What is school for?

The rebirth of Liberal England

Ed Davey and the Lib Dems can “replace the Conservatives” in their Blue Wall heartlands.

Letter of the week: Labour’s true north

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

Sarwar Trumps Swinney

Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.

The confessions of Justin Welby

If the former archbishop of Canterbury hoped his self-abnegation on the BBC might salvage what was left of his…

The problem with landscape paintings

Also this week: my deep dive into the underground worlds of boardgames and vegetarianism.

Naz Shah: “The assisted dying bill is not fit for purpose”

The Labour MP and scrutiny committee member on why she fears the consequences if end-of-life proposals become law.

Keir Starmer’s government is becoming a crisis regime

Labour is hemmed in by military and economic enemies – but not every scenario is entirely grim.

Mark Carney is riding the anti-Trump wave

The new Canadian prime minister has something his Liberal predecessors didn’t: good luck.

Trump’s third term is coming

When the US president promises something, we should believe him.

Will the nightmare sale of the Telegraph ever end?

Also this week: no laughs in Trump’s White House, and Ofcom fines OnlyFans’ parent company.

Welcome to the era of Daily Mail socialism

Morgan McSweeney’s relationship with Britain’s most important tabloid is as ideological as it is strategic.

Picasso’s mistreated muses

It was women who drove his art to its heights – and women who bore the brunt of his…

A Northumbrian pilgrimage

A poet’s journey through the north-east reveals our universal desire to belong to a place we call home.

The Europeans who built Britain

In architecture, art, publishing and philosophy, continental émigrés fleeing fascism transformed our culture.

The murder that shocked the Edwardians

The case of Dr Crippen contains a story of multiple on-the-make lives as well as gruesome death.

From Manya Wilkinson to David Szalay: new books reviewed in short

Also featuring Operation Bowler by Jonathan Glancey and Lesbians: Where Are We Now? by Julie Bindel.

Listening through my father’s ears

The bond between me and my dad is too deep for words – but music comes close to expressing…

Sebastian is a refreshingly authentic exploration of sex work

This film by Mikko Mäkelä makes the likes of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and Anora seem artificial.

Ben Miller’s social media satire Austin misses the mark

This new BBC sitcom is no Colin from Accounts.

Pod save the Democrats

The Californian Governor Gavin Newsom wants to talk about the liberal left. Does he have anything to say?

Nothing inflames the imagination quite like the Shipping Forecast

Thinkers of all kinds have been drawn to it over the decades, and poets are no exception.

Ben and I are preparing for our first live gig together in 25 years – and I’m terrified

In our basement studio, we’re surrounded by our own history, our own inspirations.

NHS staff are still traumatised by the pandemic

Despite their continuing levels of severe distress, funding has now been withdrawn from mental health hubs.

A little outsourced admin later and I am slightly less poor

After 35 years, it turns out freelancing can pay off.

My life lived through football has not been in vain

Turns out I’ve been at quite a few major societal events.

This England: Allow the bearer to pass…

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

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Adriana Marais Q&A: “As a child, I imagined myself as an Egyptian queen or a Viking”

The theoretical physicist on meeting Nelson Mandela and living in China for six months.