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Two poems by Kathryn Maris
“The adulteress” and “The H Man”.The adulteress was her joke name for herself though unfashionable & (except in the literal sense) incorrect. She had to stop attending dinner...
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How to criticise the left
Thanks to the internet, a new discursive register has emerged: either you’re with us, to the most extreme interpretation of our ideas, or you’re against us. If you use Twitter a lot, you may have...
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A gift for John Berger
The art critic who contains multitudes.This is the text of a speech given on 18 September at the British Library in London in honour of the critic, novelist, poet and artist John Berger. There’s a...
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Is the Pope cool enough to take on homophobia in religion?
LGBT rights should be our Cool Pope's next frontier. Francis has done a lot to earn that “Cool Pope” moniker, he really has. Walking into America and taking the side of the poor is a bold move. This...
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Nightmare journeys, plumbers against the EU and the danger of life in the...
The slogan of the conference was “Straight talking, honest politics” but the real theme was modernisers v Corbynites. The first full day of Labour conference felt like the universe’s way of backing...
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The free market? There's no such thing
There's no such thing as the free market - it's a delusion of left and right, argues Bryn Phillips. A very long time ago, some wide-eyed utopians dreamed a seductive dream. A dream of a perfect world....
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Will George Osborne soften the tax credit cuts for low-earners?
Labour MP Frank Field offers the Chancellor a partial escape route. The Conservatives are the real "workers' party". That is the message that will be delivered repeatedly at the party's conference in...
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‘What is the Government’s role in the fight against cancer?’
Larushka Mellor, head of public affairs and policy at Merck Serono asked John Baron MP, the Conservative chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer for his thoughts. 1. The independent...
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Why the philosophy of people-rating app Peeple is fundamentally flawed
The app claims that “character is destiny”, and that we should be constantly judged based on our past interactions with others. But do we really believe that? Yesterday, you were probably one of the...
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From the Yorkshire moors to a gym in Texas: the overlooked 2015 films to look...
Andrew Bujalski's gym comedy, Results, and Daniel and Matthew Wolfe's moors-based drama Catch Me Daddy are now out on DVD. In a year when there are more new film releases than ever (18 this week, not...
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We're hiring! Join the New Statesman as an editorial assistant
The NS is looking for a new recruit. The New Statesman is hiring an editorial assistant, who will work across the website and magazine to help the office run smoothly. The ideal candidate will have...
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Beyond the frame: the best recent graphic novels
Neel Mukherjee is moved and unsettled by everything from psychological realism to ghost stories. Nick Sousanis’s Unflattening (Harvard University Press, £16.95) is a book not quite like any other....
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For the last time, please, bring back the plate
The slight lip around the edge is no mere bourgeois affectation; it keeps the food contained in its proper place. The much-vaunted tech revolution is not without its casualties, as I discovered first...
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The players make their mistakes on the pitch – I make mine on the page
I find that if I watch three live games in a weekend, which often happens, I have totally forgotten the first two by the time the third comes up. I was a bit humiliated and ashamed and mortified last...
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Bohemian rhapsody: Jeanette Winterson’s “cover version” of The Winter’s Tale
Jeanette Winterson's The Gap of Time is full of metaphorical riches. Shakespeare – that magpie plunderer of other people’s plots and characters – would undoubtedly have approved. The Hogarth...
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The Tories are the zombie party: with an ageing, falling membership, still...
One Labour MP in Brighton spotted a baby in a red Babygro and said to me: “There’s our next [Labour] prime minister.” All football clubs have “ultras” – and, increasingly, political parties do, too:...
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Apprenticeships remain a university alternative in name only for too many...
New research shows that those who do the best apprenticeships will earn higher salaries than graduates, but government targets undermine the quality of such schemes. Rare is the week that passes by...
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The strange death of boozy Britain: why are young people drinking less?
Ditching alcohol for work. Whenever horrific tales of the drunken escapades of the youth are reported, one photo reliably gets wheeled out: "bench girl", a young woman lying passed out on a public...
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Personal experiences – not just biology – shape who you find attractive
Researchers find past experiences play a role in identifying why people are attracted to certain individuals. A new study suggests personal experiences influence our attraction to our preferred...
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Why is it getting harder to report on Israel-Palestine?
The politics of the conflict are changing – and with them, the diplomatic and journalistic challenge. Throughout the centuries, Jerusalem’s Old City has drawn pilgrims, tourists, and conquerors. This...
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