Tom McTague

1 week ago | newstatesman.com | Tom McTague

We go to print this week at a moment of deep peril, uncertainty and, it has to be said, shame. In the Middle East, Israel and Iran are engaged in an existential battle for supremacy which, at the time of writing, threatens to spiral out of control, causing unknown death and destruction. In Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s assault continues, and in Gaza, the suffering of millions intensifies even as their fate falls down the global agenda.

1 week ago | newstatesman.com | Tom McTague

Is there a route to de-escalation between Israel and Iran? On Friday, the 13th of June, Israel launched a surprise attack on multiple targets across Iran. Israel strikes hit missile sites and nuclear facilities, and more recently also targeted Iranian state tv. The two nations have subsequently traded missile attacks over the following days, an escalation to the conflict, which is now the biggest between these two longstanding adversaries.

2 weeks ago | newstatesman.com | Tom McTague

Welcome to a new era of the New Statesman. I hope it will be much like the last, updated for our new age. “We do not propose… to ignore the tradition long associated with English weekly reviews,” wrote the first editor of this journal, Clifford Sharp, in the Leader of the very first issue in 1913: “But our critical standpoint will be fresh.” As then, so now.

2 weeks ago | newstatesman.com | Tom McTague

It’s a dull grey day in the pebbledashed sprawl of north-west London when I first see Keir Starmer. We’re at RAF Northolt just outside Ruislip, a military airport that seems to capture much about modern Britain. Set among the tired housing estates of the 1930s, the base can no longer sustain itself primarily as a military hub, but to pay its way has become an airport for the rich and powerful.

Mar 28, 2025 | unherd.com | Tom McTague

Conservative partyDeclineLabour PartyPoliticsReform UKUK There‚Äôs a poignant epigraph in Hilary Mantel‚Äôs final book, The Mirror & the Light. ‚ÄúBrother men,‚ÄĚ it reads, ‚Äúyou who live after us, do not harden your hearts against us.‚ÄĚRight now, it feels particularly difficult not to harden our hearts to the governments of our recent past.