How to remake Britain: We need a new progressive alliance
Unless first-past-the-post gives way to proportional representation, it will remain difficult to forge the effective coalitions of the righteous…
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The system cannot hold
How to remake Britain: In search of common values
Why we require a “radical reform of British education” to convert schools from narrow exam factories to places of imagination,…
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How to remake Britain: Why we need community capitalism
A network of civic institutions should form the base of the foundational economy, locally rooted and citizen-led.
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How to remake Britain: We are entering the age of experimentation
Boris Johnson has bet on a “green industrial revolution” as the avenue for Union-wide economic transformation. Will it pay off?
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How to remake Britain: The perils of grand designs
In a multinational state as divided as Britain has become, an overarching national project is unfeasible.
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No saint, no spartan, no reformer: the life of Robert Walpole
Our first prime minister was a libertine, a scoundrel and an opportunist. But he was never a bore or a…
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“The pandemic has shown the best of humanity”: Dr Jim Down on a year fighting the virus
The intensive care doctor reflects on the last 12 months of making life-or-death decisions on the Covid front line.
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How to remake Britain
Our writers give their view on the UK’s post-Brexit future.
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Britain’s project
Having left the EU, the United Kingdom must embark on a national programme of self-renewal.
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Public schools and the public
Why Eton, Harrow, Rugby and the rest thrived.
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Deconstructing Jackie
How the French-Algerian philosopher Jacques Derrida became one of the most influential thinkers in the world.
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“There is no either/or when it comes to identity“: Yaa Gyasi on publishing’s race problem and human recklessness
The author is “obsessed” with the notion of inherited trauma, a theme that appears in her books Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom.
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Paul Morley’s A Sound Mind is an intimidating history of classical music
This is a collage of Morley’s life as a long-time music journalist, slightly shorter-time classical music advocate, and conspicuously…
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Paul Kingsnorth and the new climate fiction
Alexandria falls into the now well-established genre of “cli-fi” novels: dystopias that engage directly with the hell we are…
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NS Recommends: New books from Mark Williams and Tim Wigmore, Jackie Kay, Leone Ross and Walter Isaacson
Williams and Wigmore’s The Best, Kay’s Bessie Smith, Isaacson’s The Code Breaker and Ross’s This One Sky Day.
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The NS Poem: Ties
A new poem by Blake Morrison.
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The ruin-strewn landscapes of Hubert Robert
How Hubert Robert assembled new worlds with the tumbled remains of the classical past.
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Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death suggests fame is a slow-working poison
Public approbation cannot, unlike a lover, be snared or pinned down. It is unreliable, fickle. It is a chimera.
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Between Ourselves With Marian Keyes: breezy, mischievous radio
This four-episode series mixes winking chats between Keyes and Tara Flynn, with readings from Keyes’s non-fiction work.
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Hal Ashby’s Shampoo is a rude awakening from the California dreaming of the Sixties
This satire-cum-sex-comedy is a funny, sly rebuke to the enduring myth of free love.
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Ringo Starr’s Zoom In is a paean to pre-lockdown partying
The former Beatle has released a distinctly 2020-flavoured EP.
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Carmen Maria Machado Q&A: “The Golden Girls is keeping me from losing my mind“
The author on the joys of television, the gift of ageing, and the powerful work of Saidiya Hartman.
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This England: Thief on a hot church roof
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s Richard II, refers to the whole of Britain…
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Subscriber of the Week: Roberta Wilson
Email emily.bootle@newstatesman.co.uk to be the New Statesman’s susbcriber of the week.
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From cheerful suffering to purring, polished artistry: Man City’s strange path to glory
Under Pep Guardiola’s watch, the club has been transformed from the butt of the joke into a footballing giant.
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I have never had a nine-to-five job but I still cherish the routines of the weekend
It all starts on a Friday night with some booze, as I sink into the relaxation that the end of the…
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It seems a bottomless pot of couscous may be a good way to test my sanity
Watching Ridley Scott’s The Martian, I feel a sudden affinity with Matt Damon eating his umpteenth meal of the same old same…
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How to find joy in cooking for one
A meal for one doesn’t need to be pitiable. Looking after yourself should be seen as an act of…
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First Thoughts: Cressida Dick’s “difficult calls”, Piers Morgan the martyr, and the cost of a non-curtsey
I hold no brief for Piers Morgan. But I disagree with his dismissal from ITV’s Good Morning Britain for three reasons.
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Commons Confidential: The cabinet reactionary
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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The crackdown on the Clapham vigil shows why the policing bill is so dangerous
Giving the police discretion to shut down virtually any form of protest would be disastrous for democracy.
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“Why can I not let go of the comforts of life?” Sam Byers on what personal liberation really looks like
The British novelist discusses why our fixation on “wellness” grows as the planet around us decays.
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Why the British/Irish 2030 World Cup bid is among the strongest – but its chances are slim
Bidding to host international sporting events is a wheeze beloved of new governments: a source of patriotism and public excitement, a…
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Howard Jacobson’s Diary: Clashes with Joe the Jogger, forgiving William Cobbett, and a slip into humiliation
This is my fault. I tutted at him six months ago for taking up the entire footpath and a…
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Why the Vatican’s refusal to bless same-sex marriage reveals it is placing its future in Africa
It’s estimated that by 2060 more than four in ten Christians will be from sub-Saharan Africa. The Catholic Church…
By
It’s finally getting easier to imagine returning to normal life. So why do I keep crying?
I fear the return will not be a simple reunion with my old joys, but a reckoning with all the…
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MPs believe the scenes at Clapham Common are the best we can expect from the Met Police
The police are treated as a device with which to win or lose elections, rather than as an essential…
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Britain should focus not on the Indo-Pacific but on Europe’s own geopolitical neighbourhood
Global Britain will be decided not in the Indian Ocean or the South China Sea, but in the Baltic, Black…
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Leader: Europe’s bad science costs lives
The continent that supposedly reveres the Enlightenment has disregarded scientific inquiry over the AstraZeneca vaccine.
By NS Recommends: New books from Mark Williams and Tim Wigmore, Jackie Kay, Leone Ross and Walter Isaacson
Williams and Wigmore’s The Best, Kay’s Bessie Smith, Isaacson’s The Code Breaker and Ross’s This One Sky Day.
By Paul Morley’s A Sound Mind is an intimidating history of classical music
This is a collage of Morley’s life as a long-time music journalist, slightly shorter-time classical music advocate, and conspicuously…
By The NS Poem: Ties
A new poem by Blake Morrison.
By Paul Kingsnorth and the new climate fiction
Alexandria falls into the now well-established genre of “cli-fi” novels: dystopias that engage directly with the hell we are…
By Between Ourselves With Marian Keyes: breezy, mischievous radio
This four-episode series mixes winking chats between Keyes and Tara Flynn, with readings from Keyes’s non-fiction work.
By Caroline Flack: Her Life and Death suggests fame is a slow-working poison
Public approbation cannot, unlike a lover, be snared or pinned down. It is unreliable, fickle. It is a chimera.
By Hal Ashby’s Shampoo is a rude awakening from the California dreaming of the Sixties
This satire-cum-sex-comedy is a funny, sly rebuke to the enduring myth of free love.
By Ringo Starr’s Zoom In is a paean to pre-lockdown partying
The former Beatle has released a distinctly 2020-flavoured EP.
By First Thoughts: Cressida Dick’s “difficult calls”, Piers Morgan the martyr, and the cost of a non-curtsey
I hold no brief for Piers Morgan. But I disagree with his dismissal from ITV’s Good Morning Britain for three reasons.
By Commons Confidential: The cabinet reactionary
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
By Carmen Maria Machado Q&A: “The Golden Girls is keeping me from losing my mind“
The author on the joys of television, the gift of ageing, and the powerful work of Saidiya Hartman.
By Why the British/Irish 2030 World Cup bid is among the strongest – but its chances are slim
Bidding to host international sporting events is a wheeze beloved of new governments: a source of patriotism and public excitement, a…
By Subscriber of the Week: Roberta Wilson
Email emily.bootle@newstatesman.co.uk to be the New Statesman’s susbcriber of the week.
By It’s finally getting easier to imagine returning to normal life. So why do I keep crying?
I fear the return will not be a simple reunion with my old joys, but a reckoning with all the…
By From cheerful suffering to purring, polished artistry: Man City’s strange path to glory
Under Pep Guardiola’s watch, the club has been transformed from the butt of the joke into a footballing giant.
By This England: Thief on a hot church roof
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s Richard II, refers to the whole of Britain…
By I have never had a nine-to-five job but I still cherish the routines of the weekend
It all starts on a Friday night with some booze, as I sink into the relaxation that the end of the…
By Why the Vatican’s refusal to bless same-sex marriage reveals it is placing its future in Africa
It’s estimated that by 2060 more than four in ten Christians will be from sub-Saharan Africa. The Catholic Church…
By It seems a bottomless pot of couscous may be a good way to test my sanity
Watching Ridley Scott’s The Martian, I feel a sudden affinity with Matt Damon eating his umpteenth meal of the same old same…
By Howard Jacobson’s Diary: Clashes with Joe the Jogger, forgiving William Cobbett, and a slip into humiliation
This is my fault. I tutted at him six months ago for taking up the entire footpath and a…
By How to find joy in cooking for one
A meal for one doesn’t need to be pitiable. Looking after yourself should be seen as an act of…
By MPs believe the scenes at Clapham Common are the best we can expect from the Met Police
The police are treated as a device with which to win or lose elections, rather than as an essential…
By Leader: Europe’s bad science costs lives
The continent that supposedly reveres the Enlightenment has disregarded scientific inquiry over the AstraZeneca vaccine.
By Britain should focus not on the Indo-Pacific but on Europe’s own geopolitical neighbourhood
Global Britain will be decided not in the Indian Ocean or the South China Sea, but in the Baltic, Black…
By The crackdown on the Clapham vigil shows why the policing bill is so dangerous
Giving the police discretion to shut down virtually any form of protest would be disastrous for democracy.
By “Why can I not let go of the comforts of life?” Sam Byers on what personal liberation really looks like
The British novelist discusses why our fixation on “wellness” grows as the planet around us decays.
By