New Statesman
Encyclopedia
New Statesman is a British centre-left political
and cultural magazine
published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society
, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s.
In the 29 May 2006 issue, then-editor John Kampfner
stated that the New Statesman remained "true to its heritage of radical politics". The magazine is committed to "development, human rights and the environment, global issues the mainstream press often ignores".
The longest serving editor was Kingsley Martin
(1930–60). The current editor is Jason Cowley
, who assumed the post at the end of September 2008. In 2009, Cowley was named current affairs editor of the year at the British Society of Magazine Editors awards.
The magazine is sometimes affectionately referred to as "The Staggers" because of its historical crises in funding, ownership and circulation. The nickname is now used as the title of its popular, rolling blog.
with the support of George Bernard Shaw
and other prominent members of the Fabian Society
. Its first editor was Clifford Sharp
, who remained editor until 1928. Desmond MacCarthy
joined the paper in 1913 and became literary editor, recruiting Cyril Connolly
to the staff in 1928. During Sharp's last two years in post he was debilitated by chronic alcoholism and the paper was actually edited by his deputy Charles Mostyn Lloyd. Lloyd stood in after Sharp's departure until the appointment of Kingsley Martin
as editor in 1930 – a position Martin was to hold for 30 years. Although the Webbs and most Fabians were closely associated with the Labour Party
, Sharp was drawn increasingly to the Asquith
Liberals
.
, who came to be an important influence on the newly merged paper, which started with a circulation of just under 13,000. It also absorbed The Weekend Review in 1933 (an element of which survives in the shape of New Statesmans Weekly Competition).
During the 1930s, Martin's Statesman moved markedly to the left politically. It became strongly anti-fascist and was generally critical of the government policy of appeasement of Mussolini and Hitler (though it did not back British rearmament). It was also, notoriously, an apologist for Joseph Stalin
's Soviet Union. In 1934 it ran a famously deferential interview with Stalin by H. G. Wells
. In 1938 came Martin's refusal to publish George Orwell
's celebrated despatches from Barcelona during the Spanish civil war
because they criticised the communists for suppressing the anarchists and the left-wing Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM
). "It is an unfortunate fact," Martin wrote to Orwell, "that any hostile criticism of the present Russian regime is liable to be taken as propaganda against socialism."
The Statesmans circulation grew enormously under Martin's editorship, reaching 70,000 by 1945, and it became a key player in Labour politics. The paper welcomed Labour's 1945 general election victory but took a critical line on the new government's foreign policy. The young Labour MP Richard Crossman
, who had been an assistant editor before the war, was Martin's chief lieutenant in this period, and Statesman published Keep Left
, the pamphlet written by Crossman, Michael Foot
and Ian Mikardo
that most succinctly laid out the Labour left's proposals for a "third force" foreign policy rather than alliance with the United States.
During the 1950s, Statesman remained a left critic of British foreign and defence policy and of the Labour leadership of Hugh Gaitskell
(though Martin never got on personally with Aneurin Bevan
, the leader of the anti-Gaitskellite
Labour left). It opposed the Korean War
, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
grew directly out of an article in the Statesman by J. B. Priestley
.
There was much less focus on a single political line in the back part of the paper, devoted to book reviews and articles on cultural topics. Indeed, with these pages managed by Janet Adam Smith
, who was Literary Editor from 1952 to 1960, the paper was sometimes described as a pantomime horse: its back half was required reading even for many who disagreed with the paper's politics. This tradition would continue into the 1960s with Karl Miller
as Literary Editor.
. Freeman left in 1965 and was followed in the chair by Paul Johnson, then on the left, under whose editorship Statesman reached its highest ever circulation of just over 100,000. For some, even enemies of Johnson such as Richard Ingrams
, this was a strong period for the magazine editorially.
After Johnson's departure in 1970, the Statesman went into a long period of declining circulation under successive editors: Richard Crossman
(1970–72), who tried to edit it at the same time as playing a major role in Labour politics; Anthony Howard
(1972–78), whose recruits to the paper included Christopher Hitchens
, Martin Amis
and James Fenton
(surprisingly, the arch anti-Socialist Auberon Waugh
was writing for Statesman at this time before returning to his more natural home of The Spectator
); Bruce Page (1978–82), who moved the paper towards specialising in investigative journalism, sacking Arthur Marshall, who had been writing for Statesman on and off since 1935, as a columnist, allegedly because of the latter's support for Margaret Thatcher
; Hugh Stephenson (1982–86), under whom it took a strong position again for unilateral nuclear disarmament; John Lloyd (1986–87), who swung the paper's politics back to the centre; Stuart Weir
(1987–90), under whose editorship Statesman founded the Charter 88 constitutional reform pressure group; and Steve Platt
(1990–96). In 1991, it absorbed Marxism Today. By 1996 it was selling 23,000 copies a week. New Statesman was the first periodical to go online, hosted by the www.cleanroom.co.uk, in 1995.
Statesman acquired the weekly New Society
in 1988 and merged with it, becoming New Statesman and Society for the next eight years, then reverting to the old title. In 1993, Statesman was sued by Prime Minister John Major
after it published an article that discussed rumours that Major was having an extramarital affair with a Downing Street caterer. Although the action was settled out of court for a minimal sum, the paper's legal costs came close to bankrupting it.
In 1994, KGB defector Yuri Shvets
said that the KGB
utilized New Statesman to spread disinformation. Shvets said that the KGB had provided disinformation, including forged documents, to New Statesman journalist Claudia Wright which she used for anti-American and anti-Israel stories in line with the KGB's campaigns.
, the Labour MP and businessman.
Robinson sacked Steve Platt, and appointed as editor Ian Hargreaves
, formerly editor of The Independent
newspaper, on what was at the time an unprecedentedly high salary. Hargreaves in turn fired most of the left-wingers on the staff and turned Statesman into a strong supporter of Tony Blair
as Labour leader.
Hargreaves was succeeded by Peter Wilby
also from the Independent stable, who had previously been Statesman's books editor, in 1998. Wilby attempted to reposition the paper back 'on the left'. His stewardship was not without controversy. In 2002, for example, the periodical was accused of antisemitism when it published an investigative cover story on the power of the "Zionist lobby" in Britain, under the title "A Kosher Conspiracy?". The cover was illustrated with a gold Star of David towering over a Union Jack. Wilby responded to the criticisms in a subsequent issue. A year earlier Wilby was accused of being anti-American because of his reporting of the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington.
John Kampfner
, Wilby's political editor, succeeded him as editor in May 2005 following considerable internal lobbying. Under Kampfner's editorship, a relaunch in 2006 initially saw headline circulation climb to over 30,000. However, over 5,000 of these were apparently monitored free copies, and Kampfner failed to maintain the 30,000 circulation he had pledged. In February 2008, Audit Bureau Circulation figures showed that circulation had plunged nearly 13% in 2007. Kampfner resigned on 13 February 2008, the day before the ABC figures were made public, reportedly due to conflicts with Robinson over the magazine's marketing budget (which Robinson had apparently slashed in reaction to the fall in circulation).
In April 2008 Geoffrey Robinson
sold a 50% interest in the magazine to businessman Mike Danson
, and the remainder a year later. The appointment of the new editor Jason Cowley
was announced on 16 May 2008 but he did not take up the job until the end of September 2008.
In January 2009, the magazine refused to recognise the National Union of Journalists
, the trade union to which almost of all its journalists belonged, though further discussions were promised.
The New Statesman runs the 'New Media Awards'
, the former head of communications for Tony Blair
. Campbell chose to feature his partner Fiona Millar
, Tony Blair (in an article "Why we must all do God"), football manager Alex Ferguson
, and Sarah Brown
, the wife of Prime Minister Gordon Brown
. This editorship was condemned by Suzanne Moore
, a contributor to the magazine for twenty years. She wrote in a Mail on Sunday article: "New Statesman fiercely opposed the Iraq war and yet now hands over the reins to someone key in orchestrating that conflict". Campbell responded: "I had no idea she worked for the New Statesman. I don't read the Mail on Sunday. But professing commitment to leftwing values in that rightwing rag lends a somewhat weakened credibility to anything she says."
In October 2010 the magazine was guest-edited by the British author and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg
. The issue included a previously unpublished poem by Ted Hughes
, "Last letter", describing what happened during the three days leading up to the suicide of his first wife, the poet Sylvia Plath
. Its first line is: "What happened that night? Your final night." -- and the poem ends with the moment Hughes is informed of his wife's death.
In April 2011 the magazine was guest-edited by the human rights activist Jemima Khan
. The issue featured a series of exclusives including the actor Hugh Grant's secret recording of former News of the World journalist Paul McMullan, and a much-commented on interview with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, in which Clegg admitted that he "cries regularly to music" and that his nine-year-old son asked him, "'Why are the students angry with you, Papa?'"
In June 2011 Rowan Williams
, Archbishop of Canterbury
created a furore as guest editor by claiming that the Coalition government had introduced 'radical, long term policies for which no one had voted' and in doing so had created 'anxiety and anger' among many in the country. He was accused of being highly partisan, notwithstanding his having invited Ian Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary to write an article and having interviewed the Foreign Secretary William Hague
in the same edition. He also noted that the Labour Party had failed to offer an alternative to what he called 'associational socialism'. The Statesman promoted the edition on the basis of Williams' alleged attack on the government, whereas Williams himself had ended his article by asking for 'a democracy capable of real argument about shared needs and hopes and real generosity.'
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
and cultural magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World...
, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s.
In the 29 May 2006 issue, then-editor John Kampfner
John Kampfner
John Paul Kampfner is a British journalist who was editor of the weekly political magazine the New Statesman between 2005 and 2008...
stated that the New Statesman remained "true to its heritage of radical politics". The magazine is committed to "development, human rights and the environment, global issues the mainstream press often ignores".
The longest serving editor was Kingsley Martin
Kingsley Martin
Basil Kingsley Martin was a British journalist who edited the left-leaning political magazine the New Statesman from 1930 to 1960....
(1930–60). The current editor is Jason Cowley
Jason Cowley
Jason Cowley is a British journalist, magazine editor and writer. After working at the New Statesman, he became the editor of Granta in September 2007, while also remaining a writer on The Observer, and moved back to the New Statesman as its editor in September 2008.-Biography:He graduated from...
, who assumed the post at the end of September 2008. In 2009, Cowley was named current affairs editor of the year at the British Society of Magazine Editors awards.
The magazine is sometimes affectionately referred to as "The Staggers" because of its historical crises in funding, ownership and circulation. The nickname is now used as the title of its popular, rolling blog.
Origins
New Statesman was founded in 1913 by Sidney and Beatrice WebbBeatrice Webb
Martha Beatrice Webb, Lady Passfield was an English sociologist, economist, socialist and social reformer. Although her husband became Baron Passfield in 1929, she refused to be known as Lady Passfield...
with the support of George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
and other prominent members of the Fabian Society
Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist movement, whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist, rather than revolutionary, means. It is best known for its initial ground-breaking work beginning late in the 19th century and continuing up to World...
. Its first editor was Clifford Sharp
Clifford Sharp
Clifford Sharp was a British journalist, the first editor of the New Statesman magazine from its foundation in 1913 until 1928.He had previously edited The Crusade....
, who remained editor until 1928. Desmond MacCarthy
Desmond MacCarthy
Sir Desmond MacCarthy was a British literary critic and journalist.-Early life and education:MacCarthy was born in Plymouth, Devon, and educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. At Cambridge he got to know Lytton Strachey, Bertrand Russell and G. E...
joined the paper in 1913 and became literary editor, recruiting Cyril Connolly
Cyril Connolly
Cyril Vernon Connolly was an English intellectual, literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine Horizon and wrote Enemies of Promise , which combined literary criticism with an autobiographical exploration of why he failed to become the successful author of...
to the staff in 1928. During Sharp's last two years in post he was debilitated by chronic alcoholism and the paper was actually edited by his deputy Charles Mostyn Lloyd. Lloyd stood in after Sharp's departure until the appointment of Kingsley Martin
Kingsley Martin
Basil Kingsley Martin was a British journalist who edited the left-leaning political magazine the New Statesman from 1930 to 1960....
as editor in 1930 – a position Martin was to hold for 30 years. Although the Webbs and most Fabians were closely associated with the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
, Sharp was drawn increasingly to the Asquith
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC, KC served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916...
Liberals
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
.
1930–1960: The Statesman under Kingsley Martin
In 1931 the Statesman merged with the Liberal weekly the Nation and Athenaeum, and changed its name to New Statesman and Nation, under which title it remained until 1964. The chairman of Nations board was the economist John Maynard KeynesJohn Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton, CB FBA , was a British economist whose ideas have profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic policies of governments...
, who came to be an important influence on the newly merged paper, which started with a circulation of just under 13,000. It also absorbed The Weekend Review in 1933 (an element of which survives in the shape of New Statesmans Weekly Competition).
During the 1930s, Martin's Statesman moved markedly to the left politically. It became strongly anti-fascist and was generally critical of the government policy of appeasement of Mussolini and Hitler (though it did not back British rearmament). It was also, notoriously, an apologist for Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's Soviet Union. In 1934 it ran a famously deferential interview with Stalin by H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
. In 1938 came Martin's refusal to publish George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's celebrated despatches from Barcelona during the Spanish civil war
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
because they criticised the communists for suppressing the anarchists and the left-wing Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM
Poum
Poum is a commune in the North Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The town of Poum is located in the far northwest, located on the southern part of Banare Bay, with Mouac Island just offshore....
). "It is an unfortunate fact," Martin wrote to Orwell, "that any hostile criticism of the present Russian regime is liable to be taken as propaganda against socialism."
The Statesmans circulation grew enormously under Martin's editorship, reaching 70,000 by 1945, and it became a key player in Labour politics. The paper welcomed Labour's 1945 general election victory but took a critical line on the new government's foreign policy. The young Labour MP Richard Crossman
Richard Crossman
Richard Howard Stafford Crossman OBE was a British author and Labour Party politician who was a Cabinet Minister under Harold Wilson, and was the editor of the New Statesman. A prominent socialist intellectual, he became one of the Labour Party's leading Zionists and anti-communists...
, who had been an assistant editor before the war, was Martin's chief lieutenant in this period, and Statesman published Keep Left
Keep Left (pamphlet)
Keep Left was a pamphlet published in the United Kingdom in 1947 by the New Statesman, written by Michael Foot, Richard Crossman and Ian Mikardo that advocated a democratic socialist "third force" foreign policy – a socialist Europe acting independently from either the United States or the Soviet...
, the pamphlet written by Crossman, Michael Foot
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot, FRSL, PC was a British Labour Party politician, journalist and author, who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1955 and from 1960 until 1992...
and Ian Mikardo
Ian Mikardo
Ian Mikardo , commonly known as Mik, was a British Labour and Co-operative politician. An ardent socialist and a Zionist, he remained a backbencher throughout his four decades in the House of Commons...
that most succinctly laid out the Labour left's proposals for a "third force" foreign policy rather than alliance with the United States.
During the 1950s, Statesman remained a left critic of British foreign and defence policy and of the Labour leadership of Hugh Gaitskell
Hugh Gaitskell
Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell CBE was a British Labour politician, who held Cabinet office in Clement Attlee's governments, and was the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1955, until his death in 1963.-Early life:He was born in Kensington, London, the third and youngest...
(though Martin never got on personally with Aneurin Bevan
Aneurin Bevan
Aneurin "Nye" Bevan was a British Labour Party politician who was the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1959 until his death in 1960. The son of a coal miner, Bevan was a lifelong champion of social justice and the rights of working people...
, the leader of the anti-Gaitskellite
Gaitskellism
Gaitskellism was the ideology of a faction of the British Labour Party. Led by Hugh Gaitskell, Gaitskellites represented the political right of the Labour Party and were opposed by the Bevanites, a more Leftist faction of the party led by Aneurin Bevan...
Labour left). It opposed the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
grew directly out of an article in the Statesman by J. B. Priestley
J. B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley, OM , known as J. B. Priestley, was an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster. He published 26 novels, notably The Good Companions , as well as numerous dramas such as An Inspector Calls...
.
There was much less focus on a single political line in the back part of the paper, devoted to book reviews and articles on cultural topics. Indeed, with these pages managed by Janet Adam Smith
Janet Adam Smith
Janet Adam Smith was a writer, editor, literary journalist and champion of Scottish literature. She was active from the 1930s through to the end of the century and noted for her elegant prose, her penetrating judgement, her independence of mind – and her deep love of mountains and mountaineering...
, who was Literary Editor from 1952 to 1960, the paper was sometimes described as a pantomime horse: its back half was required reading even for many who disagreed with the paper's politics. This tradition would continue into the 1960s with Karl Miller
Karl Miller
Karl Fergus Connor Miller FRSL is a British literary editor, critic and writer.He was educated at the Royal High School of Edinburgh and Downing College, Cambridge, where he studied English. He became literary editor of The Spectator and the New Statesman...
as Literary Editor.
After Kingsley
Martin retired in 1960 and was replaced as editor by John Freeman, a politician-journalist who had resigned from the Labour government in 1951 with Bevan and Harold WilsonHarold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
. Freeman left in 1965 and was followed in the chair by Paul Johnson, then on the left, under whose editorship Statesman reached its highest ever circulation of just over 100,000. For some, even enemies of Johnson such as Richard Ingrams
Richard Ingrams
Richard Ingrams is an English journalist, a co-founder and second editor of the British satirical magazine Private Eye, and now editor of The Oldie magazine.-Career:...
, this was a strong period for the magazine editorially.
After Johnson's departure in 1970, the Statesman went into a long period of declining circulation under successive editors: Richard Crossman
Richard Crossman
Richard Howard Stafford Crossman OBE was a British author and Labour Party politician who was a Cabinet Minister under Harold Wilson, and was the editor of the New Statesman. A prominent socialist intellectual, he became one of the Labour Party's leading Zionists and anti-communists...
(1970–72), who tried to edit it at the same time as playing a major role in Labour politics; Anthony Howard
Anthony Howard (journalist)
Anthony Michell Howard, CBE was a prominent British journalist, broadcaster and writer. He was the editor of the New Statesman, The Listener and the deputy editor of The Observer...
(1972–78), whose recruits to the paper included Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
, Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year...
and James Fenton
James Fenton
James Martin Fenton is an English poet, journalist and literary critic. He is a former Oxford Professor of Poetry.-Life and career:...
(surprisingly, the arch anti-Socialist Auberon Waugh
Auberon Waugh
Auberon Alexander Waugh was a British author and journalist, son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was known to his family and friends as Bron Waugh.-Life and career:...
was writing for Statesman at this time before returning to his more natural home of The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
); Bruce Page (1978–82), who moved the paper towards specialising in investigative journalism, sacking Arthur Marshall, who had been writing for Statesman on and off since 1935, as a columnist, allegedly because of the latter's support for Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
; Hugh Stephenson (1982–86), under whom it took a strong position again for unilateral nuclear disarmament; John Lloyd (1986–87), who swung the paper's politics back to the centre; Stuart Weir
Stuart Weir (UK journalist)
Stuart Weir is a British journalist, writer, and Visiting Professor with the Government Department at the University of Essex. He is the Director of the Democratic Audit, formerly a research unit of the University of Essex....
(1987–90), under whose editorship Statesman founded the Charter 88 constitutional reform pressure group; and Steve Platt
Steve Platt (UK journalist)
Steve Platt is a British journalist and former editor of the New Statesman magazine .-External links:* *...
(1990–96). In 1991, it absorbed Marxism Today. By 1996 it was selling 23,000 copies a week. New Statesman was the first periodical to go online, hosted by the www.cleanroom.co.uk, in 1995.
Statesman acquired the weekly New Society
New Society (magazine)
New Society was a weekly magazine of social inquiry and social and cultural comment, published 1962-88. It drew on the emergent disciplines of sociology, anthropology, psychology, human geography, social history and social policy. It was also notable for its wide-ranging social reportage.One...
in 1988 and merged with it, becoming New Statesman and Society for the next eight years, then reverting to the old title. In 1993, Statesman was sued by Prime Minister John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
after it published an article that discussed rumours that Major was having an extramarital affair with a Downing Street caterer. Although the action was settled out of court for a minimal sum, the paper's legal costs came close to bankrupting it.
In 1994, KGB defector Yuri Shvets
Yuri Shvets
Yuri B. Shvets was a Major in the KGB during the years 1980-1990. From April 1985 to 1987 he worked in the Washington Rezidentura of the KGB....
said that the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
utilized New Statesman to spread disinformation. Shvets said that the KGB had provided disinformation, including forged documents, to New Statesman journalist Claudia Wright which she used for anti-American and anti-Israel stories in line with the KGB's campaigns.
Since 1996
New Statesman was rescued from this near-bankruptcy by a takeover by businessman Philip Jeffrey but in 1996, after prolonged boardroom wrangling over Jeffrey's plans, it was sold to Geoffrey RobinsonGeoffrey Robinson
Geoffrey Robinson is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Coventry North West since 1976. He was Paymaster General from May 1997 to January 1999, resigning after it was revealed that he had lent his government colleague Peter Mandelson £373,000 to buy a house...
, the Labour MP and businessman.
Robinson sacked Steve Platt, and appointed as editor Ian Hargreaves
Ian Hargreaves
Prof Ian Richard Hargreaves is Professor of Journalism at the Centre for Journalism Studies at Cardiff University, Wales, UK...
, formerly editor of The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
newspaper, on what was at the time an unprecedentedly high salary. Hargreaves in turn fired most of the left-wingers on the staff and turned Statesman into a strong supporter of Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
as Labour leader.
Hargreaves was succeeded by Peter Wilby
Peter Wilby (UK journalist)
Peter John Wilby is a British journalist.Wilby was educated at Kibworth Beauchamp grammar school in Leicestershire before graduating with a degree in History from the University of Sussex, where he helped found a short-lived university paper called Sussex Outlook. In 1968 he started writing for...
also from the Independent stable, who had previously been Statesman's books editor, in 1998. Wilby attempted to reposition the paper back 'on the left'. His stewardship was not without controversy. In 2002, for example, the periodical was accused of antisemitism when it published an investigative cover story on the power of the "Zionist lobby" in Britain, under the title "A Kosher Conspiracy?". The cover was illustrated with a gold Star of David towering over a Union Jack. Wilby responded to the criticisms in a subsequent issue. A year earlier Wilby was accused of being anti-American because of his reporting of the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington.
John Kampfner
John Kampfner
John Paul Kampfner is a British journalist who was editor of the weekly political magazine the New Statesman between 2005 and 2008...
, Wilby's political editor, succeeded him as editor in May 2005 following considerable internal lobbying. Under Kampfner's editorship, a relaunch in 2006 initially saw headline circulation climb to over 30,000. However, over 5,000 of these were apparently monitored free copies, and Kampfner failed to maintain the 30,000 circulation he had pledged. In February 2008, Audit Bureau Circulation figures showed that circulation had plunged nearly 13% in 2007. Kampfner resigned on 13 February 2008, the day before the ABC figures were made public, reportedly due to conflicts with Robinson over the magazine's marketing budget (which Robinson had apparently slashed in reaction to the fall in circulation).
In April 2008 Geoffrey Robinson
Geoffrey Robinson
Geoffrey Robinson is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Coventry North West since 1976. He was Paymaster General from May 1997 to January 1999, resigning after it was revealed that he had lent his government colleague Peter Mandelson £373,000 to buy a house...
sold a 50% interest in the magazine to businessman Mike Danson
Mike Danson
Mike Danson is a UK-based businessman. He founded Datamonitor, an online information company in 1987. He led it from his front room, through its listing on the London Stock Exchange to its sale to Informa for £502m in 2007....
, and the remainder a year later. The appointment of the new editor Jason Cowley
Jason Cowley
Jason Cowley is a British journalist, magazine editor and writer. After working at the New Statesman, he became the editor of Granta in September 2007, while also remaining a writer on The Observer, and moved back to the New Statesman as its editor in September 2008.-Biography:He graduated from...
was announced on 16 May 2008 but he did not take up the job until the end of September 2008.
In January 2009, the magazine refused to recognise the National Union of Journalists
National Union of Journalists
The National Union of Journalists is a trade union for journalists in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It was founded in 1907 and has 38,000 members. It is a member of the International Federation of Journalists .-Structure:...
, the trade union to which almost of all its journalists belonged, though further discussions were promised.
The New Statesman runs the 'New Media Awards'
Guest editors
In March 2009 the magazine had its first guest editor, Alastair CampbellAlastair Campbell
Alastair John Campbell is a British journalist, broadcaster, political aide and author, best known for his work as Director of Communications and Strategy for Prime Minister Tony Blair between 1997 and 2003, having first started working for Blair in 1994...
, the former head of communications for Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
. Campbell chose to feature his partner Fiona Millar
Fiona Millar
Fiona Millar is a British journalist and campaigner on education and parenting issues. She was a former adviser to Cherie Blair. She writes a blog, The Truth About Our Schools, on education issues.-Early life:...
, Tony Blair (in an article "Why we must all do God"), football manager Alex Ferguson
Alex Ferguson
Sir Alexander Chapman "Alex" Ferguson, CBE is a Scottish association football manager and former player, currently managing Manchester United, where he has been in charge since 1986...
, and Sarah Brown
Sarah Brown (spouse)
Sarah Brown is the wife of Gordon Brown, a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She is also the founding partner of Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications, a public relations company.-Early life:...
, the wife of Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
. This editorship was condemned by Suzanne Moore
Suzanne Moore
Suzanne Moore is a British journalist.The daughter of an American father and a working class Tory mother, who split up during her childhood, Moore was lined up by her headmistress to apply to enter Cambridge University, but left school at 16...
, a contributor to the magazine for twenty years. She wrote in a Mail on Sunday article: "New Statesman fiercely opposed the Iraq war and yet now hands over the reins to someone key in orchestrating that conflict". Campbell responded: "I had no idea she worked for the New Statesman. I don't read the Mail on Sunday. But professing commitment to leftwing values in that rightwing rag lends a somewhat weakened credibility to anything she says."
In October 2010 the magazine was guest-edited by the British author and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg FRSL FRTS FBA, FRS FRSA is an English broadcaster and author best known for his work with the BBC and for presenting the The South Bank Show...
. The issue included a previously unpublished poem by Ted Hughes
Ted Hughes
Edward James Hughes OM , more commonly known as Ted Hughes, was an English poet and children's writer. Critics routinely rank him as one of the best poets of his generation. Hughes was British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.Hughes was married to American poet Sylvia Plath, from 1956 until...
, "Last letter", describing what happened during the three days leading up to the suicide of his first wife, the poet Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born in Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer...
. Its first line is: "What happened that night? Your final night." -- and the poem ends with the moment Hughes is informed of his wife's death.
In April 2011 the magazine was guest-edited by the human rights activist Jemima Khan
Jemima Khan
Jemima Marcelle Khan is a British writer and campaigner. She is associate editor of the New Statesman and European editor-at-large for Vanity Fair. She has worked as a charity fundraiser, human rights campaigner and contributing writer for British newspapers and magazines...
. The issue featured a series of exclusives including the actor Hugh Grant's secret recording of former News of the World journalist Paul McMullan, and a much-commented on interview with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, in which Clegg admitted that he "cries regularly to music" and that his nine-year-old son asked him, "'Why are the students angry with you, Papa?'"
In June 2011 Rowan Williams
Rowan Williams
Rowan Douglas Williams FRSL, FBA, FLSW is an Anglican bishop, poet and theologian. He is the 104th and current Archbishop of Canterbury, Metropolitan of the Province of Canterbury and Primate of All England, offices he has held since early 2003.Williams was previously Bishop of Monmouth and...
, Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
created a furore as guest editor by claiming that the Coalition government had introduced 'radical, long term policies for which no one had voted' and in doing so had created 'anxiety and anger' among many in the country. He was accused of being highly partisan, notwithstanding his having invited Ian Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary to write an article and having interviewed the Foreign Secretary William Hague
William Hague
William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
in the same edition. He also noted that the Labour Party had failed to offer an alternative to what he called 'associational socialism'. The Statesman promoted the edition on the basis of Williams' alleged attack on the government, whereas Williams himself had ended his article by asking for 'a democracy capable of real argument about shared needs and hopes and real generosity.'
List of editors
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Stuart Weir (UK journalist) Stuart Weir is a British journalist, writer, and Visiting Professor with the Government Department at the University of Essex. He is the Director of the Democratic Audit, formerly a research unit of the University of Essex.... (1987–91) Ian Hargreaves Prof Ian Richard Hargreaves is Professor of Journalism at the Centre for Journalism Studies at Cardiff University, Wales, UK... (1996–98) John Kampfner John Paul Kampfner is a British journalist who was editor of the weekly political magazine the New Statesman between 2005 and 2008... (2005–2008) Jason Cowley Jason Cowley is a British journalist, magazine editor and writer. After working at the New Statesman, he became the editor of Granta in September 2007, while also remaining a writer on The Observer, and moved back to the New Statesman as its editor in September 2008.-Biography:He graduated from... (2008–) |
External links
- New Statesman
- http://www.abc.org.uk
- The Spirit of Che Guevara by I F Stone, New Statesman 20 October 1967