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The task of putting Europe back together falls to a man who has become Tony Blair's best friend. It might help the Prime Minister (though it may not help anyone [...]

Tony Blair will get nowhere in the Middle East until he focuses on the causes of Bin Laden, rather than waging war against him, writes John Kampfner I fit's Tuesday, [...]

The PM seems to have adopted a vision for which Robin Cook was once derided. Compare this: 'Britain will once again be a force for good in the world. Our [...]

Now we've beaten them 5-1, can we accept that Germans are ordinary? I realised, charming though she was, that she wasn't quite right for me and I wasn't quite right [...]

RUSSIA AND THE RUSSIANS: A HISTORY Geoffrey Hosking Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 736pp, £25 £20 at www.newstatesman.co.uk (+£1 p&p) I first met the sculptor Lev Kerbel in 1986. A [...]

I have never woken up to Wogan on Radio 2. Easy listening isn't my kind of thing. But when the man himself complained about the 'lowest common denominator' culture of [...]

It's official. Manufacturing is in a slump. The rest of the economy may be following not far behind. The boom years of the late 1990s are ending with a thud. [...]

Mandelson and Cook would both like to go to Brussels. Trouble is, there's only one job. The rivalry between Blair and Brown will dominate this new Labour government, but it [...]

Top Blairite advisers are struggling to get seats, but most don't care Most of them don't want to do it, which is lucky because many of them aren't wanted anyway. [...]

reveals the bitter personal enmities behind the battle over London's Underground Gordon Brown cannot abide Ken Living stone. The feeling is mutual. It goes back a long way - and, [...]

Until now, there has been no ethical dimension to British exports. But the Queen's Speech may show that things are changing. 'The big question between now and the election,' one [...]

The Chancellor has skilfully arranged that a decision on Britain's entry to the single currency is for him and him alone. The phone call came mid-afternoon, one day at the [...]

The article argues that after so many years the arts sector acts as a supplicant, still struggling to "make the case" in a way that science, energy, automotive and all the other sectors have and has not received government support that other sectors have received.

The charge sheet is long and yet the dock is empty. One of the most extraordinary aspects of Britain's involvement in the Iraq war has been the ability of those [...]

It is Friday night in Tel Aviv. I am sitting at a seaside bar, drinking a cocktail and eating seafood. Young men and women are playing beach volleyball nearby; others […]

The question on the minds of a number of prominent Russians is not why Britain has acted precipitously, but why it has taken so long. They are referring not so […]

It says much about Alastair Campbell that since leaving Downing Street in 2003 he has not had a proper job. Downing Street gatekeeper Anji Hunter went off to BP to […]

In writing this furious polemic against the antiwar lobby, Nick Cohen may inadvertently have done it a favour. In May 2003, I wrote a cover piece for the NS in [...]

Jon Cruddas is not a household name, but he may yet become one. The MP for Dagenham has a strategy for reviving the Labour Party and, heaven knows, it needs [...]

JK: I thought I would quote to you an extract from your first public lecture in 1978 in Cambridge: 'Satire depends on ignorance; it is based on the proposition 'if [...]

In the morning it was the boss. At lunchtime it was his nemesis. Or was it the other way round? To spend some time in the company of Tony Blair [...]

It was a valiant attempt at a joke. 'We were hoping that John would be here tonight, but we couldn't afford his fee.' Embarrassed laughter greeted Mark Thompson's attempt to [...]

On the morning of the London bombs, Patricia Hewitt was one of the key ministers who attended the first meeting of the cabinet's emergency group, Cobra. As the session broke [...]

Gordon Brown is poring over a coffee-table book on the life and times of Nelson Mandela as we arrive. He wants to talk about the great man and the contribution [...]

The Blair era is drawing to a close. The personal rejection of the Prime Minister took many forms. The Labour vote splintered, with both the other parties being the beneficiaries. [...]

The referendum Tony Blair never wanted--the verdict on his leadership--is about to take place. The dilemma facing the electorate is acute: should they base their decision on the merits of [...]

There has been no deal between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. There has been no promise on the succession, verbal or written. On this point both sides are adamant. So [...]

I am astonished at the recommendation, in an NS guide to 'tactical voting' compiled by Peter Wilby ('How to give Blair a bloody nose', 11 April), that voters should still [...]

As the anxiety election begins in earnest, Labour is going back to its roots. 'We've got to find a way of making it tribal,' says an ally of Tony Blair [...]

The government front bench is dominated by increasingly grumpy men who look older with every passing day. That is why Ruth Kelly is important. It matters that she is 36 [...]

Then there were six. Labour launches its election campaign in earnest at its spring conference in Gateshead with six pledges that are decidedly domestic. The promises to change the world [...]

Before becoming Britain's top prosecutor, Ken Macdonald had spent his legal career defending people, particularly terrorism suspects. I begin our chat by putting it to him that the problem with [...]

You read it here first. A third Labour term will be about 'liveability'. Peter Hain is talking about quality-of-life issues such as antisocial behaviour, community policing, public health, housing and [...]

Which Tony Blair will emerge from the tsunami catastrophe? Having roused himself from his sunbed, the Prime Minister has a perfect opportunity to turn his much-vaunted rhetoric into reality. But [...]

The year 2004 ended as it began, with an inquiry into the misconduct of government. David Blunkett has been found wanting, by Sir Alan Budd, of fast-tracking a visa for [...]