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Nye Bevan would recognise the government's discrimination against those in...
Bevan frequently attacked the Conservative-dominated “National Government” of the 1930s on its record on poverty, and in particular, its so-called “Means Test". At the launch of the paperback edition...
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What Belongs to You is a love story that captures Balkan psychology
Garth Greenwell's debut novel is marked by a feeling that consolation, or even moral action, is impossible. On the first page of Garth Greenwell’s debut novel the narrator, an American expat teaching...
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We must remain in the EU - for Eastern Europe's sake
Europe's leaders must ensure that the mistake of abandoning Eastern Europe, which led to catastrophe in the 1930s, is not repeated. The World Wars, historian Paul W. Schroeder argues, were both "about...
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Watching the parade in Red Square, I saw Soviet propaganda get a slick rebirth
Between pro-Kremlin hacks recording our conversations and the circling helicopters, things in Russia were starting to echo old norms. The first time I sat in Red Square watching a parade to mark the...
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The Tories' dismal economic record exposes their hollow rhetoric
The government may be good at delivering speeches, but they just don't deliver for working people. The construction figures released today – showing a fall in output of 1.1 per cent in the first three...
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Thanks to Obama the left has just lived through a decade of unimaginable success
As President, Barack Obama has ushered in a new era of American liberalism. From one angle, the past decade has been an unmitigated failure for the Left. The far right has been reborn in the UK,...
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One year in: reflections on 12 months as an MP
I knew as soon as I was elected that although I would have the huge privilege of representing my constituents in Parliament, Labour would not shape and mould the rebuilding of our communities that is...
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The HH Podcast #1.5: Fight Club
The Hidden Histories podcast. Welcome to the fourth episode of Hidden Histories podcast series – The Great Forgetting: Women writers before Austen. In this episode, Helen Lewis and our guests Sophie...
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Even if remain wins, the Brexit referendum has hampered our economy
Looking at the damage done already and the dire forecasts ahead has to make you wonder what on earth Osborne and Cameron have been doing playing around with our economic stability like this. It is a...
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Fans before bands: exploring the roots of punk at the British Library
Of course, an exhibition of peripheral paraphernalia inevitably shifts the focus away from the artists themselves and onto the fans. What are the most iconic moments of punk? Punk 1976-78 at the...
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Don DeLillo's latest is an ambitious novel of opposites – but can its halves...
Zero K can't resist reaching for Beckettian heights while remaining rooted in the banal. Samuel Beckett’s relationship with the novel was less a match made in heaven than a serial skirmish – a writer...
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It's the end of the season: here's what we've learned
It's time for the round-up of bests – so I'm revisiting my notes, from chants to haircuts. It’s that time of the season when it’s time to say it’s that time of the season. I’ll check my notes for any...
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Why are we asking which way Churchill would have voted in the EU referendum?
Summoning Tory ghosts, Toby Young’s school climbdown and Chatsworth’s shabby show. Unable to deal with abstractions such as sovereignty, internationalism and human rights, the British pursue their...
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Is this the end of sex?
A baby grown from a flake of skin or from the genes of three parents – the future of reproduction is mind-boggling. Is it time to give up sex? Oh, it has plenty to recommend it; but as a way of making...
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"Algiers": a new poem by Fred Johnston
What I can remember are taxis and a long walk by the docks. . . What I can remember are taxis and a long walk by the docks smell of oil and tar and fish-stalls by the mosque – where were you,...
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The New Statesman editor caught me in the street – but why is he talking...
Normally when I hear an editor’s approach in public my instinct is to hide. Weirdly, though, this one seems to be complimenting me. A nice spring evening, and I am heading towards Regent Street to a...
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The water of life that’s a memento of death
The apparently unappetising remains of good wine take on new life when distilled into marc. There is no better punctuation to a fine meal than a digestif, the strong liquor that reminds us of our...
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New Statesman Monarchy Week 2016
Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1399. Some time this year, Elizabeth II – queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland, Australia, Canada, Jamaica, and assorted other...
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The politics of possibility: British politics must rediscover its radicalism
To solve the big public policy riddles our country faces, we need courage and boldness. Impossibility pervades politics today. The deficit denies all political action outside the tortured logic of...
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Why was English cricket so terrible in the Nineties – and why does it matter...
Following On: a Memoir of Teenage Obsession and Terrible Cricket by Emma John takes us back to the era of Atherton. The summer of 1999 was meant to be a breakout moment for English cricket: the first...
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