Leader: Parliament vs the Brexiteers
Boris Johnson once insisted that the UK leaving the European Union with no agreement was unthinkable. In July 2017,…
ByNew Statesman Magazine
In this week’s magazine
The long shadow of Hitler
Letter of the week: The days of 11-plus were worse
I was shocked and disturbed to read the piece by Harry Lambert (“The great university con”) offering a highly…
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For some Brexiteers, leaving the EU would justify the damage caused by suspending parliament
It might become necessary to destroy British democracy to save it: that’s the argument that is never far from…
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Phil Jones’s Diary: Summer in the Caucasus, shadowy neighbours and a grandmother’s love for Stalin
My beloved mother Helen Jones died last year. Some time ago she gave me a treasured wallet embossed with…
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First Thoughts: The Trump of the tropics, cricket’s everyman and the sweet return of English cherries
Brazil elects Jair Bolsonaro, the “Trump of the tropics”, as president and the Amazon rainforest goes up in flames.…
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The illusions of the 1990s have been shattered but the decade is still distorting world politics
The 1990s was a decade of grand optimism. This hope appeared grounded in the Soviet Union’s fall, the subordination…
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Why for many politicians likeability matters far more than competence
Who is the worst American president of the 21st century? There are only three to choose from, so this…
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Commons Confidential: The unsunned spads under the cosh of Cummings
Chocks away for Derby North’s Chris Williamson, whose grass-roots groupies pay no heed to his suspension from Labour. The…
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View from Saxony: Why the far-right AfD is surging in eastern Germany
In early August, as campaigning for this week’s elections in the German state of Brandenburg intensified, a campaign poster…
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Why the falling pound offers an opportunity for Britain
One of the earliest casualties of Brexit has been the value of the pound. Sterling fell by more than…
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Boris Johnson, the great attention-seeker
Boris Johnson managed to complete his first prime ministerial foray on the international stage last weekend with none of…
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The race for a Covid-19 vaccine
As the pandemic accelerates, the world waits for the discovery of a vaccine. But there is no guarantee one…
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NS recommends: New books by Ian Sansom, Edward Posnett and Naguib Mahfouz
September 1, 1939 Ian Sansom “As the clever hopes expire/Of a low dishonest decade.” As our own dishonest decade…
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Books of the Year: NS friends and contributors choose their favourite reading of 2014
Including: Hilary Mantel, Rowan Williams, Grayson Perry, Alan Johnson, A S Byatt, Geoff Dyer, Alex Salmond, Kate Fox, William…
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Elif Shafak’s 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World: stark, intimate and complex
In 2006 the Turkish novelist Elif Shafak faced prosecution after she was accused of “insulting Turkishness”. The “insult” occurs…
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Why the traditions and hierarchies of Japan are not as strange as they seem
In the late 1980s, a couple of years before the end of the Showa imperial era, a group of…
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from Les Roses
Familiar rose, so implicated in our memories as in a dream where you advance upon your perfect form –…
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Why Salman Rushdie’s latest novel misses the mark
Salman Rushdie’s new novel is the latest instalment of what might be called his American sequence, inaugurated 20 years…
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The boyish fantasies of Sky One’s black comedy Brassic
“Fuck the middle class, fuck the Guardian, fuck three holidays a year and drinking red wine talking bollocks at…
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Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir is minimalist, concentrated and satisfying
With her barbed love story The Souvenir, executive-produced by her number one fan Martin Scorsese, the writer-director Joanna Hogg…
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Why the BBC is producing audiobooks
Reports of a 43 per cent surge in audiobook sales last year come as no surprise to anybody listening…
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Why Donald Trump poses a significant threat to the welfare of bees
Over the past decade, the general public has started to look at bees differently. In response to the Colony…
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My friend Ben suggested I take up boxing. With my large and fragile nose, I replied?
I’ve been here nearly four months, and the asthma medication is running low, so it’s off to the doctor’s…
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I’m often defeated by even the gentlest incline – so why am I obsessed with climbing stories?
On a family holiday to Scotland in 1997, a walk up a particularly soggy, slug-infested hill proved too much…
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Erotic beard-stroking, Marvelous Nakamba and coconut water sponsors: the season begins!
So what do you think of the season so far? I have been saying that every season running for…
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Sara Pascoe Q&A: “My dog wags his tail and loves everyone, like Jesus“
Sara Pascoe was born in Dagenham, east London in 1981. She started performing stand-up comedy in 2007 and has…
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