For the New Statesman I tracked the career of the corporate raiding Thatcherite turned populist tribune, James Goldsmith www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2026/0...

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...

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.

‘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...

‘The glory of defeat in the FA Cup’: @nickpaulharris.bsky.social tries to answer the inevitable question: why put yourself through this?

In which I was unmasked as the ultimate footballing criminal – the plastic fan – with terrifying personal consequences

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-...

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-...

Lovely interview with Anthony Barnett www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

"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:

“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...

This is quite something folks: John Gray, against and after postliberalism, today on the New Statesman: www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...

‘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...

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 )

'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-...

'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-...

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

“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...

‘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...

My piece on Douglas Carswell's journey from blue-sky thinking to the gutter: www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

For the @newstatesman.com i profiled Dominic Cummings – a case study in elite radicalisation www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/0...

‘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...

Written about YouTube, YouTube Man, and the tremendous cultural significance of an episode of Question Time from June 2007: www.newstatesman.com/politics/med...

‘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-...

I went to watch Thomas Skinner’s political crossover event this week for the @newstatesman.com www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...

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...

‘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-...

'“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...

"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...

"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

"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/...

‘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...

‘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...

‘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-...

I wrote about 'the yookay', 'the Yookay', Ukania, and nicknames for national self-loathing for the @newstatesman.com: www.newstatesman.com/world/uk/202...

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

‘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...

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...

'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...

'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...

'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...

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-...

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

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…”

This is really good - brings together a lot of threads in contemporary British political and intellectual life www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/0...

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...

“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...

"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."

'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...

“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...