Leader: Beyond the cynicism of Boris Johnson
The UK needs more than a new prime minister: it needs constitutional reform.
ByThe Magazine
In this week’s issue
Marked Man
Letter of the week: The centre of the system
Write to letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
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No 10 advisers look to Truss
Your weekly pick of the gossip from Westminster.
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Is Vladimir Putin dead?
What the persistent rumours about the Russian president’s health do and do not tell us about the country’s future.
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Paul Mason’s Diary: My bid to become a Labour MP and why we must not let Ukraine fade into the background
We are living through the worst crisis since the Second World War: everything must be reframed around the survival…
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Rebecca Smith: “For children, losing their hair is very frightening”
The author reflects on writing about childhood cancer in her new book SuperDaisy.
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Why Liz Truss is most likely the next Tory leader
The Foreign Secretary’s politics are shared by the Tory membership and she appears hungrier for the role than her…
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Boris Johnson’s Britain stands as an international epitome of visionless drift
The prime minister resembles Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s former PM, who offered boosterish posturing in place of substance.
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Boris Johnson has infected his party with chaos
Today’s vote of confidence makes no sense except as a howl of pain by Conservative MPs.
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The football transfer market has become a soap opera, with players the willing stars
It is an industry run on buzz and rumour – but signing footballers for big money is a risky…
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Patriotism is an emotional language I’m not fluent in but I loved my Jubilee street party
It is true that the festivities cost millions, but the celebrations were a moving way to unify a diverse,…
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The Tories’ fatal attraction to Boris Johnson
As in 1978, we are approaching the end of an era as the Conservatives flounder before events too big…
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How Kamala Harris became a liability
The vice-president is unpopular with the public and her party. Is she a victim of Joe Biden’s failures or…
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Tracey Emin interview: “When I die, there could be riots”
Having survived cancer, the artist has returned home to Margate. Now she’s working on her legacy.
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The secret world of Mick Herron
How the author of Slow Horses and Bad Actors became the foremost living spy novelist in the English language.
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The NS Poem: Transfiguration
A new poem by Rebecca Tamás.
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Reviewed in Short: New books by Rupal Patel and Jack Meaning, Melvyn Bragg, Laura Bates and Paddy Crewe
Can’t We Just Print More Money? by Patel and Meaning, Back in the Day by Bragg, Fix the System,…
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Desperate Remedies: A new work charts the cruel and often gruesome history of mental health treatments
The sociologist Andrew Scull acknowledges that contemporary psychiatry is more rigorous – but is it more effective?
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Reflections of the elusive Jean Rhys
The novelist wrote four dark, slyly autobiographical novels – then vanished for 25 years. A new biography hopes to…
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Jeremy Hunt’s book on the NHS is well intentioned – but misses 90 per cent of the story
Candid on short-staffing and underfunding, ministerial memoir Zero omits the healthcare that happens in the community.
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Algernon Newton: rediscovering British art’s “Canaletto of the canals”
The painter’s depopulated cities and landscapes are visions of a 20th-century world wracked by war.
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All My Friends Hate Me: a sharp swipe at class that doesn’t quite land a killer blow
Andrew Gaynord’s crisply British comedy takes the rural antics of Withnail & I and adds a horrific twist.
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My Name is Leon: a horribly preachy drama
This BBC film about a child dealing with racism in 1980s Birmingham promises real-world lessons but delivers saccharine platitudes.
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How the front door became a British status symbol
Rachel Hurdley’s BBC Radio 4 documentary sheds light on an overlooked fixture of modern life.
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Let’s cast a Gimlet eye on cocktails and their over-reliance on sugar
A glass of sour simplicity tells me a great cocktail requires a great bartender – and a dash of…
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I don’t get hangovers. Am I missing out on the brutal clarity they bring?
Maybe I need the psychological shock of hitting an artificial, whisky-fuelled rock bottom to see what’s wrong in my…
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I have become a cat-sitting Robinson Crusoe, and I no longer want to be rescued
I brought along some smoked salmon to establish my bona fides with Tybalt, but he just glared at it…
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This England: Cat on an oil rig 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: Rob Marshall
Email ellys.woodhouse@newstatesman.co.uk if you would like to be the New Statesman's subscriber of the week.
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Sheila Hancock Q&A: “I met Clement Attlee when I was working at the circus”
The actor on how education changes lives, falling in love and the brilliance of Shuggie Bain.
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