Paying the costs of war
Keir Starmer’s defence spending increase is a very expensive lesson in failing to plan ahead.
ByThe Magazine
In this week’s issue
Britain in Trump’s World
Letter of the week: United nations
Write to letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
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Even 1980s game shows prove too cutting-edge for baffled peers
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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Xi and Putin vie to exploit the second Trump age
By voting for Russia and against Ukraine at the UN, the US president has shown which side of the…
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Despite three years of war, Ukrainians do not despair
Also this week: Pills in Poland and a new way of measuring political absurdity.
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Ash Sarkar: “I wasn’t smart enough to listen when I was younger”
The journalist and figurehead of the young Corbynite left on progressive politics in retreat and what the right got…
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The AfD’s rise is the centre left’s final warning
The surging far-right is a symptom of a world slipping out of progressive control – and comprehension.
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The BBC’s fumble leaves the stories of Gaza’s children untold
Also this week: Britain united over copyright law, and Trump’s war on the US press rages on.
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Eric Adams’ corruption is emblematic of American politics today
The New York mayor’s behaviour shows how questions of right and wrong have devolved into whatever people can get…
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The “success story” of Tory education reform is a mirage
False claims about academies’ performance are obscuring the ambition of Labour’s Schools Bill.
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Maternity leave isn’t “leave” – it’s hard work
Just as women need to be told about the realities of pregnancy, we should be honest about the next…
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Keir Starmer in Trumpworld
The fate of the special relationship in a new global order.
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The godfather of the Maga right
Steve Bannon on a US-Russia alliance, kinship with Blue Labour, and his war on modernity.
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How courts punish the victims of domestic abuse
Even after leaving their tormentors, those who have suffered at the hands of their partners face a brutal legal…
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Where to find meaning
As Christianity in Britain declines, two new books ask: what should we believe in now?
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Art and the ruins of the left
Can painting alter the course of our politics?
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Why we’re stuck in Ancient Rome
The enduring resonance of the Roman empire is often remarked upon – but rarely understood.
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Curtis Sittenfeld’s ordinary lives
The stories in her zeitgeisty collection Show Don’t Tell are dated by their cultural references, but their astute observations…
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From Gabriel Weston to Richard Overy: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring I Don’t Like Your Tie by Marc Moss-Jones and Kevin Core and The Naked Eye by Yoko…
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The Last Showgirl is beautiful, tasteful – and tedious
Gia Coppola’s film, about an out-of-work Las Vegas dancer played by Pamela Anderson, looks gorgeous but is let down…
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The half-hearted return of Bergerac
This reboot of the classic detective series has lost all its drollness and sense of fun. C’est dommage!
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London’s season of sexed-up Shakespeare
New productions of Richard II and Much Ado About Nothing both burnish their texts with hot celebrity appeal –…
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Sam Fender’s politicised rock
The North Shields artist’s third album, People Watching, shows the musician continues to find inspiration in his troubled roots.
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The changing face of Lent
It has suited our capitalist, secular economy to relinquish the fasting but keep the feasting.
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Britain’s embattled markets are an investment opportunity
The thing about business is that one person’s capsized sausage lorry is another person’s impromptu roadside barbecue.
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I am haunted by a new, very specific fear
Beware the Waitrose car park.
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I’ve nothing against boomers
It’s decades of policies prioritising wealth protection that are the source of resentment.
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I attempt peak football-viewing: two live games at once
There were competing sets of replays and live-action excitements. My head swivelled so much I got dizzy.
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This England: Things took a wrong turn
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: Geoff Hurd
Please email zuzanna.lachendro@newstatesman.co.uk if you would like to be featured.
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Eimear McBride Q&A: “I have a face only Lyubov Popova could love”
The novelist on American cinema and the dream of being an antiquarian bookseller.
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