What Reform UK says about the condition of England
Under Richard Tice, the right-wing populist party has forced Westminster to pay attention – with poll ratings surpassing those…
ByThe Magazine
In this week’s issue
The battle for Keir Starmer’s soul
Letter of the week: Together we fall
Write to [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
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Lee Anderson’s defection triggers bye-bye elation among Tories
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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The Kate conspiracy
The Princess of Wales exists to be photographed. In the absence of images, the public grew restive and feverish.
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The perils of artists’ posthumous fame
Also this week: Philip Larkin’s “ecclesiastical journeys”, and general election date intel.
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Gus O’Donnell: The insider’s guide to preparing for power
The former head of the civil service on the cost of Brexit, the case for electoral reform, and Keir…
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Demonising rural voters invites defeat for the Democrats
Progressive tropes about the “bigoted” and “undemocratic” countryside undermine Joe Biden’s efforts to win over rural America.
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The West is revealing its hand to Putin
Emmanuel Macron’s threats to send ground troops to Ukraine only exposes Europe’s deepening divisions over the war.
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Rishi Sunak is already irrelevant
The Conservatives are demoralised. Among Tory MPs, all eyes are on their party’s future.
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Who dares to “hijack” the Holocaust?
Jonathan Glazer’s abject Oscars speech for The Zone of Interest served to downplay the inhumanity his film so powerfully…
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The battle for Keir Starmer’s soul
As Labour prepares for power, two groups on the party’s right are vying to control its future.
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War and the West Bank
Settler violence in the occupied territory is intensifying, and Palestinian deaths are mounting.
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The deep roots of doctors’ dissent
Disputes between the UK government and its lowest-paid physicians go back decades. They began in 1964, with the creation…
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The price of private education
For as long as boarding school survivors govern Britain, they will inflict their own pain on the nation.
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How Big Tech rewired childhood
Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation shows how smartphones have damaged the teenage mind – and urges us to fight…
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The NS Poem: The Late Stelliferous Era
A new poem by Will Eaves.
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Judith Butler and the fear of gender
In the 1990s a new philosophy helped open up alternative ways of being. Nobody predicted it would lead to…
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Battle cry of the Scouse dads
In their book Head North, Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram continue to peddle a tired northern exceptionalism.
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Lauren Oyler’s defence mechanisms
Can the master of the hatchet-job place herself beyond criticism?
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How a radical priest forged my politics
Gustavo Gutiérrez’s revelatory book showed me that faith and economics could not be separated.
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From Bridget O’Connor to Grace Blakeley: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring The Performer by Richard Sennett and Cloistered by Catherine Coldstream.
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When Europe went Angelica Kauffman mad
How the first female painter admitted into the Royal Academy became one of the great celebrities of her age.
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Drive-Away Dolls should be a classic Coen caper – but isn’t
Ethan’s first feature film without Joel sounds like a romp, but misses every beat. Do the brothers need each…
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Accused: The Hampstead Paedophile Hoax terrified me
Channel 4’s chilling account of a paedophile scare shows the very modern hell unleashed by online conspiracy theories.
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How Amber Heard lost
Who Trolled Amber?, a new investigative series from Tortoise, asks: was the social media response to the trial a…
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Michael Sheen is remarkable in the National Theatre’s Nye
There could not be a better time for this story of Aneurin “Nye” Bevan, the Welsh Labour MP and…
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The cult of Townes Van Zandt
Hardship haunted his short life, but a celebration of what would have been his 80th birthday reveals the country…
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Amsterdam’s city gardens are a potted paradise
The city’s attitude to urban greening – with its window boxes, community gardening and allotment culture – keeps me…
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When your friend is stabbed, your own problems become mere annoyances
If I have a superpower it is cheering people up, but N— already has a staggering capacity for honesty,…
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Jeremy Hunt is right about the economy – but he can’t fix it
The Conservatives have realised too late that changing how Britain raises private investment is a good idea.
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Love’s true test is being cast adrift on a tiny raft in the Pacific
An amazing tale of survival reminds me how incredibly hard it is to find love out there in the…
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This England: Paws clause paused
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain…
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Joelle Taylor Q&A: “I’d like to see dinner ladies take over parliament”
The poet on being raised by TV, the inspirational Linda Bellos, and why writing is like archaeology.
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