The new divides
The left-right axis is no longer the most important division in politics. Six of our writers explore the new…
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Divided Britain
Electric dreams
How the “hippie tycoon” Dale Vince – a pioneer of renewable energy – plans to turn football and our…
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Want to really shift the pounds in January? Get drinking water
Too often, we mistake thirst for hunger (and vice-versa).
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Turkey’s new permanent crisis: is Erdogan abandoning the West?
After the Reine nightclub attack, internal conflicts look set to escalate further.
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Voting isn’t just about economics – to win, the left must address new cultural divides
Whether we're talking trade, national security, immigration or social cohesion, the cosmopolitan axis already tells us more than a…
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Commons confidential: “Hi, it’s me”
This week's best gossip in Westminster – from mice to brass bands.
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What could Sigmund Freud possibly teach Sherlock Holmes?
Sometimes a deerstalker is just a deerstalker. Plus: why The Halcyon fails.
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John Berger, the art critic in the margins
Remembering the writer and former New Statesman critic, who died on 2 January 2017.
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Is the racial divide in voting preferences about to become more stark?
David Cameron's last project was to end the race divide among British voters. But can it last under May's…
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The lesson of 2016? We were wrong to put our faith in democracy
As I reflect on the new year, I remember that democracy alone can't prevent dictators – but try to not…
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“Close to tears, he left at the intermission”: how Stanley Kubrick upset Arthur C Clarke
The clash of wills behind 2001: a Space Odyssey reminds me that scientific education, not mystery, was always closest to…
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sea swim
A new poem by Andrew McMillan.
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Want to know how someone votes? Start by asking if they went to university
The past few years have been excellent for graduates and terrible for unskilled school-leavers. It's no wonder they have…
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From sex to friendship, are millennials’ lives ruled by narcissism?
New books Future Sex and The Selfishness of Others explore what it means to live in our current moment.
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I told A A Gill I hated him – after that, he became my champion in print
There was Gill, standing alone by a laurel bush. “Don’t even think about it,” my daughter hissed.
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A Monster Calls reminds us there’s only one way to live: messily ever after
J A Bayona’s arboreal fantasy A Monster Calls doesn't have "good guys" or "bad guys" – as in real life, most…
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Are cities more liberal? Of course: all your liberal mates moved to one
The physical gap between these places can be a matter of a few miles. The cultural gap can seem…
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Want to save the world? Start by fighting for the simple things
Whether it's boring, homogenous, shiny fruit or dying bumblebees, do as Ronald Reagan said: “Just Say No.”
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Why, in spite of everything, I’m hopeful about 2017
From thinking about family to remembering Carrie Fisher, the first week of the new year left me strangely optimistic.
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Why it’s time to end EU free movement
Vince Cable makes the liberal case for immigration controls.
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My ambition? Get to age 90 and see China dominate world football
I want to be here to see my older grandchildren, now aged 16, leave college, if they ever go, and…
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From the triple lock to TV licences, are older voters benefiting at the expense of the young?
The voting power of pensioners has long had a distorting effect on British politics.
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In 2017 the other EU states will take back control of Brexit
The illusion of sovereignty conferred by the referendum will vanish once the negotiations begin.
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Can the new political divide between owners and renters be bridged?
Opinion polls have shown that most voters, in theory, favour a fall in house prices. But do they in…
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The best of rivals: how four friendships changed the course of art history
Manet and Degas, Matisse and Picasso – The Art of Rivalry by Sebastian Smee reminds us that who we meet…
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Why Elijah Page is the best folk singer you’ve never heard of
Lay Down Your Weary Tune by W B Belcher reminds us what a good setting the folk scene can…
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The amazing lawnmower man
How ex-bank manager Clive Gravett became obsessed with Edwin Beard Budding, the inventor of the lawnmower.
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Around the world in 80 clicks: now you can browse the planet’s radio stations, live
radio.garden picks up transmissions from every corner of the globe.
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Leader: The new divides
It's time for the UK to address long-standing defects: our poor productivity, our regional imbalances, our lack of affordable…
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No more heroes
Alongside the icons we lost in 2016, we're mourning for a world that felt like it was changing for…
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How wine crosses national boundaries
With a glass of wine, and a bit of imagination, wine can take us anywhere.
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The best defence against Alzheimer’s
Spoiler: the best way to avoid Alzheimer's is to stay young.
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Women for sale: can you be a capitalist and a feminist?
We Were Feminists Once is a sometimes confused look at the question – but it reminds us to focus on what…
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It’s unfashionable to call someone a “genius” – but William Empson was one
Rather than denying the contradictoriness of being human, Empson revelled in it, as The Face of Buddha reveals.
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The long journey home
A father’s fight for his autistic son.
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A new BBC program allows us to watch couples undertake mediation
Mr v Mrs: Call the Mediator is a rather astonishing series - and it's up to the viewer to provide…
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What’s the score? BBC Radio 4 explores composers’ manuscripts
Tales from the Stave is endlessly fascinating, although my classical musician siblings tell me composers aren't so bad in real…
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Leader: Pandora’s box has been opened
The referendum has unleashed dark forces and furies into the body politic and we shall be living with the…
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Remainder is a study of repetition – but a fresh study of repetition
This story of memory loss shows how meaning accrues through duplication. Plus: Ma Ma reviewed.
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Why won’t politicians admit the truth: life is hard, and drugs are fun?
True, drugs can also be dangerous - but criminalising them makes them even more so.
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Kevin Barry’s chaotic journey from “stoner entrepreneur” to Ireland’s most unpredictable novelist
Ghosts, raves and the soul of John Lennon: Tom Gatti interviews the winner of the 2015 Goldsmiths Prize.
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Is this the long-predicted English Revolt – just as Celtic nationalism has plateaued?
In Scotland and Northern Ireland, it was economic self-interest and inherent caution that ultimately trumped nationalism. Will England do…
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How Lenin the chicken began his reign of terror
When we hatched Lenin under our broody hen, we had to idea what was to come.
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How Islamic is Islamic State? Shiraz Maher’s new book investigates
Maher's Salafi-Jihadism: the History of an Idea draws on research and the author's personal experience to investigate the ideology which drives…
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“I am signing none of the emails with an x”: a new poem by Kathryn Maris
“Affection is not a currency.”
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She knew every trick to get a home visit – but this time I had come prepared
Having been conned into another couple of fruitless house calls, I now parry the proffered symptoms and generally get…
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Neither side told the truth about immigration in the EU referendum campaign
Remain refused to speak of the benefits of increasing immigration. Leave refused to speak of the costs of reducing it.
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Over a Martini with my mother, I decide I’d rather not talk Brexit
A drink with her reduces me to a nine-year-old boy recounting his cricketing triumphs.
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Why Podemos will defeat the Spanish Socialists
A new alliance on the Spanish Left will be stronger than the sum of its parts.
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Commons confidential: Boris’s blond Brexit ambition
Boris Johnson adopting Brexit for his Tory leadership bid extended to the self-anointed premier-in-waiting holding out an olive branch…
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Why I finally got my first tattoo
For years, I was worried I'd regret it. But there's something to be said for giving up on being…
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People have been so kind to MPs since Jo Cox died – but it’s just another reminder that she’s gone
Labour MP and pro-EU campaigner Mary Creagh writes this week’s Diary.
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A father’s murderous rage, the first victims of mass killers and Trump’s phantom campaign
From the family courts to the US election campaigns.
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