Marked Man

Leader: Beyond the cynicism of Boris Johnson

The UK needs more than a new prime minister: it needs constitutional reform.

Letter of the week: The centre of the system

Write to [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.

No 10 advisers look to Truss

Your weekly pick of the gossip from Westminster.

Is Vladimir Putin dead?

What the persistent rumours about the Russian president’s health do and do not tell us about the country’s future.

Paul Mason’s Diary: My bid to become a Labour MP and why we must not let Ukraine fade into the background

We are living through the worst crisis since the Second World War: everything must be reframed around the survival…

Rebecca Smith: “For children, losing their hair is very frightening”

The author reflects on writing about childhood cancer in her new book SuperDaisy.

Why Liz Truss is most likely the next Tory leader

The Foreign Secretary’s politics are shared by the Tory membership and she appears hungrier for the role than her…

Boris Johnson’s Britain stands as an international epitome of visionless drift

The prime minister resembles Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s former PM, who offered boosterish posturing in place of substance.

Boris Johnson has infected his party with chaos

Today’s vote of confidence makes no sense except as a howl of pain by Conservative MPs.

The football transfer market has become a soap opera, with players the willing stars

It is an industry run on buzz and rumour – but signing footballers for big money is a risky…

Patriotism is an emotional language I’m not fluent in but I loved my Jubilee street party

It is true that the festivities cost millions, but the celebrations were a moving way to unify a diverse,…

The secret world of Mick Herron

How the author of Slow Horses and Bad Actors became the foremost living spy novelist in the English language.

The NS Poem: Transfiguration

A new poem by Rebecca Tamás.

Reviewed in Short: New books by Rupal Patel and Jack Meaning, Melvyn Bragg, Laura Bates and Paddy Crewe

Can’t We Just Print More Money? by Patel and Meaning, Back in the Day by Bragg, Fix the System,…

Desperate Remedies: A new work charts the cruel and often gruesome history of mental health treatments

The sociologist Andrew Scull acknowledges that contemporary psychiatry is more rigorous – but is it more effective?

Reflections of the elusive Jean Rhys

The novelist wrote four dark, slyly autobiographical novels – then vanished for 25 years. A new biography hopes to…

Zero: Jeremy Hunt’s book on the NHS is well intentioned – but misses 90 per cent of the story

Candid on short-staffing and underfunding, ministerial memoir Zero omits the healthcare that happens in the community.

Algernon Newton: rediscovering British art’s “Canaletto of the canals”

The painter’s depopulated cities and landscapes are visions of a 20th-century world wracked by war.

All My Friends Hate Me: a sharp swipe at class that doesn’t quite land a killer blow

Andrew Gaynord’s crisply British comedy takes the rural antics of Withnail & I and adds a horrific twist.

My Name is Leon: a horribly preachy drama

This BBC film about a child dealing with racism in 1980s Birmingham promises real-world lessons but delivers saccharine platitudes.

How the front door became a British status symbol

Rachel Hurdley’s BBC Radio 4 documentary sheds light on an overlooked fixture of modern life.

Let’s cast a Gimlet eye on cocktails and their over-reliance on sugar

A glass of sour simplicity tells me a great cocktail requires a great bartender – and a dash of…

I don’t get hangovers. Am I missing out on the brutal clarity they bring?

Maybe I need the psychological shock of hitting an artificial, whisky-fuelled rock bottom to see what’s wrong in my…

I have become a cat-sitting Robinson Crusoe, and I no longer want to be rescued

I brought along some smoked salmon to establish my bona fides with Tybalt, but he just glared at it…

This England: Cat on an oil rig roof

This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain…

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Sheila Hancock Q&A: “I met Clement Attlee when I was working at the circus”

The actor on how education changes lives, falling in love and the brilliance of Shuggie Bain.