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The core message of Pippa Bailey's review of Sammy Wright's book, Exam Nation (Books, 16 August) is that while children are encouraged to succeed in school, the 'system requires that [...]

While having considerable sympathy for Anthony Seldon's view of the education needed for the second quarter of the 21st century (Cover Story, 21 June), for Graham Johnston's support for a [...]

Is the UK on the edge of a historic turning point? Some readers will laugh or perhaps fume that the question is posed in relation to an approaching election that [...]

How did someone from Liz Truss's inner circle infiltrate the New Statesman and produce the cover of the spring issue? There she is mulling over her plans to save the [...]

I greatly enjoyed Andrew Marr's lessons from Goya (Letter from Madrid, 26 April) but when I finished reading it I wanted to shout out 'Bosch'! Two panels of Hieronymus Bosch's [...]

Melissa Denes has produced a superb, forensic exhumation of the many issues surrounding independent education ('The 7 per cent question', 10 November). I feel it's almost churlish of me to [...]

Labour appears to be on the verge of power, a rare occurrence in British politics. I was political editor of the New Statesman the last time there was an overwhelming [...]

I thought Will Lloyd's column on the Michaela school was elegant and nuanced. However, he makes some wild and false generalisations--for example, 'the teaching methods of most British schools [are] [...]

Will Lloyd reports Rupert Harrison has 'been awarded a safe seat to fight for at the next election' (Cover Story, 17 November), which includes Bicester. When the town was last [...]

Lisa Crausby and Tom Arbuthnott (Correspondence, 8 September), with their Eton and Star Academies sixth-form scheme, misunderstand the features of poverty that negatively affect achievement. Research has shown that underachievement [...]

There is a stubborn attainment gap between private and state school students (Leader, 25 August). Educational inequalities are rising, not falling. That gap will never be closed until resources and [...]

Amid the wildly unpredictable storms of British politics there is clarity on one issue. The leadership of Boris Johnson is without precedent. In the space of a few weeks he [...]

Lola Seaton claims Corbynism helped to fracture what Mark Fisher described as 'capitalist realism' and thereby make it possible to 'imagine a coherent alternative' to the status quo (The Critics, [...]

A curious characteristic of political journalists is that while we criticise politicians with an often wounding brutality, we struggle to put up with even a minor barb against ourselves. I [...]

May at 10 Anthony Seldon with Raymond Newell Biteback, 706pp, 25 [pounds sterling] Theresa May was an unlikely prime minister. She was shy, introverted, publicly awkward, mistrustful of colleagues and [...]

When Tony Blair addressed the 1996 Labour conference he knew he was on the verge of a big victory. By contrast, Ed Miliband arrives in Manchester with the nation facing [...]

Amid renewed speculation over Gordon Brown's leadership, Ed Balls is portrayed by many as the villain of the piece: ambitious and liable to take Labour in the wrong direction. It's [...]

Pace Barry Wilson (Correspondence, 6 November) and Matthew Engel (Diary, 30 October), if you set Channel 4 News to record with a series link it will be waiting for you [...]

There are many dark images from the Covid era, but those of empty theatres are among the more vivid. They show the killing of collective exuberance. Fortunately, some theatres and [...]

Ken Clarke has become one of those big players without an obvious political base. It happens occasionally in Britain. Senior politicians find they are no longer comfortable with the party [...]

Frank Field was asked to map out a radical reform of the welfare state, but his green paper has gone missing in action, in what Tories are calling Labour's Vietnam. [...]

Britain's crown survived socialism and republicanism, but is succumbing to consumer capitalism. John Lloyd and Caroline Daniel propose a rescue Royal culture has, over the past 30 years, been very [...]

How far has David Cameron followed the New Labour model in opposition? The comparison is often made between Cameron and Tony Blair, not least by the Conservative leader's closest colleagues, [...]

David Cameron is proving to be one of the greatest political conjurors of modern times. Cameron has studied that other recent magician, Tony Blair, and at times acts like Labour's [...]

'Am I being too pessimistic?' A usually upbeat cabinet minister turns to his special adviser during our conversation about Labour's prospects, wondering whether even he has succumbed to the bleak [...]

The search is on for the 'Brown Bounce'. Everybody seems to be looking out for it. After a period in which the Prime Minister plumbed the depths of unpopularity, each [...]

Leadership crises are becoming increasingly common in British politics. One leader or another is threatened by violent storms most of the time. Since the last election Labour has had two [...]

Thank you for the brilliant article by Phil Whitaker ('Wounded healer', 23 March). The way he blended his personal family and professional experiences of cancer with the way treatment has [...]

After 25 years Labour's original spin-doctor is moving on. John Humphrys, The World at One and a certain bulldog will be relieved When David Hill, self-proclaimed 'grandfather of spin', announced [...]

For most of the government's senior ministers, power has had an equivocal impact on their reputations. A lively debate could be held on whether the images of the Big Three [...]

She is a woman with a mission to tackle global poverty. So, no, she won't be resigning if Britain takes military action against Saddam Hussein When Clare Short left Downing [...]

It was often said during Neil Kinnock's long stretch as leader of the opposition that he had the hardest job in British politics. Not only did he have to oppose [...]

Who will lead the parliamentary left's revolt, if there's to be one? John Lloyd profiles Alan Simpson, the man most likely to come up with the ideas and, overleaf, Steve [...]

This week the media maestros of new Labour came unstuck. Will they take the whole of the government's European strategy with them? Is this a catastrophe, or just a plain [...]

Several of the staff at Paul McCartney's London base are exhausted. It is late afternoon and they are still talking about the night before, when they went to the Royal [...]

It took a rare politician to attract media attention on the day of Princess Diana's death, but Clare Short managed it. Her office took several calls from journalists inquiring about [...]

While the great and the good from the Foreign Office establishment compete to find new ways of hurling abuse at him and while some other critics are showering him with [...]

'Part of the challenge that has been presented by the single currency is that the criteria were written at a time of boom in Europe without anyone expecting them to [...]

'It is our heritage that we keep the link between the unions and the party,' says Labour's last Prime Minister. Only if you believe that, can you understand the party [...]

It is a good dinner-party line. 'Tony Blair is a political chameleon, shifting to suit the mood of the electorate, saying one thing to an audience of businessmen, another to [...]

For the first time since Tony Blair became leader Clare Short fears that Labour could lose the next election: 'I think it is absolutely imperative for Britain and the party [...]

What is the intended status of 'The Road to the Manifesto'? Will all these policies be in the real manifesto, plus some others? Yes. The purpose of The Road to [...]

The present political battle is like a closely fought tennis match. One of two individuals will be prime minister after the next election and an unforced error or some neatly [...]

KINNOCK: THE BIOGRAPHY Martin Westlake Little, Brown, 768pp, £25 Discounts at www.newstatesman.co.uk Every now and again in this long book, Neil Kinnock, the senior EU commissioner, pops up to give [...]

Our thinking about Mary and Jodie typifies our confusion on wider issues. The appeal court judges who authorised the separation of Mary and Jodie, the conjoined twins, said that their [...]

Normally genial, he is now in a fury -- against fellow union leaders who want to rush ministers into the euro 'Bill wants to talk about the euro. Obviously, he [...]

Steve Richards argues that, far from envying Mowlam's popularity, Blair wants more ministers like her Mo Mowlam has discovered the Third Way in resignations. She resigns, provokes pages of political [...]

When is it safe to go on holiday? In June, I returned from a few days away to find that I had missed a war. Admittedly, it was only a [...]

Most new Labour ministers regard the royals as past their sell-by date, writes Steve Richards The newspapers have the photo they want this week. The Queen Mother tends to oblige, [...]

Stakeholding, VAT on school fees, transport, the euro: almost anything induces panic in new Labour's inner core. Whatever happened to Tony Blair's vision of a 'stake holding society'? In January [...]