Rishi Sunak is moving at speed – but can he outpace the spectre of Boris Johnson?
This spring’s prime ministerial activity has a frantic velocity we haven’t seen since the days of New Labour.
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The quiet consensus
Britain’s fundamental problems – dismal productivity, regional inequality, dilapidated infrastructure – long pre-date the EU referendum.
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Qin Gang: China’s new foreign minister and the taming of “wolf warrior” diplomacy
A former ambassador to the US, Qin Gang has a ferocious reputation. Who is he, and what does his rise…
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How the tabloids outed George Michael
A new Channel 4 doc explores the media’s glee at the singer’s arrest for “lewd acts” in 1998. But in…
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Britain’s broken tax system
How political expediency overrides logic and fairness in the UK’s chaotic finances.
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It was only when my husband was stranded on the motorway that I felt truly married
Forget the ring or the piece of paper, elation at the sound of your partner’s key in the door officialises…
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From Janet Malcolm to Sebastian Barry: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Deep Down by Imogen West-Knights and Why Women Grow by Alice Vincent.
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Sherine Tadros Q&A: “Since leaving TV I barely watch it”
The human rights activist on Arab socialism, comfort-watching Friends, and the allure of marine biology.
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Adam Gopnik’s pursuit of the perfect sentence
The New Yorker journalist’s latest book, The Real Work, sheds light on a career spent obsessively attempting to master the…
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Nigel Biggar’s whitewashing of empire
The historian is right that Britain’s colonial legacy is morally complex. So why is his defence of it so simplistic?
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Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list promises to be a nepotistic gong show
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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Letter of the week: A turning tide?
Write to letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
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The NS Poem: From Brother Poem
A new poem by Will Harris.
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The Coldest Case in Laramie: yet another bleak true crime podcast
This series from the New York Times and Serial is only revealing of the media’s desperate drive for more murder…
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Subscriber of the Week: Sam Ansell
Please email peter.williams@newstatesman.co.uk if you would like to be the New Statesman’s subscriber of the week.
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What Keir Starmer has learnt from the return of the German Social Democrats
To win back Red Wall voters, Labour needs a single word to define the party and its purpose. That word…
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This England: Snail mail
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain –…
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From Sophie Mackintosh to Stephen Moss: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Brutes by Dizz Tate and The Turning Tide by Jon Gower.
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China’s hollow peace plan for Ukraine
Any hopes that Wang Yi’s visit to the Kremlin might have been to broker an end to the conflict have…
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Why Kate Forbes just won’t quit
The socially conservative religious beliefs of Scotland’s finance secretary have dismayed her supporters, yet her leadership campaign survives. Could she…
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