Nicholas Harris
@nickpaulharris.bsky.social
📤 333
📥 98
📝 40
Ideas Editor
@newstatesman.com
Pitches to:
[email protected]
reposted by
Nicholas Harris
John Merrick
1 day ago
For the New Statesman I tracked the career of the corporate raiding Thatcherite turned populist tribune, James Goldsmith
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2026/0...
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James Goldsmith, godfather of British populism
Unlike Nigel Farage or Rupert Lowe, Goldsmith told the truth
https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2026/01/james-goldsmith-godfather-of-british-populism
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This, by
@johnmerrick.bsky.social
, is an epic intellectual profile of James Goldsmith, the man who more than anyone else helped establish the character, temper and tone of British right-populism. Don’t miss it – part of a fantastic NS Weekend
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2026/0...
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James Goldsmith, godfather of British populism
Unlike Nigel Farage or Rupert Lowe, Goldsmith told the truth
https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2026/01/james-goldsmith-godfather-of-british-populism
1 day ago
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
Oliver Basciano
7 days ago
This aside reminds me of the time I was left gaping in a conversation with a US art curator after she casually referred to herself as a public intellectual.
add a skeleton here at some point
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‘It’s dire stuff, the sort of thing you can imagine being made to screen in care homes.’ I wrote about David Baddiel’s terrible new cat programme:
www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv/2...
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Cats are better than dogs – and much better than David Baddiel
Cats are a rich subject for philosophers. They have been failed by this new programme
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv/2026/01/cats-are-better-than-dogs-and-much-better-than-david-baddiel
7 days ago
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
Jeremy Benson
8 days ago
‘The glory of defeat in the FA Cup’:
@nickpaulharris.bsky.social
tries to answer the inevitable question: why put yourself through this?
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The glory of defeat in the FA Cup
By the fifth goal, the Boreham Wood terraces were emptying. Why would anyone put themselves through this?
https://www.newstatesman.com/this-england/2026/01/the-glory-of-defeat-in-the-fa-cup
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In which I was unmasked as the ultimate footballing criminal – the plastic fan – with terrifying personal consequences
add a skeleton here at some point
7 days ago
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
Morgan Jones
about 2 months ago
The two child cap news is big for MPs and more importantly for the country. But will the budget as a whole boost Starmer over the longer term amongst his discontented ranks? Personally I doubt it.
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
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The Budget: our writers’ verdicts
Louise Haigh, Faiza Shaheen, James Meadway and others respond to the Chancellor
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/11/the-budget-our-writers-verdicts
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
David Klemperer
about 2 months ago
Some astute budget commentary here from
@parth0.bsky.social
,
@ruthcurtice.bsky.social
,
@meadwaj.bsky.social
,
@louisehaighmp.bsky.social
, and
@morganj0nes.bsky.social
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
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The Budget: our writers’ verdicts
Louise Haigh, Faiza Shaheen, James Meadway and others respond to the Chancellor
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/11/the-budget-our-writers-verdicts
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
Duncan Robinson
3 months ago
Lovely interview with Anthony Barnett
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
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Anthony Barnett: “The Sixties were a catastrophic failure”
The writer and campaigner on nationalism, the rise of the new right and how a fractured left can organise in response
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/11/anthony-barnett-the-sixties-were-a-catastrophic-failure
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
Anoosh Chakelian
3 months ago
"There are authentic shivers of the 1970s, now buried deep in the British nervous system" Really enjoyed this on Fawlty Towers by
@nickpaulharris.bsky.social
:
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Britain’s Fawlty state of mind
Fifty years after it was first aired, Fawlty Towers now looks ahead of its time
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv/2025/10/britains-fawlty-state-of-mind
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“Modern British comedy should thank Fawlty Towers the way poets thank spring: that’s where it all begins” On Fawlty Towers and the invention of a national sense of humour, for the
@newstatesman1913.bsky.social
:
www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv/2...
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Britain’s Fawlty state of mind
Fifty years after it was first aired, Fawlty Towers now looks ahead of its time
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv/2025/10/britains-fawlty-state-of-mind
3 months ago
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This is quite something folks: John Gray, against and after postliberalism, today on the New Statesman:
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...
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How to save British liberalism
The post-liberalism of the past decade has been revealed as a fantasy
https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/10/how-to-save-british-liberalism
3 months ago
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‘There is a darker though equally Thatcherite story to tell about Grantham’ Returning to Thatcher-land, a century after her birth, today at the New Statesman:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/con...
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Thatcher-land
One hundred years after it gave us Margaret Thatcher, what is left of the Grantham she knew?
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/conservatives/2025/10/thatcher-land
3 months ago
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
Anthony Barnett
3 months ago
On this day the infant that would become Mrs Thatcher emerged to make her first demands upon our world, six months later...
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
(thanks
@nickpaulharris.bsky.social
&
@willoyd.bsky.social
)
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What did Mrs Thatcher do to us?
Less a prime minister than a monarch, the Tory leader’s real legacy was stasis
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/10/what-did-mrs-thatcher-do-to-us
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
'Yet the heart of the Thatcher project was to renew what is still the cause of our country’s downfall.'
@anthonybarnett.bsky.social
on the centenary of Margaret Thatcher, for the New Statesman:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
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What did Mrs Thatcher do to us?
Less a prime minister than a monarch, the Tory leader’s real legacy was stasis
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/10/what-did-mrs-thatcher-do-to-us
3 months ago
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'Yet the heart of the Thatcher project was to renew what is still the cause of our country’s downfall.'
@anthonybarnett.bsky.social
on the centenary of Margaret Thatcher, for the New Statesman:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
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What did Mrs Thatcher do to us?
Less a prime minister than a monarch, the Tory leader’s real legacy was stasis
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/10/what-did-mrs-thatcher-do-to-us
3 months ago
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
Will Dunn
4 months ago
Harris + Partridge = essential reading A point in favour of Late Partridge is the books, there is a line in Big Beacon that was so good a fellow train passenger asked if I was okay
add a skeleton here at some point
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“Can a national joke survive when it’s also trying to become a national treasure?” On the late style of Alan Partridge, in this week’s New Statesman:
www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv/2...
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Alan Partridge’s late style
Can a national joke survive when it’s also trying to become a national treasure?
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/tv/2025/10/how-are-you-its-alan-partridge-review-late-style
4 months ago
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‘Starmerism, as a political creed and a historical era, appears to have entered its ebb-tide without ever crashing onto the beach.’ At and on the Reform conference, for the
@newstatesman.com
:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
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Nigel Farage really means it this time
At Reform Conference, his “people’s army” formed a long, gloating parade.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/09/nigel-farage-really-means-it-this-time
5 months ago
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
Anoosh Chakelian
5 months ago
My piece on Douglas Carswell's journey from blue-sky thinking to the gutter:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
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Douglas Carswell has sunk to the gutter
The former MP is far from the only Brit to be sent into a rage spiral by watching X.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/09/douglas-carswell-descent-to-the-gutter
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
John Merrick
5 months ago
For the
@newstatesman.com
i profiled Dominic Cummings – a case study in elite radicalisation
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/0...
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The rage of Dominic Cummings
Britain’s rogue intellectual has predicted a civil war. Is he also cheerleading one?
https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/08/rage-of-dominic-cummings
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‘The tone is established with the seventh word of Kisin’s introduction: “mate”.’ Written about Tommy Robinson’s appearance on Triggernometry:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
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The rebuilding of Tommy Robinson
The EDL founder has conquered the “alternative” media sphere.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/08/the-rebuilding-of-tommy-robinson
5 months ago
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Written about YouTube, YouTube Man, and the tremendous cultural significance of an episode of Question Time from June 2007:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/med...
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Who’s afraid of YouTube Man?
Screen culture isn’t dystopia – it’s revelation.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/media/2025/08/whos-afraid-of-youtube-man
6 months ago
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‘Who the hell dug up this guy and invited him to pronounce, in his dunce cap of humiliation, on the future of British politics’? On Neil Hamilton, David Starkey, Thatcher and Thatcherism for this week’s
@newstatesman.com
sketch:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
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Mrs Thatcher’s bastards
In her centenary year, Maggie’s political and intellectual heirs still yearn for the smack of firm leadership.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/07/mrs-thatchers-bastards
7 months ago
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I went to watch Thomas Skinner’s political crossover event this week for the
@newstatesman.com
www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
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Thomas Skinner’s full English
A Tory MP, a Brexiteer historian, a Reform clown and a reality-TV star walk into an auditorium…
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/06/thomas-skinners-full-english
7 months ago
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
Morgan Jones
7 months ago
In Westminster, a Blue Labour staff network has been set up. I spoke to the earnest (mostly) young (mostly) men of the tendency about their politics, plans and why they really just want to have a big chat:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
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Meet the Blue Labour bros
Inside the ideological faction remaking the party and the government.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/06/meet-the-blue-labour-bros
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‘Cassandra in tracksuit bottoms’ Greatly enjoyed watching the Dominic Cummings live show in Oxford last week, for the
@newstatesman.com
:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
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Dominic Cummings: oracle of the new British berserk
The political visions of Westminster’s most influential intellectual are wracked by elemental forces.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/06/dominic-cummings-oracle-of-the-new-british-berserk
7 months ago
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'“Seriously, why don’t you go back to the barrier and pay,” says the 43-year-old MP for Newark, newly Ozempicked into the form of an Inbetweener.'
@morganj0nes.bsky.social
on great form in this piece on Robert Jenrick's bizarre vigilante antics:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
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Robert Jenrick is embarrassing himself
His fare-dodger vigilante antics prove that he has become a mouthpiece of the Online Right.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/05/robert-jenrick-is-embarrassing-himself
8 months ago
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"The kind of impotence that longs desperately for prepotence" I enjoyed, with some reservations, Harry Shukman's new book on the British far right, which I wrote about for the
@newstatesman.com
:
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
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Neo-Nazi safari
How close can any journalist get to the English far right?
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2025/05/neo-nazi-safari-harry-shukman
8 months ago
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"Even he cannot combine book-keeper and sans-culotte forever." Went along to see Nigel Farage's latest political mutation today for the
@newstatesman.com
add a skeleton here at some point
8 months ago
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"This remains a Britain shaped by Osborne and Cameron: an economy growing on precarious jobs and asset prices, while the public realm rots." A first-rate cover story this week by
@willdunn.bsky.social
on George Osborne, the author of broken Britain:
www.newstatesman.com/cover-story/...
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Why George Osborne still runs Britain
Austerity was a radical economic experiment – but 15 years on, it has become the new orthodoxy.
https://www.newstatesman.com/cover-story/2025/05/why-george-osbourne-still-runs-britain
9 months ago
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‘Reading these novels is like watching a world-class chef working while drunk, skidding around the kitchen and capsizing saucepans’ I wrote about the highs and lows of Edward St Aubyn for this week’s
@newstatesman.com
:
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
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Edward St Aubyn’s comedy of horrors
The Patrick Melrose novels and his other works are clearly by the same writer – but produce wildly different results.
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2025/05/edward-st-aubyns-comedy-of-horrors
9 months ago
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‘The impulses of Powellism – escapism, paranoia, nativism – are alive and well. Its political ambition is not.’ In the wake of these local elections, read Oliver Eagleton’s first-class essay on Farage, Farageism and its ancestors:
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/0...
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What is Nigel Farage thinking now?
Enoch Powell is his political hero. But Farage will never be his heir.
https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/05/what-is-nigel-farage-really-thinking
9 months ago
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‘In 2025, few seem to disagree that the machinery of government has grown dysfunctional’ Delighted to have
@will-davies.bsky.social
return to the
@newstatesman.com
with this essay on how civil servants became everyone’s worst enemy:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
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Bonfire of the bureaucrats
How the civil service became the enemy.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/04/bonfire-of-the-bureaucrats
9 months ago
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I wrote about 'the yookay', 'the Yookay', Ukania, and nicknames for national self-loathing for the
@newstatesman.com
:
www.newstatesman.com/world/uk/202...
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Anarchy in the “yookay”
How the new right came to loathe Britain even more than the radical left.
https://www.newstatesman.com/world/uk/2025/04/anarchy-in-the-yookay
9 months ago
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
Will Dunn
9 months ago
Honoured to appear in this week's issue with such a brilliant group of writers, including but not limited to
@finnmcredmond.bsky.social
,
@rmcunliffe.bsky.social
,
@georgeeaton.bsky.social
@hannahsbee.bsky.social
,
@nickpaulharris.bsky.social
,
@annaleszkie.bsky.social
and the great Andrew Marr
add a skeleton here at some point
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‘To think about pubescent men you should think about sex, because that’s what they’re thinking about, all the time.’ A very frank and very funny piece on what truly vexes young men by the
@newstatesman.com
’s George Monaghan:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...
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Down with the “positive male role model”
The landscape of contemporary masculinity – sex-obsessed and porn-addled – is not one Gareth Southgate can speak to.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/society/2025/03/down-with-the-positive-male-role-model
10 months ago
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Very pleased to make my debut in
@thetimes.com
today with my review of Palantir CEO Alexander Karp’s premonition/prescription for the new Silicon Valley world order:
www.thetimes.com/article/d075...
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A tech oligarch’s manifesto for changing the world
In his new book The Technological Republic, the Palantir CEO Alexander Karp wants Silicon Valley to flex its political muscles
https://www.thetimes.com/article/d07552d2-f94d-4ee6-9be4-c675ede60de2?shareToken=2acdedaa004da8a471e1192f111a41d4
10 months ago
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'Millennial writers should take care not to let the soullessness of their world become that of their novels.' Wrote about Perfection, apparently the novel of the moment, for the
@newstatesman.com
:
www.newstatesman.com/culture/book...
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What was the millennial?
Vincenzo Latronico’s Perfection finely itemizes his generation’s quirks and quiddities, from their tastes in furniture to their favourite drugs.
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/book-of-the-day/2025/03/what-was-the-millennial
10 months ago
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'What this cant term does do, in its trivial assimilation of radical change, is provide a kind of rationale, a moral framework even, for the historical catastrophe the political right is fomenting' Lee Siegel dissects the phrase on everyone's lips:
www.newstatesman.com/internationa...
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How the right weaponised the “vibe shift”
What’s brewing in America isn’t a cultural turn – it’s a political catastrophe.
https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2025/03/how-right-weaponised-vibe-shift-donald-trump
11 months ago
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'Starmer’s approach to government... has its own historical occasion and character... an attempt to develop a more effective form of crisis management for a nation in decline' Great to have Oliver Eagleton back in the
@newstatesman.com
today:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
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Keir Starmer’s hollow state
Labour’s planned welfare cuts are further evidence of a government running scared from two political foes: the City and Nigel Farage.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2025/03/keir-starmers-hollow-state
11 months ago
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This week I interviewed a lord. William Waldegrave and I chatted about noblesse oblige, the ancien regime, and many other non-French concepts besides:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...
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William Waldegrave: “The hereditary House of Lords element must end”
The former Conservative cabinet minister – and life peer – on the ancien régime.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2025/02/william-waldegrave-interview-hereditary-house-of-lords-element-must-end
12 months ago
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
Tom Gatti
12 months ago
In this week‘s
@newstatesman.com
–– David Kynaston & Francis Green on private schools
@lilylynch.bsky.social
on Donald Trump‘s Florida project
@willdunn.bsky.social
on Bill Gates and Ren Zhengfei
@msrachelcooke.bsky.social
on the riddle of Thatcher
@chrispower.bsky.social
on the making of WG Sebald
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
Anthony Barnett
12 months ago
A masterly overview of declinism, the Right and
@arisroussinos.bsky.social
NB: in 2003 Tom Nairn wrote: “In the past an important delusion has obstructed our view... the concept of decline… I plead guilty (incidentally) to having helped popularise this quite dumb notion…”
add a skeleton here at some point
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
David Klemperer
12 months ago
This is really good - brings together a lot of threads in contemporary British political and intellectual life
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/0...
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The prophet of the new right
In the life and work of Correlli Barnett, we can find all the most dangerous currents of contemporary conservatism.
https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/01/correlli-barnett-prophet-of-the-new-right
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I’m very proud to publish this today, by
@johnmerrick.bsky.social
, an intellectual profile of Correlli Barnett, a survey of the currents of Britain’s new right, and a warning against the pathologies of self-loathing nationalism:
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/0...
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The prophet of the new right
In the life and work of Correlli Barnett, we can find all the most dangerous currents of contemporary conservatism.
https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/01/correlli-barnett-prophet-of-the-new-right
about 1 year ago
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“Trump’s victory seemed likely to me then... mainly because the Democratic Party had failed to address the legitimate grievances of working people and voters without university degrees.” Very pleased to publish this, from Thomas Piketty and Michael Sandel:
www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/0...
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The left after Trump
In an age of rampant inequality and oligarchic government, two leading thinkers ask: can democratic socialism survive?
https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/01/the-left-after-trump-michael-sandel-thomas-piketty
about 1 year ago
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reposted by
Nicholas Harris
Jan-Werner Mueller
about 1 year ago
"Musk is...on a global hunt for other upstart contenders to displace legacy brands. Hence his attraction to Milei’s La Libertad Avanza in Argentina, Nayib Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas in El Salvador...Reform UK, the Alternative for Germany and Brothers of Italy. These are the would-be Teslas of politics."
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Elon Musk’s hostile takeover
Inside the mind of the billionaire at the heart of American power.
https://www.newstatesman.com/world/americas/north-america/us/2025/01/elon-musks-hostile-takeover
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'The only surprise is the speed with which Labour’s brief love affair with bond traders – hardly a redoubt of socialist principle – has cooled.' Pleased to have the great Larry Elliott make his
@newstatesman.com
debut today:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/eco...
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What the left gets wrong about Rachel Reeves
Bond market traders should not be trusted with the fate of a Labour chancellor.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2025/01/what-the-left-gets-wrong-about-rachel-reeves
about 1 year ago
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“What could be a better hazing ritual as I joined the Society of Oxbridge Rejects?” A very funny, and very sympathetic piece, on the curse of the Oxbridge reject, by club member Bethany Elliott:
www.newstatesman.com/politics/edu...
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The curse of the Oxbridge reject
As offers and rejections go out across the country, Britain needs to learn that Oxford and Cambridge are just universities.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/education/2025/01/the-curse-of-the-oxbridge-reject
about 1 year ago
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