Ben's Blog

Don't miss Jason Cowley's in depth interview with Foreign Secretary David Miliband. Caricatured as über-Blairite and reviled by some of those close to the Prime Minister for the leadership challenge that never was, is he destined for the top job?

Michael Harvey meanwhile ponders the changes in British foreign policy post-Blair.

We've got Zoe Williams on how Michelle Obama flummoxed the press.

Jonathan Derbyshire profiles  read more

We launch our brand new columnist Martin Jacques - the former editor of that legendary publication Marxism Today. Don't miss his fascinating essay on the financial collapse - and you can learn more about him online through our Q&A.

Elsewhere in the magazine, you can read James Macintyre on Ed Balls - the schools secretary needs to become more of a team player.

John Cornwell profiles  read more

Oliver Postgate, who died on Monday 8 December, should be remembered as one of the great children's storytellers of the 20th century.

Generations were transported by his imagination - and thanks to creations like Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine - were inspired to use their own.

He wrote for newstatesman.com between November 2006 and February of this year. In the closing months of his life his primary preoccupation seemed to ... read more

It's often said that we journalists are a despicable breed. After all we murdered poor Diana. We lie at the drop of a hat and we'd sell our grandmothers to the highest bidder.

Of course it occurs to no-one that you don't go into this racket if money floats your boat. No. It's a better story if the public think we hacks are all sweaty, greedy and evil.

And it's ... read more

It's tempting, as the editor of a website, to commission subjects that will get as many comments as possible. The theory goes that a lively comments section drives hits and given websites like ours are businesses that's quite a consideration.

But there's a serious downside to this. The web's provided all manner of characters with a brand new opportunity to access a mass audience and quite frankly an awful lot ... read more

With his successor doing his bit for Anglo-Chinese relations with his flag-waving "ping pong's coming home" performance in Beijing last weekend, it's nice to see Ken Livingstone back in work this week as a consultant to his old friend Hugo Chavez. London, it seems, is just not big enough for these larger than life political characters.

Apparently Livingstone's brief is to get Caracas moving. Having visited the Venezuelan ... read more

You know how the Americans used to pay money to look at the deformed in circus freak shows? If that appeals to you, try the modern day version.

The utterly loathsome programme Trinny and Susannah undress the nation is another spin on the Gok Wan show how to look good naked. (Notice I'm not linking to either of them).

I'm not sure which came first but basically both have ... read more

This week on newstatesman.com the Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov writes exclusively on Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, who related the terrible truth about Soviet totalitarianism in his Gulag Archipelago.

Kurkov observes: "Alexander Isaevich outlived his era and never truly accepted the new ‘post-soviet’ epoch.

"Having sincerely dedicated his life to a desperate struggle against communism, in 1991 Solzhenitsyn suddenly found himself without a battle to fight."

We hear from the great AL ... read more

It's all looking rather bleak for Gordon Brown. In fact, if you agree with veteran Conservative politician John Gummer, the situation's actually worse for the prime minister than it was for John Major as his government faltered to extinction.

Writing this week on newstatesman.com, Gummer says: "I fought my first election more than forty years ago and I can’t remember anything comparable. Even as a cabinet minister living through the ... read more

First my thanks to Sian Berry who has been a regular contributor on newstatesman.com since we relaunched on 30 November 2006.

Having spent a great deal of the past 18 months in the public eye as Green co-principal speaker and then as their candidate in the London mayoral elections, she is off to work in a key role in her party's press office. We wish her well. You can read ... read more

The extraordinary resignation of Boris Johnson's deputy mayor Ray Lewis saw me called in to BBC London on Friday night to take part in a discussion on the Tessa Dunlop show that involved London Assembly members and callers from around the capital.

It was two hours of lively debate as we all tried to take stock of the fact that Johnson, elected just two months ago on 1 ... read more

Let me take a few minutes to put the boot into the Cheery Digest. A confirmed miserablist, I'm clearly not the target audience for this sort of thing.

Nor have I any idea who is behind this blog so why not read this and draw your own conclusions...

NEWS: Why we love the Queen ...

There's no two ways about it, our dear old Queen has a twinkle ... read more