Leader: In defence of the open society
A healthy liberal democracy must guarantee freedom of expression; it must not guarantee freedom from offence.
ByThe Magazine
In this week’s issue
Six Months that Changed the World
Letter of the week: Labour’s missing localism
Write to letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
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Liz Truss’s aide provides some entry-level media training
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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Why the Russian journalist Marina Ovsyannikova sets an example for the West
Ovsyannikova is one of the hundreds of thousands of Russians standing up to Vladimir Putin despite immense personal risk.
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Iain Dale’s Diary: My week at the Edinburgh Fringe, and a spellbinding chat with Angela Rayner
Still recovering from a bad fall, I hosted live podcast shows at the festival wearing a rather magnificent burgundy…
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Mick Lynch: “Starmer’s Labour could be another version of the Tories”
The RMT general secretary on the case for strikes, the war in Ukraine and why he backed Brexit.
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Keir Starmer’s energy strategy hints at Wilson-like cunning
Labour’s proposal to freeze families’ energy bills is the right policy at the right time.
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What my toddler and I learned at Drag Queen Story Hour
Despite culture-war outrage, children’s events hosted by performers in drag are safe titillation for middle-class parents.
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Serena Williams has been a tennis player like no other, and perhaps the greatest of all
Williams’ legacy lies not only in her extraordinary success and mesmerising on-court energy, but in the path she forged…
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The war that changed the world
Six months in, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has revealed a global order in transition.
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Salman Rushdie shows us that free speech is life itself
Rushdie knows how vital, how serious the business of storytelling is. Yet in my encounters with him he never…
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Storytelling must prevail in a world in which democracy is under threat
The attack on Salman Rushdie was not an isolated incident, but connected to the political and cultural changes we…
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How the fatwa against Salman Rushdie changed British identity
In 1989 a new global conflict began that still defines our time: a war of power, wealth and dogma.
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Why Rishi Sunak failed
The former chancellor, once Britain’s most popular politician, seems to have let No 10 slip from his grasp. Where…
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Why Gone with the Wind is American culture’s original sin
Sarah Churchwell’s book is a 458-page indictment of the Civil War-era romance. Frankly, should we give a damn?
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How the housing crisis shaped modern Britain
The country is blighted by landlordism, homelessness and Thatcher’s legacy.
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When women were warriors: the forgotten female leaders of the Middle Ages
In Femina, Janina Ramirez tells the stories of women previously written out of history books.
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Mark Haddon: “I’m quite lucky to be alive”
The novelist on his triple heart bypass, literature’s “culture wars”, and why he’s donating book royalties to abortion funds…
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Reviewed in short: New books from Geoff Mulgan, CJ Hauser, Matt Rowland Hill and Hans Fallada
Another World Is Possible by Mulgan, The Crane Wife by Hauser, Original Sins by Rowland Hill and Lilly and…
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How Patrick Nasmyth brought Dutch mastery to Scottish art
The Edinburgh-born painter overcame physical disabilities to model himself on the landscapists of the Dutch golden age.
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Jordan Peele’s Nope blends the political and the cinematic
In the award-winning director's new sci-fi horror there are too many meanings to be absorbed in just one viewing.
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Stefan Golaszewski’s Marriage is a stone-cold masterpiece
Nicola Walker and Sean Bean are both marvellous in this realistic, empathetic BBC drama portraying an ordinary, loving couple
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How to sell your soul for clicks
Daisy Buchanan's new podcast Careering examines the personal exposure demanded of women journalists.
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I became a wine-lover aged ten, at my father’s side – and it connects us still
Security, for me, is the memory of a Monbazillac, tasted for the first time on that hot summer’s day…
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We’re told not to have too many friends – but for me, there’s no such thing
I resent the suggestion that a wide friendship circle makes you somehow cheap or insincere.
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Buying a nine-pack of loo rolls, I worry they might outlive me
Why do the doctors call it a “chest” X-ray? Surely they mean “lung”.
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This England: What the butler showed
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: Moses Seitler
Email ellys.woodhouse@newstatesman.co.uk if you would like to be the New Statesman's subscriber of the week.
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Sarah Langford Q&A: “Pay something attention and it rewards you a hundredfold”
The barrister-turned-farmer on Madonna, Mad Men and why success doesn't equal happiness.
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