The Great Power Gap

Labour’s politics of prevarication

The UK does not need another lengthy inquiry on care. What it does need is a government with the…

Letter of the week: The end of local government

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

No-fear Keir sidesteps naming Musk

Your daily dose of gossip from around Westminster.

Elon Musk’s secret weapon

BBC News is the key to the X owner’s fixation with British politics.

The magic of seeing in the new year in Sydney

Also this week: leaving the BBC and why koala bears need a seat at the diplomatic table.

Danny Sriskandarajah: “It is no wonder young people are losing hope”

The head of the New Economics Foundation on global disillusionment with democracy.

How does Starmer solve a problem like Elon Musk?

This Labour government has become too ready to fall back on a strategy of silence.

New Year, same American violence

The US’s acceptance of deadly crime and political bloodshed goes far deeper than its addiction to guns.

Mark Zuckerberg leads the new oligarchs paying tribute to Donald Trump

Plus: Apple’s fluffed AI headlines and more Telegraph sale intrigue.

The Syrian people yearn to take control of their own destiny

Bashar al-Assad has gone but, as elation begins to be edged out by anxiety, what comes after authoritarianism?

The truth about the grooming scandal

The media did not ignore the gangs or the violence – but the victims still await justice.

Lessons from the afterlife

In A Second Act, intensive care doctor Matt Morgan collects stories from patients who returned from death. Can they…

Elsa Morante’s wild, compelling fiction

This vivid story of class and family by the rediscovered Italian novelist was where Elena Ferrante “discovered what literature…

Did the Tories create modern Britain?

A revisionist history claims the postwar consensus was shaped by Conservative visions.

25 books to read in 2025

From AI to the Beatles and from Pope Francis to Jung Chang, here are the new books to look…

From Rochelle Gurstein to Philippa Found: new books reviewed in short

Also featuring Pub by Philip Howell and Runaway Horses by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini.

The best art exhibitions to see in 2025

From 14th-century Siena to female modernists, the year’s most exciting exhibitions chart an evolving Western tradition.

Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain is a masterpiece

This story of cousins visiting a concentration camp addresses the question of “Holocaust tourism” with intelligence, humour and compassion.

Playing Nice is good, clean, twisted fun

This series is yet more messy human drama set in an immaculate, expensive interiors; a superior cast in ridiculous…

The BBC podcast In Dark Corners reveals a network of British predators

The journalist and survivor Alex Renton uncovers the “Paedophile Information Exchange”, a pro-paedophile group that campaigned throughout the 1970s

Ethel Cain’s American Gothic

The singer found fame with her debut album in 2022 – but Perverts, a subversive horror movie of a…

Walking is the soul’s preferred means of transport

Does doing something twice in two years count as a tradition? If so, we have a family tradition of…

It will take more than cash to repair the NHS

Labour must make hard decisions on the future of social care.

Somehow, I have earned the devotion of an ageing black Lab

He follows me everywhere, but slowly, on arthritic legs.

New year, same me

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that there’s no point in making aspirational resolutions.

This England: Barking up the wrong tree

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

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Sathnam Sanghera: “Of course we’re doomed. It’s what gives life its fizz”

The author on life before tearing a hamstring and and George Michael.