Hannah Barnes

London

Associate Editor and Writer at The New Statesman

Associate Editor @NewStatesman; Author, Baillie Gifford & Orwell shortlisted “Time to Think” https://t.co/tGHnbC8Iq7; ex BBC; https://t.co/LTuuBeEFMH

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Articles

Naz Shah: “The assisted dying bill is not fit for purpose”

3 weeks ago | newstatesman.com | Hannah Barnes

Should it become law, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would be the most significant change to British society for a generation. Those judged to be terminally ill, with six months or less to live, could be helped to die – if assessed as eligible by two doctors. A committee of 23 MPs has spent the past six weeks scrutinising the bill.
How gender ideology corrupted government data

4 weeks ago | newstatesman.com | Hannah Barnes

When, in September 2024, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) downgraded data from the census for the first time in its 120-plus-year history, it shocked many. Having spent years ignoring advice and warnings about how to gain accurate data on both biological sex and the transgender population, the ONS asked such a confusing question on gender identity that it rendered the findings meaningless.
Labour has finally seized command of the Health Service

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Hannah Barnes

Those who blame Britain’s governing lethargy on an anonymous, anti-dynamic “Blob” can hardly claim to be disappointed. In a wide-ranging speech on reforming the “overstretched” and “weak” state, the Prime Minister’s most headline grabbing announcement was the scrapping of NHS England – the world’s largest quango. The Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, will now take charge, as it becomes subsumed by the Department of Health and Social Care over the next two years.
The BBC’s serial self-sabotage

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Hannah Barnes

When it was revealed that Abdullah, the 13-year-old narrator of the BBC documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, was the son of the deputy minister for agriculture in the Hamas-run government, I felt many things. Shock. Disappointment. Fear of the inevitable damage it would bring to the corporation. But, as a producer and reporter of BBC documentaries and current affairs programmes for 15 years, my overwhelming emotion was one of disbelief.
Our overdiagnosis epidemic

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Hannah Barnes

In 2023, a remarkable apology was issued. In an interview with the New York Post, the psychiatrist Dr Allen Frances expressed regret for his role in the “massive, careless over-diagnosis” of autism. Frances chaired the taskforce that developed and broadened the criteria for autism in the DSM-IV – the fourth edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published in 1994. Nearly 20 years later, he said he was “very sorry for helping to lower the diagnosis bar”.
Q&A: The hidden crisis in the NHS

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Phil Whitaker |Hannah Barnes

https://embed.acast.com/6b2fc9ba-b9b7-4b7a-b980-e0024facd926/67c0811f9f453431224d9d20?theme=light&cover=false Hannah Barnes: Amanda Pritchard has portrayed her resignation as voluntary. Do you think that’s necessarily the case? Phil Whittaker: I wouldn’t like to comment, but I think if she hadn’t gone, she would had to have been ousted, I’m afraid.
The new puberty blockers trial is expensive and adds little

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Hannah Barnes

Currently, under 18s who are experiencing gender-related distress can’t legally be given a new prescription for puberty blockers in the UK. A government ban, first introduced in May 2024, was made permanent in December. It followed the four-year independent Cass Review of young people’s gender identity services.
Maternity leave isn’t “leave” - it’s hard work

1 month ago | newstatesman.com | Hannah Barnes

“Welcome to motherhood: a five-letter word spelled ‘G-U-I-L-T’.” It wasn’t what I’d expected my mother to say to me a few weeks after giving birth. But more than eight years later, I know how right she was. I feel guilty juggling work and motherhood, sometimes feeling like I’m not succeeding at either. Others often unintentionally reinforce this. In her new book, Maternity Service, so named because those postnatal months are anything but “leave”, the BBC presenter Emma Barnett tackles this.
The horror of Hamas’s parade of hostage coffins

2 months ago | newstatesman.com | Hannah Barnes

Any remaining doubts of the barbarity that underpins Hamas were dispelled by the events of 20 February. Not content with making a show of the release of each small group of hostages kidnapped in Israel on 7 October 2023 – from parading them in front of crowds, to reportedly forcing them to smile in front of cameras as they are handed “goody bags” as a sick memento for their hundreds of days in captivity – these terrorists have even made a spectacle of the bodies of dead children.
Where next for Blue Labour?

2 months ago | newstatesman.com | Hannah Barnes

Rumours of Blue Labour’s death have proved greatly exaggerated. Having been out in the political cold for the past decade, on 1 February it was reported that the label was being revived as a parliamentary caucus by four Labour MPs – Dan Carden, Jonathan Hinder, Jonathan Brash and David Smith.