Leader: Boris Johnson’s departure alone is not enough
The UK needs transformative political, constitutional and economic change.
ByThe Magazine
In this week’s issue
The Last Days of Boris Johnson
Letter of the week: Land of theocracy
Write to [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
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Stranger Things series four is all about “trauma”. No wonder Gen Z love it
The sci-fi show is increasingly metaphorical, speaking directly to younger viewers well-acquainted with pop psychology.
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Nicola Sturgeon’s Diary: Why Westminster must let Scotland choose its destiny
As we put our plans for a new independence vote to the Supreme Court, the UK government continues to…
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Andrew Fisher: “Keir Starmer is too interested in not being Jeremy Corbyn”
The former Labour policy chief on why the Conservatives could still win.
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The forgotten politics of personal sacrifice
For the first time in decades, Western politicians are asking people to forfeit for the greater good – and…
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This is an age of stagnation, and young people are stuck in perpetual adolescence
We live in a gerontocracy, where the Conservatives pursue socialism for the old and capitalism for the young.
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The last days of Boris Johnson
As a disgraced prime minister fights for survival, what does it mean for the Conservative Party – and for…
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In a drying world can humans learn to adapt?
From Alaska to Texas and Delhi to Nottinghamshire, heatwaves and drought caused by climate change are transforming the way…
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Driving through Ukraine, I am confronted by the end of the world
Jews who were once bombed by the Nazis now face assault by the Russians. They are numb with grief.
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Britain’s best chef Clare Smyth: “My team are like robots – you can’t stop the machine”
Her mentor Gordon Ramsay has called her the Margaret Thatcher of cooking. Where does the only British woman with…
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The last days of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Two hundred years after he drowned, Shelley’s poems of tyranny and freedom speak to our own darkening age.
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How animal senses reveal hidden worlds
Ed Yong’s fascinating new book on the complex behaviours of creatures uncovers a universe of unfathomable beauty.
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The banality of Vladimir Putin
A new biography of the Russian president details the extraordinary rise of an unremarkable man who learned how to…
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The purpose of sex
Lillian Fishman’s bold and searching debut novel, Acts of Service, questions the meaning of desire and introduces a major…
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Reviewed in short: New books from Bella Lack, Helen Benedict and Eyad Awwadawnan, Simone de Beauvoir and Simon Jenkins
The Children of the Anthropocene by Lack, Map of Hope and Sorrow by Benedict and Awwadawnan, The Inseparables by…
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Brian and Charles: a witty robot bromance
David Earl softens his abrasive comedy alter-ego in a novel mockumentary full of visual gags and inspired touches.
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Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams is the most moving thing I’ve seen on TV in years
This show, in which Andrew Flintoff introduces working-class boys from Preston to cricket, shows how sport can bring people…
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What the dog hears
BBC Radio 3’s unnarrated day in the life of Honey the Labrador is 30 minutes of head-emptying canine comfort.
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Thomas Eakins: an American oddity
The great realist painter ignored scandal to depict his nation’s outdoor life on his own terms.
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Ignore the purists who sneer – manmade grape varieties can be wonderful
The early hybrids were nasty or dull, but scientists kept plugging away and the wines have greatly improved.
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How I learned to ditch Amazon and fall in love with books again
After years of mindlessly buying the books I thought I should read, my local bookshop helped me to discover…
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Since when is the point of an English degree getting a “highly skilled” job?
This government’s Gradgrindist education policies seem like a deliberate assault on independent thought.
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This England: Urban cowboy
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain…
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Wendy Joseph Q&A: “My hero was Sherlock Holmes – I prayed for a mind like his”
Wendy Joseph was born in Cardiff in 1952 and began her career as a criminal barrister in 1975. From…
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