The joys of summer
We should remember this is as much a season of Shakespearean bliss as the stirring of mad blood.
ByThe Magazine
In this week’s issue
Summer Special 2025
How low can King Charles go?
At the King’s country house, everything has a price tag.
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Daniela Gabor: “Nobody is defending free markets any more”
The radical economist on why the West needs a complete overhaul.
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How the web became a wasteland
Also this week: inside the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, and the joy of audiobooks.
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GB News is coming for the BBC and Sky
Your weekly dose of news and gossip from journalism, broadcasting and beyond.
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Letter of the week: Build back better
Write to letters@newstatesman.co.uk to have your thoughts voiced in the New Statesman magazine.
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Labour is making Britain a more European country
On tax, spending and workers’ rights, Keir Starmer has accelerated a post-Brexit trend.
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Make weight loss hard again
The Ozempic shortcut is a pretty slender achievement.
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Inside the factions of the new left
Competing visions for Jeremy Corbyn’s new party cannot halt its momentum.
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Keir Starmer would be a much happier politician in Japan
Instead, he is lost in Britain.
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Why are Britain’s park barbecues going private?
A quiet backlash against al fresco gathering has crept through the country.
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How Pamela Anderson broke modern feminism
While women attack female celebrities online, the patriarchy marches on.
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Palestine’s cycle of despair
International pressure for recognition of the Palestinian state is growing – but with Gaza in ruins, is a two-state…
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Why can’t we give our prime ministers a break?
Whether mocked for a staged snap or forced to return home, PMs rarely enjoy a holiday.
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Disdain and apathy in Washington DC
Democrats struggle to oppose Trump, while Republicans worry about his succession.
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North Korea’s guide to going nuclear
How Kim Jong Un fortified his impoverished state.
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The wisdom of pond life
A small tub of water has radically enlarged my sense of what the world could be.
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An ode to summer boozing
Like lower league football and high tea, outside drinking is something Britain does better than almost any other nation.
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Berlin’s dark past and me
In retracing my family’s steps in the city, I realised becoming German wasn’t as simple as it seemed.
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British food is reactionary now
Britain’s elite has discarded the cosmopolitan pan-European style for a nostalgiafest.
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Britain’s swan song
How we fell out of love with the majestic waterfowl.
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The meanings of Mein Kampf
Hitler’s infamous book – part autobiography, part manifesto – was published 100 years ago. How influential has it been?
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The history of nuclear science
Two new accounts of the atomic age overlook its deadly past.
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Kevin Keegan’s visions of the future
The footballer was restless, as if he never quite found what he was searching for.
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The best children’s books for summer 2025
Our action-packed list will thrill readers whether they’re three or 13.
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Dua Lipa, the people’s critic
The popstar is championing literary culture to a generation for whom reading has become passé.
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The Comeback: the PM’s desperate search for a media strategy
A submarine, a sandwich, and a Prime Minister doing whatever it takes to win the public over.
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From Ruth Larsen to Pirkko Saisio: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Pan by Michael Clune and Refuge: Stories of War (And Love) by Sunny Singh.
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Ashley Campbell: the reluctant country music star
The singer on being the daughter of Glen, losing her religion, and leaving Nashville for Britain.
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Who’s afraid of YouTube Man?
Screen culture isn’t dystopia – it’s revelation.
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Jean-François Millet and the drudgery of rural life
In the National Gallery’s new exhibition, the 19th-century French painter’s unadorned pictures capture the dignity of labour.
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Celine Song’s Materialists makes a business of love
The question posed by Song’s latest film is far more interesting than its schmaltzy answer.
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Back to Netflix’s beguiling world of Wednesday
The second series of the Addams Family spin-off is an elegant anomaly in the streamer’s line-up.
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The Estate is a Westminster fever-dream
Shaan Sahota’s debut play dances confusingly between the roles played by race, class and gender in our politics.
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My fearful obedience to the sun
One case of sunstroke as a kid has affected my whole life.
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In Canada, even local banks care
The personal touch remains as vital as ever here.
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Ah, summer, the perfect time for a lung infection
It wasn’t as bad as my frozen shoulder, but I do have to avoid laughing.
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Could you land a job at the New Statesman in the 2020s?
Take this quiz to find out – though, note, it will in no way influence your prospects of being…
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This England: Return from Oz
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain…
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From the archive: England endures
August 1966: Danny Blanchflower reflects on England’s football World Cup win.
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