Letter of the week: Grief in the margins

Write to letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine

Was it irony or good planning to have Hannah Barnes’s investigation appearing adjacent to Gordon Brown’s Another Voice in the 13 February edition? Both articles reveal the continual disregard of women’s voices and women’s issues to a point where this attitude has almost become normalised.

My first child was stillborn shortly before term 39 years ago, with no adequate explanation. My daughter almost lost her baby in June 2025 at 40 weeks due to midwives apparently arguing over whether to implement the consultant obstetrician’s recommendations. I had hoped that maternity services would have improved since then, but sadly they appear to have deteriorated. Barnes’s article states that the Care Quality Commission deems “nearly half of England’s maternity units require improvement or are rated inadequate”. This shocking failure is being reviewed slowly and ineffectually. We need a national inquiry looking at all provisions, rather than a series of separate investigations. To echo Brown’s conclusion, “Those in authority must ensure the spotlight will never again turn away from the sorrow and pain of victims.”
Janet Thompson, Warborough, Oxfordshire

The weight of neglect

I would like to congratulate the NS on its last issue. The publication of the Epstein files has shown that our political and media elite is infected by the moral stain of child sex trafficking (a phrase that is conspicuously absent from most coverage). This has been reinforced by the majority of coverage of the files, dominated by the usual who’s up, who’s down political trivia, and then completely forgotten in the drama around Starmer’s leadership. It is incumbent on the New Statesman to cover all of this as a political magazine, and it is this sort of coverage that I generally look for. But whereas almost every other outlet has allowed the political gossip to dominate, your latest issue struck the perfect balance. Yes, the politics was there, but so too was the genuine respect for Epstein’s victims, which they deserve above all. In particular, Tanya Gold’s article (Reporter at Large, 13 February) showed that the depravity in Epstein’s emails was far deeper than I had understood from any other coverage. Pippa Bailey’s more personal reflections (Out of the Ordinary) were deeply moving, and even Ailbhe Rea’s coverage (Politics) recognised just how criminal it would be to forget that a political system allowed this to happen. Finally, to whoever selected From the Archive, well done – it was a masterful choice that spoke exactly to the issue of the day, showing us that nothing has really changed.

So, thank you. This week you have simply outclassed everyone else in your industry.
Joe Card, London E14

Westminster’s myopia

Andrew Marr (The Big Picture, 13 February) shared his “secret from the sausage factory” that the entire commentariat has “committed” itself to the proposition that Keir Starmer is doomed. In his usual witty and urbane way, Marr then goes on to prove his point by writing him off.

There seems to be more unanimity about the hopelessness of Starmer than, say, the economic destruction wrought by David Cameron and co, or the corruption of Boris Johnson, or the haplessness of Rishi Sunak. That Farage is a shoo-in for the prime minister of “Broken Britain” is accepted with scarcely a murmur. Everyone agrees: Starmer is the worst prime minister this country has known.

Journey back to the days when the fourth estate was in a healthier state. There was, at least, a debate about our leaders and their policies; differences of opinion were aired. How meatier the sausage would be if the journalists ensconced in the cosy confines of the Westminster bubble broke away from their self-imposed consensus. And maybe, as Marr, suggests, we can read it here first.
Richard Holledge, London W14

A vision from the Valleys

Tom McTague’s autopsy of Labour’s ideological rudderlessness (The NS Essay, 13 February) rightly identifies a party struggling to define itself in the post-growth era. However, his analysis overlooks the rich policy laboratory already operating elsewhere in Britain.

If Keir Starmer seeks a new political economy, he need only look to Wales. Here, the foundational economy – the essential everyday services the Chancellor championed before entering No 11 – has been used to offer a blueprint for renewal. Other alternatives, such as the circular economy and community wealth-building, could be networked into a distinct and radical plan for democratic change.

While these models may not provide a totalising answer to our landscape of polycrisis, they offer a tangible, equitable alternative to the status quo. Through such alternatives, Labour could craft an ideology of hope and resilience capable of neutralising the populist right. The ideas are there; Labour simply needs the courage to import them.
Aled Blake, Barry, Wales

The Library, unbound

Kathryn Perry (Correspondence, 13 February) should be careful what she wishes for. Once the 800 new members the London Library’s café and roof terrace are being built to attract arrive, when she can’t find a desk any more, when the books she used to find on the open shelves have to be retrieved from remote storage with a wait of 72 hours because the shelving has been ripped out to make way for a kitchen, and when, rather than being a place for the “advancement of education, learning and knowledge”, the Library has become a venue for parties, fundraisers and other jamborees, she may look back with regret on the “private club” where the only disturbance was the sound of Andrew Marr answering his phone.
Tony Wells, London W9

The Great British Break-Up

The political freefall engulfing Starmer’s government is merely a symptom of a more profound and insoluble crisis. Britain (like most of western Europe) is in decline, with high inflation, stagnant growth and a simmering anger directed towards the political class as a whole. The atmosphere is febrile, with apathy and anger evident in equal measure. No political party can speak the truth, that we are in an era of managed decline and that the glory days of perpetual prosperity are consigned to the rearview mirror. Instead, leaders roll out the same mantra of renewal and progression. The electorate has smelled a rat: namely, that the two-party system has failed to deliver. The popularity of Plaid Cymru in Wales and the SNP in Scotland show that Labour will perhaps never again be the political force it once was in these regions. Meanwhile, in England, both main parties appear to have fallen, with an insurgent Reform and a rebranded Green Party snapping at their heels.

As a resident of Denton, I have a choice to make this month, in a by-election billed as a two-horse race between Nigel Farage’s Reform and Zack Polanski’s Greens. Is the era of stability and two-party hegemony drawing to an end?
Rachel Massie, Denton, Greater Manchester

Gloom with a view

This week I came across a New Statesman from May 2021. Ignoring the interview with Peter Mandelson, the unifying theme of the issue was a “doom-and-gloom” vibe about Labour’s electoral prospects. A useful reminder that quality writing and political fortune-telling are not always aligned.
Nye Harries, Bristol

The fine print

No doubt Richard Homer is correct about the origins of cassoulet (Correspondence, 13 February). But has he been confusing the NS with Private Eye, which, for many years, has included “Pedantry Corner” in its letters pages? Perhaps the New Statesman could start one for similar contributions.
Mark Richardson, Grimsby

No bun intended

Finn McRedmond (Silver Spoon, 13 February) watched Arsenal fans sharing quail fritti, lamb with polenta, beef with gorgonzola – but omits the 59,000 loyal regulars surviving on burgers and beer.
Mike Bor, aged 80, an Arsenal supporter of 73 years, London W2

Write to letters@newstatesman.co.uk
We reserve the right to edit letters

[Further reading: Is Bridget Phillipson really the most dangerous woman in Britain?]