenge channel, and academic espionage
Andrew Neil needs GB News to get even with Rupert Murdoch and the Beeb. Nobody else does.
By Francis Spufford’s Light Perpetual: shame and redemption in postwar Britain
Spufford’s new novel is a quiet, contemplative book about the imagined future lives of children killed in a German…
By Covid-19’s “Doctor Data” Tim Spector on new symptoms, official inertia – and switching off No 10 press briefings
The epidemiologist behind the Covid Symptom Study app reflects on the challenges of marrying real-time science with the priorities…
By NS Recommends: New books from Fiona Sampson, Samira Shackle, Stella Duffy and Steven Hall
Two-Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning by Sampson, Karachi Vice by Shackle, Lullaby Beach by Duffy and Maxwell’s Demon…
By Why the British empire alone cannot explain the politics of the present
As two new books make clear, we cannot deny the influence of our colonial past on our society. But…
By Commons Confidential: Machiavelli was a Boy Scout
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
By The NS Poem: Midland
A poem by Grey Gowrie, the former Conservative cabinet minister, who has died aged 81.
By Crisis is engulfing the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games – but does the world still need the Olympics?
TV ratings for the Olympics have steadily fallen, especially among the young – as a crisis of relevance and the issues…
By Europe’s vaccine crisis has revealed to the UK and Ireland the true nature of the European Union
The moment that Brexit appeared advantageous, Ireland became collateral damage in the EU’s need to cover its own vulnerability.
By Tom Hanks breathes humanity into the Civil War-era Western News of the World
It is Hanks’s curiosity, his intentness as he watches and listens, which lends him definition.
By France faces a reckoning over historic child sex abuse
A new book alleging child sex abuse by a member of the Parisian intellectual elite has caused a sensation in France –…
By BBC One’s Imagine… We’ll Be Back? explores the state of the arts in the pandemic
Alan Yentob’s film was predictably starry: he favours big guns, mostly male, at whose wisdom he can nod, thus…
By Keir Starmer needs one big, defining idea if he’s to avoid being another doomed Labour leader
Margaret Thatcher and Harold Wilson show the way for a struggling opposition leader: offer a serious argument, not a set…
By Reply All’s “The Test Kitchen” investigates a scandal at a US food magazine
Former staff accused Bon Appétit of fostering a racist work culture. Now, a new podcast series explains exactly what…
By What wine teaches us about the joy of sitting still and savouring what we have
I dream of sipping Champagne in Paris. But, while I’m stuck at home and looking at wine even more…
By A reader accuses me of banality. I object to being singled out like that: aren’t we all banal now?
This accusation is a problem that the observational, humorous or lifestyle columnist is going to have to run into…
By Fearing for the future of the music business, I’m haunted by the ghosts of gigs past
Glastonbury’s cancellation comes as another blow upon the painful bruise being felt by the whole music industry. Yet the…
By While Boris Johnson remains in charge, the Scottish independence movement is unstoppable
The biggest political test facing Johnson’s government is to keep the UK together. It is currently failing.
By In the Covid-19 vaccine hub I see a dignified procession of elderly patients receiving their shot at life
None of us GPs and nurses have been thanked so often and so fulsomely.
By This England: Men who Zoom with goats
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s Richard II, refers to the whole of Britain –…
By Letter of the week: Not all about shareholders
A selection of the best letters received from our readers this week. Email [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced…
ByEmail [email protected] if you would like to be the New Statesman‘s Subscriber of the Week.
By Adam Grant Q&A: “What would make my life better? Outsourcing sleep“
The psychologist on character building, the myth of the hunter-gatherer, and why we need a four-day week.
By Leader: The end of the affair
A majority at the Scottish parliamentary election would give the SNP an unarguable mandate for a second independence referendum,…
By Joanna Cherry’s Diary: Why I was sacked, coming out as gay in the Aids pandemic, and turmoil in the SNP
A small but vocal cohort of my SNP colleagues has engaged in performative histrionics redolent of the Salem witch…
By