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Leader: Labour needs to become more of a fighting force in its own right

By New Statesman - 07 August

Lobbyists in the spin crowd, the folly of “the third umpire” and opting out of the royal birth

By Peter Wilby - 07 August

What redress does Twitter offer to the arbitrarily blackballed? Photograph: Gett

NHS horror stories, my life as a Twitter fogey, and cricket’s robot generation

By Peter Wilby - 25 July

Horror stories about the National Health Service come thick and fast, conveniently for a government that wants to hand it over to private capital.

The Park Hill Flats in Sheffield in 1972. Photograph: Getty Images

How we are gentrified, impoverished and silenced – if we allow it

By John Pilger - 25 July

The Tories are starting to notice Labour’s higher levels of local organisation.

Westminster’s short-sighted obsessions will not be what decides the next election

By Rafael Behr - 24 July

The Three Sisters rock formation in the mountains of Corsica

Nelson Mandela’s last days, paying for boar stew in Corsica, and the Tories of Generation Y

By Peter Wilby - 11 July

One can see why MPs think they ought to have the pay rise – from £66,396 to more than £70,000 –proposed by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.

While the Labour leader takes time to ponder the future, his party is drifting.

The Conservatives want to keep Labour hemmed into its past – and so do the unions

By Rafael Behr - 04 July

New Labour’s triumph over the Conservatives at the end of the 20th century was mostly cultural. That isn’t a belittlement. Culture trumps politics when it comes to social change.

Graffiti on a derelict cottage in Bannockburn. Photograph: Getty Images

Leader: Even if the Union endures, the status quo should not

By New Statesman - 27 June

In much of Westminster, Alex Salmond’s campaign for Scottish independence is already regarded as a doomed cause.

The “dead puppy” problem: or why both Labour and the Tories fear winning the next election

By Rafael Behr - 19 June

When an election looks hard to win, MPs sometimes seek solace in the myth that it might not, after all, be so bad to lose.

Peter Mandelson. Photograph: Getty Images

Mandelson’s lizard, in bed with Michael Douglas, and sponsoring the Tube

By Peter Wilby - 13 June

As I write, the Bilderberg Group is holding its annual conference in Watford, which must be a shock after St Moritz, Switzerland, in 2011.

Leader: No one wants to take charge in the “G-Zero” world

By New Statesman - 13 June

The need for global leadership has never been greater but ever fewer are prepared or in a position to provide it.

The PM doesn’t want to talk about the ills of lobbying.

Cameron has already picked his message for the next election – and “cleaning up politics” isn’t it

By Rafael Behr - 05 June

At the last election, fixing politics seemed as urgent a task as fixing the economy.

A soldier stands guard outside Woolwich Barracks. Photograph: Getty Images

Extremists point to western foreign policy to explain their acts. Why do we ignore them?

By Mehdi Hasan - 30 May

Did you know that the alleged ringleader in the 11 September 2001 attacks had originally planned to land one of the hijacked US airliners and give a speech to the assembled press corps?