Leader: Keir Starmer is under pressure
Britain needs – and deserves – more than a cautious, technocratic Labour prime minister.
ByThe Magazine
In this week’s issue
Stalling Starmer
Letter of the Week: A Vulnerable State
Write to [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
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How Keir Starmer trapped himself
By positioning himself as a defender of the law, the Labour leader set himself up to be seen as…
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Fergal Keane’s Diary: My fears for Northern Ireland, confronting PTSD, and the dog that keeps me on an even keel
Belfast was my first encounter with the violence humans inflict on each other – I am gripped by anxiety…
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The philosophical case for not wearing make-up
Cambridge academic Clare Chambers explains why we need to get more comfortable in our own, unmodified skin.
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Editor’s Note: The kingdom is untied, Oxbridge and the public schools – and the horrors of roadkill
Boris Johnson’s insouciant style of debate was honed at Eton, and Keir Starmer must learn how to return fire.
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What does Sinn Féin’s victory mean for Northern Ireland’s future?
The nationalist party should not rush to demand a border poll on a united Ireland.
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Scotland’s cosmopolitan turn
The rise of the Greens and the repudiation of Alex Salmond’s Alba shows why Scotland remains a progressive beacon.
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Putin and Zelensky offer contrasting visions of the future
Increasingly, all the Russian president has to offer is the prospect of a never-ending war.
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My abortion in 1988 was a lesson in care and resistance
Abortion in England in the Eighties was legal, if not easy to access. For the two Irish women in…
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What if Keir Starmer’s gamble backfires?
Grabbing the moral high ground over “beergate” was a dramatic move. But it could cost Labour.
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Could Michelle O’Neill be Northern Ireland’s final first minister?
How Sinn Féin’s Stormont leader prevailed – in a province whose existence she wants to end.
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Europe’s Iron Lady: Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas
The Baltic leader has become the EU’s strongest advocate for an uncompromising response to Russia.
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The infinite art of John Donne
His life was blighted by poverty, but his poetry made exhilarating connections between sex, faith and death.
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Reviewed in short: New books from David Bosco, Emma Smith, Charlotte Philby and John Agard
The Poseidon Project by Bosco, Portable Magic by Smith, Edith and Kim by Philby and Border Zone by Agard.
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The rise and fall of the literary bloke
John Walsh’s excitable account of carousing with Martin Amis and other “big beasts” of the Eighties is a paean…
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How music helps us to feel
Two new books about our relationship to song prove there will always be new ways to write about music.
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Does the FA Cup need saving?
The competition, founded 150 years ago, has become a reflection of English football’s conflicted soul.
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The NS Poem: Limehill
A new poem by Nicholas Friedman.
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How Steve Reich’s Clapping Music rebooted classical
Fifty years ago the American composer perfected minimalism for the mainstream.
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Mildred Eldridge devoted her life and art to a windswept natural world
The mid-century artist rejected London glamour for her husband RS Thomas and the hillsides of their beloved Wales.
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Michelle Yeoh flits between universes in the hyperactive Everything Everywhere All at Once
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert’s latest action-comedy brings a 21st-century approach to parallel-reality cinema.
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Conversations with Friends: a perfect depiction of falling in love with the wrong person
This adaptation of Sally Rooney’s first novel isn’t only for the young – the dilemma it examines is universal.
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The eccentric world of cuckoo clocks and their custodians
Radio documentary Time Flies explores extreme nostalgia, with clock-collecting brothers Roman and Maz Piekarski.
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Why the steepest slopes often yield the best wines
In the Prosecco region and beyond, great effort comes with great reward.
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It’s too early to name a culprit for a mysterious outbreak of acute hepatitis
Covid could be one explanation, as could lockdowns – but there are numerous possibilities, including non-infectious causes.
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I go on a first date that begins, and ends, at Gatwick airport
He said he was going to Copenhagen for a weekend, and would I like to come? “You’re insane,” I…
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I understand the concept of paying bills promptly but I still struggle with them
I don’t know what the moral here is. I mean, the moral of this column is constant: “Don’t be…
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This England: Crowning glory
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain…
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Leïla Slimani’s Q&A: “I smoke too much and I can’t stand it any more”
The author discusses her childhood fascination with Madonna, the courage of Louise Michel and her love of writing alone.
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