I’m very grateful for your magazine, and the perspectives it offers and brings me each week. The latest edition is no exception. But I was a little surprised to read in Tom McTague’s Editor’s Note the reflection that “we are living in an era of migration”. Given the history of this country, and indeed the continent Tom describes passing through, I can’t think of an era when we haven’t been. Maybe the current moment might be more aptly described as one of anti-migration, leading to the document checks that Tom and his son were subjected to.
This is evidence of something I feel I see all the time. I think this small moment shows that we’re all part of this unsettling. Everyone is being dragged quietly rightward by movements in the establishment that are making the far right respectable and allowing and even unwittingly enabling its agenda, as Daniel Trilling points out in his excellent book If We Tolerate This.
We might be looking at the Titanic-like ship on the horizon that Tom’s piece describes. In darker moments I think we could be on it. The New Statesman is the lifeboat. Keep up the brilliant work, but please take a little more care.
Andy Smith, Lancaster
From Old Etonian to old Evertonian
I enjoyed Ailbhe Rea’s article on Andy Burnham, which served to reinforce the view that he stands for whatever will get him the top job. Like Boris Johnson, he seems to have been a popular mayor and people like him, but his position appears to flex to suit the audience and it is impossible to tell what he stands for.
To break the mould, he would have to deal with truths that may be unpalatable, among others: that welfare needs significant reform because of the dependency it drives, particularly in young people, and that the triple lock on pensions is unaffordable and should be replaced by tying increases to either inflation or average earning growth.
Andy Leslie, West Grinstead, Horsham
So at the start of his campaign in a Manchester by-election, Andy Burnham is photographed running in what he describes as his “old Everton shorts”. With so much at stake, is it sensible for him to flag up the fact that he supports a Liverpool and not a Manchester football club?
Ivor Morgan, Lincoln
No love lost
While the headline on Ethan Croft’s piece on the deluge of trivia associated with Peter Mandelson’s latest fall from grace states that “Labour looked to Peter Mandelson to solve its woes”, this is far from the truth. In the 1990s, Tony Blair memorably quipped, “My project will be over when Labour learns to love Peter Mandelson.” It didn’t, and only a fool (or the current PM’s former chief of staff) would see the serially disgraced peer as the answer to any question worth answering.
Les Bright, Exeter
Very fine years
I agree with Steve Morris’s reflections on Matt Chorley’s article about retro nightclubs. I recommend that Matt listens to the 1979 song that perfectly characterised the scene: the truly wonderful “Saturday Night Beneath the Plastic Palm Trees” by the Leyton Buzzards.
Tony Gardner, East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire
Epstein’s influence
I was disappointed to read Will Dunn’s comments on Jeremy Corbyn’s attendance at the South by South West event in London – an event described by Dunn as “a technology show that is also a music festival and a conference about politics and business”. Referring to Jeffrey Epstein, Corbyn is quoted by Dunn as saying: “His influence is now being felt even today,” to which Dunn adds, “ignoring the fact that Epstein has been dead for almost seven years”. Far from “ignoring the fact”, we can be sure that Corbyn is as aware as Dunn is that Epstein posthumously remains very much an ongoing major influence in political and media discourse.
David Sissons, Ecclesall, Sheffield
Get with the Movement
Despite Emily Lawford’s time on the Rejoin Ramble, the New Statesman is not entirely au fait with the anti-Brexit facts. First, the European Movement requires a capital M: this is a proper noun, not a generic description. The Movement was founded by Winston Churchill in the aftermath of the Second World War. An international organisation with many European branches, it has local groups all over the UK and Ireland. It is a proudly cross-party organisation, and participated in the formation of the cross-party pro-European group in parliament. Its co-presidents are Caroline Lucas and Dominic Grieve.
It is simply nonsense to say that “since we actually left the EU, the number of Rejoin activists has dwindled to the most passionate few” – quite the opposite. Many of us joined the European Movement in a state of grieving disbelief directly after the farcical Brexit campaign and vote. The membership has since swelled markedly. So I was sad to see the deeply serious Movement caricatured in the New Statesman.
Ann Lawson Lucas, Beverley, East Yorkshire
The history trap
Tom McTague looks back to the 1840s, and to Disraeli in particular, in examining our current political turmoil. He surely has a point, and the quote from Coningsby “that revolutions are not to be evaded” carries weight. I wonder, though, if this recourse to history does not reflect another delusion. Britain in the 1840s was a rising power. Any internal problems were just that – we were not a nation buffeted by events beyond our control. For all Disraeli’s rhetoric, the Irish Question was not solved. The Chartists had already achieved something after the Reform Act of 1832. In the subsequent decades we can see the rise of empire and the increasingly self-confident approach of the British state. We certainly lack a modern Disraeli, but our ills go far deeper than those of the 1840s. Our reflections on the glory days of the 19th century are perhaps a delusion in their own right. Both in Downing Street and in parliament, our leaders face the images of previous greatness. The past lays a heavy hand on our imagination.
Robert Cameron, Sheffield
The man behind the myth
Miles Davis was unquestionably one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, but surely any account of his life and work – as in Ashley Kahn’s piece – requires at least a mention of his appalling attitude towards women, up to and including pimping and physical violence, about which he is quite open in his expletive-riddled autobiography.
Robin Kidson, Clevedon, North Somerset
Admissions under duress
Rachel Cunliffe describes her relationship with her younger sister, with whom she has not lived for 17 years. I have not lived with mine for 52. On her entry into the household some 67 years ago, she was placed in my cot, from which I was found (and thankfully prevented from) attempting to push her. I must admit, she has since been the stable and sensible one of the three of us, including our elder brother. On balance, younger sisters are a good thing.
Tom Stubbs, Surbiton, Greater London
A fan of “The Fan”
I was overjoyed to read the return of Hunter Davies. Please persuade him to write regularly during this year’s World Cup.
Henry McCourt, Faversham
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This article appears in the 10 Jun 2026 issue of the New Statesman, How Britain lost control