What do you do?
Retired author and ex-MEP.
Where do you live?
Forest Gate, east London.
Do you vote?
Always Labour.
How long have you been a subscriber?
More than 25 years.
What made you start?
I needed an interesting way to stay informed on politics.
Is the NS bug in the family?
My husband reads it and sometimes my son-in-law too.
What pages do you flick to first?
I start at the beginning.
[See also: The Trials and Tribulations of Being Broke]
How do you read yours?
Over lunch at the kitchen table throughout the week.
What would you like to see more of in the NS?
More European politics please.
Who are your favourite NS writers?
Nicholas Lezard, Jeremy Cliffe, Kevin Maguire.
Who would you put on the cover of the NS?
More women.
With which political figure would you least like to be stuck in a lift?
All-time favourite NS article?
So many over so long. One good one was Barbara Castle on the EU in 1982.
The New Statesman is…
an informative and intelligent package of political analysis.
[See also: Despite unhappy past experiences, I have decided to give facial hair one more go]
This article appears in the 19 Apr 2023 issue of the New Statesman, Axis of Autocrats