Labour needs a growth plan
If Keir Starmer’s government seems incapable of delivering change, voters will not hesitate to look elsewhere.
ByThe Magazine
In this week’s issue
What’s the story?
Letter of the week: Mind the gap
Write to [email protected] to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
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Starmer resurrects Social Security Minister
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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Is the West poised to enter the war in Ukraine?
The West may soon be forced to stop thinking of its participation in Ukraine as a “special logistical operation”.
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The joy of Glee Club at the Lib Dem conference
Also this week: Victoria Starmer’s dress code, and my lost Alpine summer.
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How the Jewish Chronicle lost its way
Inside the fake news crisis at the community paper.
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Kamala Harris is campaigning like a movie star
Unless she learns lessons from the British Labour Party, the vice-president will do little to unite the US behind…
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The Murdoch dynasty’s future is being decided
Also this week: The Observer up for sale, crisis at the Jewish Chronicle, and Huw Edwards’ day in court.
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A modest proposal for the regulation of comedy
A Criminal Levity Act would place the dangerous realm of humour safely within the scope of anti-terrorism laws.
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Ursula von der Leyen is damaging EU unity
The European Commission president has let a personal rivalry sour the relationship between Germany and France.
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Data and ideology don’t mix
With the census gender debacle, an opportunity to assess the trans community’s needs has been squandered.
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What’s the story?
Voters have lost their sense of what Starmer’s Labour is for. He must use his conference speech to tell…
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Wes Streeting: “I don’t want to be the fun police”
The Health Secretary on Labour’s killjoy image and why the NHS will “go bust” without reform.
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Tom Wolfe’s acid aesthetic
In his groundbreaking book, the star of New Journalism “put the reader into the eye sockets” of an LSD-fuelled…
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How Goethe sold his soul to Faust
A new biography by AN Wilson shows how the playwright, poet, scientist and statesman poured himself into his greatest…
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What Hillary Clinton knows
Despite moments of frustrating caution, her memoir Something Lost, Something Gained is revealing about Bill and exhilarating on her…
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How Elon Musk killed Twitter
His vainglorious $44bn takeover backfired on investors, employees, users – and the world’s richest man himself.
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Inside Diane Abbott’s war with Labour
The MP’s memoir A Woman Like Me reveals a remarkable life spent fighting prejudice – and her own party.
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Keir Starmer’s union problem
The government wants to reset its relationship with organised labour – but history shows this won’t be an easy…
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The NS Poem: She seems to me (after Sappho)
A new poem by Kim Moore.
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From Dan Jones to William Boyd: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Warsaw Tales by Antonia Lloyd Jones and Emperor of the Seas by Jack Weatherford.
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Paul Gauguin’s art monster myth
Sue Prideaux’s biography of the unruly French painter shows his story was more complicated than that of colonial seducer.
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Gustav Holst beyond The Planets
The composer, born 150 years ago this month, should be better known for his many other great works.
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The Substance isn’t subtle or subversive – but it is entertaining
This satirical swipe at the beauty industry starring Demi Moore is comically grotesque.
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A Very Royal Scandal is the latest surreal instalment in the Prince Andrew multiverse
In Scoop vs Scandal, this is the clear winner. But is that the sound of TV eating itself?
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Florence + the Machine at the Proms: a thrilling two hours of pure emotion
This imaginative orchestral reworking of her debut album Lungs was part film score, part pop song, and totally euphoric.
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Cuckoos sang me happy birthday for a decade. Now they are silent
Britain’s shifting weather patterns are a particular problem for these ingenious, misunderstood birds.
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Thought experiment 3: The Gettier Problem
How the American philosopher Edmund Gettier’s argument complicates our understanding of what constitutes knowledge.
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A severe case of Trump-Harris-debate-itis
I had visions of a ruptured blood vessel and my vital fluids gushing all over Boots’ terrified customers…
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A street rendition of “Wonderwall” sends me to seek sanctuary in a church
Inside London’s Notre Dame de France, I find beautiful murals by Jean Cocteau.
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This England: Christmas comes fir-ly
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain…
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David Spiegelhalter Q&A: “I can’t think of anything worse than eternity”
The statistician on Samuel Pepys’s London and his love of wild swimming.
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