The Saturday Read: Everybody stay calm!Inside: Donald Trump’s new regime, Canada fights back, Keir in China, Kemi on Desert Island Discs, and an existential crisis at Harry Potter World
Good morning. Welcome to the Saturday Read, the best of the New Statesman, in print and online this week. This is Finn with Nicholas and George.
In this moment of global peril/turmoil/angst (any of those handwringy terms will do) who would have thought the West would be pinning its hopes on a Canadian technocrat? And yet. It’s been more than a week since Mark Carney spoke to the World Economic Forum at Davos – and we are still talking about his myth-busting intervention. In the age of Trump, the rules based order is no longer a worthwhile fiction – time to wake up and readjust, he says. I feel sorry for Macron, who has been saying as much for a while now. But the NS asks the urgent questions: okay great speech and all that, but what next? In search of answers we have an explainer on the Carney doctrine down below, an exclusive interview with the prime minister of Spain, and an essay about whether Britain should start looking to China. If you keep scrolling you will find our literary editor Tanjil, back again. This time he’s talking about David Foster Wallace, and Infinite Jest at 30. I am still puzzling over Ulysses, but once I get that out of the way I might be ready for the next anniversary, Infinite Jest at 60. Don’t forget to make the most of our New Year sale, a six week subscription for £6 – it ends today (!!!). And as ever, thanks for reading and have a great weekend. Extra, extra! Our new year sale 1. Donald Trump’s agents of chaos
If America ever takes a breath it will find the time to mark a series of anniversaries. It is a year since Trump’s second inauguration, ten years since his first election victory, and 250 since the United States itself was born. We asked Lee Siegel to write about all these things, and the events of the past few weeks, in which the question of Donald Trump and paramilitary authoritarianism has become less theoretical. Nicholas 2. Europe’s left-wing icon
Pedro Sánchez – the Spanish prime minister – speaks to the New Statesman. Despite almost eight years in office, the leftest of European leaders still has plans to run for re-election. Spain’s government has been a European outlier for some time – but in this period of global readjustment, might the continent be coming round to his thinking? Finn 3. Soft left in a tailspin
In this week’s “PolCol” (what the cognoscenti call the Politics Column), Ailbhe explains exactly how Andy Burnham’s audacious leadership bid – let’s call it what it was – got shut down last weekend. No one likes a pointless meeting, but there is a particular bathos to “high-stakes political manoeuvrings” being “reduced to the indignity of a Teams call”. George 4. The least magical place in England
What were you doing last Saturday? Because I was busying myself at the Harry Potter Studio Tour on the outskirts of Watford. Nominally, this was in service of the new This England slot at the front of the magazine. Spiritually, I was investigating England’s last piece of moral propaganda. Before everything went awry. Finn If you like the Saturday Read then can I urge you to buy a subscription to the New Statesman (with thanks to all the Saturday Readers who already subscribe). We have a great deal on now, until the end of the month. Go on – it’s a perfect purchase for the financially prudent literary minds in our ranks. 40% off an annual subscription 5. The Carney doctrine
And here we have Carney. It might be one of the most celebrated political speeches in living memory. Megan Gibson (our resident Canadian) looks at where Canada goes from here – including details of how its army would cope with an American ground invasion. I like this piece a lot, it is both generous and appropriately sceptical. Finn 6. Nothing to see here…
The Fabian Society is different things to different people. To some, the Wine Society for left centrists. To others, a cabal that secretly runs the UK. In this week’s Sketch, Will Dunn trotted down to the appropriately baroque Guildhall in London for the society’s yearly conference. But who is that lurking in the shadows? George 7. Major flop
Desert Island Discs is one of the great honours of British public life. I can’t imagine the pressure: you are unlikely to do anything more lasting, and if you get it wrong, it’s “better luck next life”. Kemi Badenoch recorded her entry this week. And Kate Mossman, a discerning scholar of both interview technique and musical taste, inspected the output. The Tory leader’s luxury item was… all of the Marvel superhero movies. Kate wasn’t impressed. Bad luck Mrs Badenoch. Better luck next life! George 8. “Imperial posture”
There was a time when Britain used its gunboats to bust open Beijing to British money – and drugs. Now, we send our Prime Minister to China, if not clutching a begging bowl, then pretty much cap in hand. Keir Starmer’s trip this week was an attempt to forge a new relationship with China; James Schneider says we should use it as an opportunity to jump-start a new era in British history, breaking from our rogue American ally and reorienting ourselves with the rest of the world. Nicholas Elsewhere
|
No comments:
Post a Comment