Ben's Blog

A few days ago a US Magazine decided to out a couple of well known Americans. Outing's been a contentious issue for a number of years now here in Britain so I asked Peter Tatchell of Outrage and Conservative politician Brian Coleman to put their views.

Tatchell is well known for his stance on queer rights and has, in the past, outed people whom he feels have been hypocritical. You ... read more

We’ve been having all kinds of fun with new stuff at newstatesman.com this week. No really, it’s been super. My favourite development was the launch of the brilliantly title Le Blog.

Written by New Statesman readers living in France we’re getting regular updates of the vital presidential election. Plus in the coming days we’ll have commentators of both the academic and journalistic varieties as the fight unfolds. Hope ... read more

Amid all the disappointments and upsets that life has to offer there are fleeting moments when things can feel pretty perfect.

For example in 2002, on holiday in a remote town in the Masurian lakes, I came across a European Union roadshow touring Poland in a bid to persuade people of the merits of EU membership. The lyric blaring out of its loudspeaker system was ‘Oh I’m wicked and I’m ... read more

Week in, week out since we relaunched newstatesman.com a couple of guys from the brilliant journalism school at Cardiff (where I went) have been doing a round-up of political blogs and it’s more than time I mentioned them in despatches. Owen Walker and Adam Haigh write on alternate weeks and are doing a first class job.

Anyway have a read of their entertaining, pithy summaries. If nothing else ... read more

We've had a busy week here at newstatesman.com. First of all we've been trying some joined-up thinking - creating themed sections for things like our anti-Trident campaign so that you can see our coverage of that issue all in one place. It wasn't my idea of course but - following a long tradition in the media - I'm happy to take the credit if it works.

One of ... read more

It’s not often an article you write destroys a family so it’s with some pride I can announce that - almost entirely accidentally - I have caused a schism between a father and his son.

Alas, I can only claim part of the credit. It stems from an article I wrote in this week’s mag about buying an argument at an auction. The professional contrarian I hired, ... read more

Fans of Sian Berry may have noticed that she momentarily disappeared from the blogosphere last week. What happened I hear you cry? Well she was sort of busy, appearing on the BBC's Question Time and becoming the Green Party’s London mayoral candidate.

Yes that’s Green Berry going head-to-head with Red Ken! She talks about that and much, much more exclusively at newstatesman.com.

Meanwhile, our Faith ... read more

“Try and track down Mark Thomas while I’m away,” said Ben as he departed for the wilds of Cornwall in his Bentley, leaving me to perform the online equivalent of watering the cat and feeding the plants. “And good luck.”

In fact it proved rather easier to locate the elusive comic campaigner than I’d imagined. There he was on stage last Saturday, addressing the crowds that had gathered in Trafalgar ... read more

24 Hour party people...

Those of you who have been watching the televisual gourmet dinner that is Party Animals may have spotted that a New Statesman bash was supposedly featured. Now I can't deny that we're terribly glamorous over here in Victoria - I refer you to my picture - but clearly we can't begin to compete with the raciness of the average resident of the Westminster Village.

However ... read more

Permit me a small boast. When we relaunched newstatesman.com our hits were somewhere around the 60,000 mark and they’ve been growing ever since. Last week we sprinted past 100,000 to the 111,000 mark. Then this week we discovered we’d hit 125,000. Much whooping and cheering could be heard from our luxurious offices in Victoria.

We’ve also been very pleased with the number of comments that appeared on various articles. ... read more

This week we asked a lefty blogger called Kate Belgrave to write us an article about John McDonnell’s leadership campaign – it’s a good read and it’s interesting to hear what young socialists in the Labour Party are saying about the lack of a contest to succeed Tony Blair. It also ties in rather nicely with our latest in a series of interviews with deputy leadership ... read more

It’s always compelling watching other people having a bit of a spat and I’d like to flag up two examples from newstatesman.com this week.

One was the argument sparked by Tahmima Anam’s article on Bangladesh. Some attacked her for belittling her country when she now lives in the UK, others jumped in to defend her right to speak out.

One critic wrote: "Since she appears so enamoured ... read more