The Humbling of the SNP
The nationalists believe their interests and those of the Scottish people are coterminous. They are not.
April 12 2023 / The New Statesman
A Darkening World
In 2013, few could have predicted the political convulsions to come
April 12 2023 / The New Statesman
The Iraq War catastrophe: twenty years later
The liberal delusion of remaking the world
March 15 2023 / The New Statesman
Keir Stramer: what he has learnt from the German Social Democrats
The search for security and respect in an age of disorder
March 1 2023 / The New Statesman
The Undoing of Nicola Sturgeon
Her fall offers little reason for unionist triumphalism
February 22 2023 / The New Statesman
Keir Starmer: the unbinding of Britain
Will breaking up the United Kingdom bring us closer together?
Plus, Eric Ravilious and deep England
December 8 2022 / The New Statesman
The Truss Debacle
A broken and humiliated Conservative party turns back to Jeremy Hunt
October 19 2022 / The New Statesman
The Next Prime Minister
What Sunak and Truss are getting wrong about Brexit
July 27 2022 / The New Statesman
Boris Johnson: Downfall
In 2019, Boris Johnson had everything he wanted after winning the general election. But the gods were waiting for him
July 13 2022 / The New Statesman
Jason Cowley in conversation with Andy Haldane
Jason Cowley on an era of extraordinary politics
July 7 2022 / The Royal Society of Arts (RSA)
Times review of Who Are We Now?
Jason Cowley’s elegant book is written in the spirit of understanding
May 23 2022 / The Times
Jason Cowley, Book
The English Question: Who are we now, after Brexit, in these pandemic times?
December 8 2021 / The New Statesman
The New Statesman
A New Direction
September 12 2021 / The New Statesman
Afghanistan: The Cost of War
Twenty years after the US invasion, the Taliban are preparing to retake control of the country
July 28 2021 / The New Statesman
Gareth Southgate and the art of leadership
Why the England manager understands the real meaning of glory
June 8 2021 / The New Statesman
Boris Johnson and the Clercs
The fallen intellectuals
November 18 2020 / New Statesman
The Great University funding crisis
Sub-prime degrees and elite overproduction
July 22 2020 / New Statesman
Why Boris Johnson is trapped
The prime minister stokes the flames of the culture wars
June 17 2020 / New Statesman
The Tragedy of Tye Green Lodge
People are dying at the Essex care home
May 20 2020 / New Statesman
Keir Starmer's Labour
The party is unifying behind its new leader
May 13 2020 / New Statesman
Boris Johnson's near-death expereience
What does it mean to live a good life?
April 22 2020 / New Statesman
Jim McMahon: The Politics of Place and Belonging
Rebuilding the fabric of place
April 22 2020 / New Statesman
Jason Cowley: Covid-19 New Statesman blog
Essential analysis of the defining crisis of our times
April 14 2020 / New Statesman
The Night of the Great Applause
A public coming together of a kind one seldom if ever experiences
April 2020 / New Statesman
Boris Johnson: can he speak to and for the nation?
The burdens of leadership during national crisis
March 24 2020 / New Statesman
Visiting JG Ballard at home
Life as a stage set that can be cleared away at any moment
March 2020 / New Statesman
The Great Railways Debacle
No other major Western country has allowed so many of its strategic industries, assets and pre-eminent companies to fall into foreign ownership
February 2020 / New Statesman
The Gift of Statesmanship
In defence of free-thinking and against “orthodoxy-sniffing”
December 19 2019 / New Statesman
Jeremy Corbyn: An Epic Defeat
How a decade of dogma left Labour a rotten shell
December 15 2019 / The Sunday Times
Britain deserves better
2019 General Election Leader
December 4 2019 / new Statesman
David Cameron: the moderniser who blundered
The prime minister who gambled and lost Europe
September 11 2019 / New Statesman
Boris Johnson: the myth of greatness
The crown of laughter
July 24 2019 / New Statesman
The Know-nothing Right
Boris Johnson is heading for Downing Street
June 12 2019 / New Statesman
The End of May
The last days of Theresa May’s premiership
May 29 2019 / New Statesman
The Masochism Premiership (redux)
Plus - our national novelist ...
March 27 2019 / New Statesman
Charles Masterman and the condition of England
Power leaks from Corbyn and May
March 1 2019 / New Statesman
Ten Years as Editor of the New Statesman
Getting the balance right
December 6 2018 / New Statesman
Why the left are now more forgiving of Ed Miliband
It was poignant sitting opposite the man whose ambition it had been to remake capitalism for an age of austerity
September 5 2018 / New Statesman
England Dreaming
A World Cup summer stirs a deep nostalgia in the English
June 20 2018 / New Statesman
What's really behind the blockade?
Doha Notebook: inside the upstart Gulf kingdom
May 3 2018 / New Statesman
Crumbling Britain
The age of austerity and the decay of the public realm
April 19 2018 / New Statesman
The struggles of Theresa May
What happened to the politics of the common good?
October 12 2017 / New Staesman
Smiley, Brexit and Europe
John le Carré and the citizen of nowhere
September 7 2017 / New Statesman
The masochism premiership of Theresa May
An epic tale of hubris and humiliation
July 13 2017 / New Statesman
The Guilty Men of Brexit
Churchill, Boris Johnson and the “bullseye of disaster”
July 6 2017 / New Statesman
Corbyn at Glastonbury
More Brexit variations
June 29 2017 / New Statesman
The Brexit Debacle
Theresa May’s Britain is in one hell of a mess
June 22 2017 / New Statesman
Corbyn: revenge of the rebel
Why Labour can win again
June 15 2017 / New Statesman
The Tories aim to take down an SNP star
The strange rebirth of Tory Scotland
June 1 2017 / New Statesman
The rise and fall of Ukip
Nigel Farage and the revenge of the fruitcakes
May 11 2017 / New York Times
Wanted: an Opposition
The stench of decay and failure coming from the Labour Party is now overwhelming
March 30 2017 / New Statesman
George Osborne: The austerity editor
The former chancellor’s new London power base
March 23 2017 / New Statesman
Into the zombie zone
Labour watches helplessly as Theresa May consolidates power
February 24 2017 / The London Evening Standard and the New Statesman
Macron in London
The French presidency and a populist eruption from the liberal centre
February 22 2017 / New Statesman
Labour sails into the doldrums
Plus, Trump and the end of the liberal world order
January 8 2017 / Sunday Mirror
What makes us human?
The accumulated wisdom of past generations
December 1 2016 / New Statesman
Trump World
Donald Trump and the new nationalism sweeping the West
November 17 2016 / New Statesman
What Makes us Human?
The dream of the good society
November 16 2016 / BBC Radio 2, The Jeremy Vine Show
Donald Trump and the age of reaction
America in shock as Trump takes the White House
November 9 2016 / New Statesman
The New Times
Brexit, globalisation and the future of the Left
September 22 2016 / New Statesman
A Sense of an Ending
The deepening crisis in Labour
September 11 2016 / The Mail on Sunday
The Labour wars
Jeremy Corbyn is the symptom of the party’s critical malaise - not its cause
August 22 2016 / The Daily Telegraph
David Cameron's epic failure
The former prime minister is one of the guilty men of Brexit
July 13 2016 / New Statesman
The steely resolve of Mrs May
David Cameron’s doomed European wager
July 7 2016 / New Statesman
Brexit, betrayal and English football
What Nietzsche knew
June 30 2016 / New Statesman
The New Young Fogeys
Are we entering a period of social repair?
June 19 2016 / BBC Radio 4, Analysis
The "left behind" want out of Europe
Labour MPs are spooked by Brexit fears
June 16 2016 / New Statesman
The rise of the New Young Fogeys
Why millennials are the best behaved generation since the 1960s
June 9 2016 / New Statesman
The triumph of Sadiq Khan
A warning for Labour, our zombie opposition: London is not England, and England is not Britain
May 9 2016 / The Evening Standard
Letter from Stockholm
The far right rises as the Nordic welfare model is tested to breaking point
May 5 2016 / New Statesman
Jeremy Corbyn's hermit security
Corbyn might want “a world of peace” but hermit security is not an option for the UK
December 15 2015 / New Statesman
England is changing and the Labour Party desperately needs to change with it
The next Labour leader needs to watch and learn from David Cameron and George Osborne.
July 14 2015 / The Daily Telegraph
Andy Burnham: Inside the bubble
Andy Burnham thinks he’s an outsider but he’s really just another member of the “Westminster Guild”.
June 24 2015 / New Statesman
Miliband v Miliband, Big Alex at Westminster and the rise of quiet conservatism
New Statesman editor Jason Cowley gives his election post-mortem.
May 14 2015 / New Statesman
Messianic self-belief but little clue about real life: A searing verdict by the editor of the New Statesman
Ed Miliband’s defeat and resignation are a personal humiliation and a family tragedy.
May 9 2015 / The Daily Mail
Unless Westminster responds to what is happening in Scotland the Union will be doomed
The UK’s ancient constitution must be reformed to spread power more evenly.
March 12 2015 / New Statesman
Ed Miliband wants a counter-revolution, but doesn't know how to get it
The Labour leader is convinced of his destiny but his rag-bag set of policies are incoherent.
December 29 2014 / The Daily Telegraph
The New Republic collapses as it turns 100
If the New Statesman has a sister publication, it is the New Republic. The magazine’s collapse provokes us to ask whether such an institution can be more than a vanity project without destroying its purpose and heritage, or losing its political identity altogether.
December 10 2014 / New Statesman
Ed's snooty elite hates patriotism, says editor of left-wing journal that triggered Labour leadership crisis
Two weeks ago, Jason Cowley, editor of Labour’s house journal the New Statesman, triggered Ed Miliband’s leadership crisis by describing him as an ‘old-style Hampstead socialist’ and ‘quasi-Marxist’.
November 22 2014 / The Daily Mail
Ed Miliband’s problem is not policy but tone – and increasingly he seems trapped
Jason Cowley on the struggles and woes of the Labour leader.
November 5 2014 / New Statesman
Jason Cowley: Post-Salmond, the SNP will be stronger than ever
Nicola Sturgeon is adored by the party’s activists. She is a formidable machine politician and a capable media performer.
September 25 2014 / New Statesman
After Scotland, something fundamental has to change - and will change
Our present constitutional settlement is not merely unacceptable; it is broken.
September 19 2014 / New Statesman
Edinburgh reaches fever pitch, Salmond’s “no change” change, and Nick Robinson smells anxiety
NS editor Jason Cowley writes from a cold, grey-skied Edinburgh on the eve of the vote.
September 18 2014 / New Statesman
The Scottish independence surge has forced a complacent and smug elite to take notice
Alex Salmond, whose political mission from the outset was to destroy Great Britain, might end up creating the conditions in which it can be remade and thus saved.
September 8 2014 / New Statesman
Jason Cowley: The destruction of Gaza and when Israel backed the Islamists
The Gaza conflict has raised the important question of empathy. Would that both sides were capable of greater empathy and, indeed, imagination.
August 5 2014 / New Statesman
Thomas Piketty in London, the ghost of Mrs Thatcher and another boost for Salmond
That a 690-page treatise on inequality has become an international bestseller is surely a symptom of our anxieties and of a yearning for something better.
May 7 2014 / New Statesman
Sajid Javid and the left, the “extermination” of grammar schools and Pamuk in Oxford
The response of some Labour MPs to Javid’s promotion was idiotic.
April 16 2014 / New Statesman
Even if Scotland votes No, the status quo will not hold
Whatever the outcome in September, Scotland won’t have to wait too long for even greater autonomy.
March 3 2014 / New Statesman
Artists for independence, reading Wilfred Owen and the return of Ian Nairn
Remembering the angst of Scottish writers, a schoolboy’s introduction to the poetry of Wilfred Owen, and the eccentric, melancholy genius of the topographer and broadcaster Ian Nairn.
February 27 2014 / New Statesman
Alex Salmond visits London, Alan's friends – and was Orwell on the right or left?
Looking forward to the Scottish First Minister’s NS lecture on 4 March, wondering what’s gone wrong the BBC’s arts programming, and remembering Stuart Hall.
February 13 2014 / New Statesman
More should be done to dismantle British education's Berlin Wall
Why is the left silent on the public school question?
January 30 2014 / New Statesman
England dreaming, the break-up of Britain and what Orson Welles knew
As someone who was born in the 1960s, the son of wartime evacuees from London, I had a sense from an early age that Britain was oppressed by a lost greatness.
December 19 2013 / New Statesman
Mandela’s stoicism, tea with Ian Smith, and South Africa’s civil war that never was
In 2000, on a visit to Zimbabwe, Jason Cowley met the former Rhodesian leader Ian Smith.
December 17 2013 / New Statesman
Obama’s drone warfare, Ashcroft on Cameron and the mystery of GQ's absent editors
Robert Greenwald’s documentary “Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars” is a work of ruthless propaganda - in the best sense. Meanwhile the purpose of Lord Ashcroft’s planned biography is much less clear.
November 21 2013 / New Statesman
Jonathan Franzen and the rage of the Twitter machine
We’re swamped by a tide of reaction and instant opinion churned out by the second on Twitter, writes Jason Cowley. But as Franzen, Obama and Miliband show, instant gratification won’t secure our grasp of events.
September 26 2013 / New Statesman
Editor's Note: Test Match Special, George Plimpton and Hugh Trevor-Roper's Peterhouse blues
Jason Cowley reviews the current line up on the Test Match Special, remembers a discussion on the greatest essayists with George Plimpton, and speaks at the famously right-wing Peterhouse College in Cambridge.
July 27 2013 / New Statesman
In death, Thatcher has been reborn into myth
The Conservative Party has never recovered from what it did to Margaret Thatcher and from the legacy of bitterness that resulted.
April 17 2013 / New Statesman
Editor’s Note: A long and not always smooth history
Jason Cowley recalls his first lunch with Peter Wilby, a warning from Tony Howard and champagne with Norman Mackenzie . . . who describes how dreadful Dick Crossman was, and how great Kingsley Martin.
April 12 2013 / New Statesman
The left struggled to understand Margaret Thatcher. When it finally did, the result was New Labour
The New Statesman was at the forefront of anti-Thatcher campaigning. But in common with much of the left, it never properly understood the forces she unleashed.
April 8 2013 / New Statesman
Back to the future – Kraftwerk at the Tate and Iraq war regrets
Divisive arguments and musical nostalgia.