What the SNP by-election win tells us about Labour’s predicament

The SNP have won the Airdrie and Shotts by-election. The scores on the door: SNP: Anum Qaisar-Javed 46.4 per cent ( 1.4) Scottish Labour: Kenneth...

How blue has the Red Wall turned?

Who will win the Chesham and Amersham by-election?

The tragic death of Cheryl Gillan, the Conservative MP for Chesham and Amersham and former Secretary of State for Wales, means there will be a by-...

Who'll win the Chesham and Amersham by-election?

The tragic death of Cheryl Gillan, the Conservative MP for Chesham and Amersham and former Secretary of State for Wales, means there will be a by-...

Edwin Poots is elected DUP leader in a repudiation of the party's MPs

Edwin Poots has been elected as the new leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, while Paula Bradley has been elected as deputy leader after a vote...

Podcast: does Labour really need Tony Blair's 'total change'?

Writing in the New Statesman, former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair argues that 'without total change, Labour will die'.  In this...

UK Covid tracker: the latest data by local authority as the roadmap out of lockdown begins

The New Statesman has launched this page to track case rates and other key Covid-19 data on a local authority level across Britain. It will be...

Podcast: what's behind the latest Isreal-Palestine conflict?

Podcast: what's behind the latest Israel-Palestine conflict?

Israel-Palestine: death toll continues to rise

As I write on Friday morning in Washington, DC, 119 people, including 31 children, have been killed by Israeli strikes inside the Gaza Strip,...

“Lockdown brought a sense of madness”: a conversation between Johnny Flynn and Robert Macfarlane

On a bright, breezy April morning, the folk musician and actor Johnny Flynn (The Dig, Emma), walked along the River Lea in east London with his...

How the debate over trans rights is splitting the SNP

Beyond the securing of a second independence referendum, the greatest challenge facing the Scottish government in the current session is the...

Are students falling out of love with Labour?

The 2021 local elections were an disappointing set of results for Keir Starmer’s Labour party. Put simply, this election was witness to a now...

Will the UK suffer a dangerous third wave of Covid-19?

“Just when I’ve begun to get myself together, you waltz right in the door, just like you’ve done before…”  These words by Dolly Parton, the...

How awkward will today’s Greensill hearings be for David Cameron?

David Cameron faces a long afternoon of questions as he gives evidence to both the Treasury select committee and Public Accounts Committee...

Israel-Palestine: Why Netanyahu and Hamas both risk losing control of the conflict

As Israeli fighter jets sped again towards Gaza on Monday (10 May) and Palestinian rockets rose once more from the besieged self-governing enclave,...

Bitcoin consumes more electricity than Sweden and Ukraine

Why David Cameron’s salary and finances are not a “private matter”

The public may now be able to browse 50 WhatsApp messages, texts, emails and calls that David Cameron sent to top government figures – but we...

Why Donald Trump is out of sight but not out of mind for the Republicans

For four years – at least – I, like millions of others, spent every day thinking about Donald Trump. There was a time, not too long ago, that...

How Scotland is heading for an even bigger exams debacle

When is an exam not an exam? In the through-the-looking-glass world of Scottish politics, it’s when the SNP government says so. This belligerence...

The Tories’ embrace of the anti-London mood is a danger to the economy

If you were to look at the pre-pandemic economic geography of the UK, one place in particular stands out as a success story. London was the...

Elon Musk admits Bitcoin is an environmental threat – but what about cars?

When Elon Musk told me in 2012 that he planned to build a city on Mars, I thought he was just excited by the prospect of living in the vast,...

Are we making progress in depicting abortion on screen?

Although you might not naturally see similarities between BAFTA TV nominees I May Destroy You , Bridgerton, and the latest documentary from...

Tony Blair: Without total change Labour will die

The challenge facing Britain’s Labour and Liberal Democrat parties cannot be overstated. Political parties have no divine right to exist and...

What Tony Blair gets right about Keir Starmer’s predicament

Change or die? That's the message that Tony Blair delivers in this week’s New Statesman , in which he gives Keir Starmer’s political...

Keir Starmer is adrift. Who can supply the direction he so desperately lacks?

The question I am asked by Labour MPs more than any other is this: what is Keir Starmer’s plan? Starmer is the candidate of the middle of the...

The Brit Awards 2021: celebrity posturing reminds you that some things never change

After a year of enforced quietude for celebrities – punctuated by the embarrassment of that “Imagine” video and Jess Glynne getting turned away...

As Tony Blair warns that Labour could die under Starmer and the “woke left”, is he planning a return?

Is Tony Blair, the former prime minister and only living Labour leader to win a general election, preparing a possible bid to win back the...

Tony Blair is pining for a centre ground that no longer exists

What if a great political leader from the past could time travel to our day? It would make for a classic comedy. Confronted with the wreckage of...

Tony Blair: The progressive challenge

The challenge facing Britain’s Labour and Liberal Democrat parties cannot be overstated. Political parties have no divine right to exist and...

Why David Hockney’s Piccadilly Circus is a great piece of public art

It’s 9am on a Monday in Piccadilly Circus. Sweat drips down the nape of your neck as you emerge from the Tube carriage, a sardine tin of people...

Why Scotland is still trapped in limbo-land

However expected, a fourth consecutive victory is a stunning achievement for the SNP. For Nicola Sturgeon to gain votes and a seat after 14 years...

For those of us recovering from eating disorders, calorie-labelled menus will be devastating

How many calories are in the Body and Blood of Christ? Fourteen years ago, when I was an anorexic teen letting a Communion wafer slowly dissolve on...

In an age of fragmentation, the British left’s electoral woes are part of a Europe-wide trend

Another week, another litany of woes for European social democracy. On 6 May Labour lost council seats and an important by-election in the post-...

UK economy still 9 per cent smaller than before Covid-19

The UK’s GDP grew by 2.1 per cent in March 2021, the highest month-on-month growth since last August  but the economy is still far below its...

Wondery’s British Scandal is a jarring mish-mash of tragedy and comedy

The podcast network Wondery is one of the biggest in the US. Launched just five years ago with backing from 20th Century Fox, its docu-thrillers Dr...

First Thoughts: Guardian airbrushing, lobotomised TV, and saving our subtitles

In its self-congratulatory 200th birthday celebrations, the Guardian publishes a timeline of its history. The launch of its daily features section...

I was born to bask in the Mediterranean sun, not write under the bedcovers for warmth

I was reading Evelyn Waugh’s first travel book, Labels, which for some inexplicable reason I had never got round to before, and I was barely a...

Commons Confidential: The great proletarian

Jeremy Corbyn’s problem was that everybody knew him. Keir Starmer’s problem is that nobody knew him until his election defeats and a botched...

Who is St Vincent?

The first 15 seconds of Daddy’s Home, St Vincent’s sixth solo album, introduce the numerous – and furiously fluctuating – modes of Annie...

The quiet landscape of Giorgio Morandi

The Italian painter Giorgio Morandi was the quietest of quiet men. Although he lived through an era that thoroughly remade art, for Morandi...

Is the launch of William and Kate’s YouTube channel the beginning of a royal rebrand?

The royal family is having a bit of a marketing moment. On 5 May the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge uploaded the first-ever royal YouTube video: a...

In gardening, the pursuit of perfection is fruitless; we should embrace nature’s wonkiness

This spring marks 40 years since I published my first gardening book. Many dozens more followed, together with thousands of articles in newspapers...

Keir Starmer has alienated the generation Corbyn energised. But can Labour succeed without us?

The day before the 2005 election, in which Tony Blair emerged with his third, attenuated majority, Mark Fisher published a post on his blog, k-punk:...

Who listens to Rag’n’Bone Man?

Who listens to Rag’n’Bone Man? I don’t mean that facetiously. Who puts this on in the morning, while walking their dog? Who likes the feel of...

3.5 million UK voters have no form of photo ID

Almost eight per cent of the UK electorate – some 3.5 million people – do not own any form of photo ID, according to Electoral Commission...

Blaming the voters is a moral and political dead end for Labour

On the morning of Labour’s historic defeat in Hartlepool, the term “Stockholm Syndrome” was trending on Twitter.  How, asked despairing critics...

The Queen’s Speech points to a 2023 general election

The Queen’s Speech will take place today, outlining the government’s legislative priorities for the coming year, including requirements for voter...

More than three million UK voters have no form of photo ID

Almost 8 per cent of the UK electorate – some 3.5 million people – do not own any form of photo ID, according to Electoral Commission...

Elon Musk’s Saturday Night Live appearance exposes the complacency of the liberal media

It started with a parody of “Hotline Bling”. Almost exactly a year before the 2016 US election, Donald Trump hosted Saturday Night Live for the...

Peter Mandelson: “I’m afraid Keir Starmer has come badly unstuck”

For the past four weeks, Peter Mandelson has been retreading old footsteps. Canvassing for the Labour Party around Hartlepool, the north-east...

Class isn’t dead – and Labour needs to relearn how to talk about it

For many years, politicians have proclaimed the death of class. John Major entered Downing Street in 1990 promising to create a “ classless...

Podcast: Keir Starmer’s Labour reshuffle, plus what Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP win means for Scotland

Since there is so much to discuss following the results of the 6 May elections, we’re publishing a special double episode of the New...

What did we learn from the Queen’s Speech?

The Queen arrived without crown or carriage at Westminster today (11 May) for the State Opening of Parliament. After a strong performance in last...

Labour’s loss of Hartlepool is the final death rattle of a movement that has abandoned its heartlands

In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, there is an exchange between two characters. Bill asks Mike how he went bankrupt and he answers: “Two...

From the NS archive: Modern sun-worship

The Danish scientist Niels Finsen won the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1903 for his pioneering work on a new form of therapy: that of light. Around...

Podcast: Keir Starmer's Labour reshuffle; plus what Nicola Sturgeon's SNP win means for Scotland

Since there is so much to discuss following the results of the 6 May elections, we’re publishing a special double episode of the  New Statesman...

Israel-Palestine: What caused the worst violence in years?

Twenty-four Palestinians, including nine children, were killed during all-night Israeli airstrikes on Gaza on Monday, according to the...