Sorry State

According to their boosters, prediction markets such as Polymarket or Kalshi are ‘global truth machines’; their detractors say they’re just a glorified form of gambling. Either way, they’re zero-sum games with, as Geoff Mann put it recently in the LRB, ‘few winners and many loser ...  Show more

Tom McCarthy, writing in the LRB, described James Joyce's Ulysses as a ‘heavy book, a book full of weight, a fallen book’; a ‘properly obscene book’; ‘a book in which the central stake is the coming into being of the book itself’; a book for which ‘people should desist, once and ...  Show more

On today's episode of the New Statesman Podcast, Stephen Bush, Anoosh Chakelian and Ailbhe discuss the government's conflicted 'back to the office' strategy and the economic challenges it poses. Then, in You Ask Us, they take your questions on how the BBC fits into the political ...  Show more

After the Conservatives suffered two by-election defeats but were spared the embarrassment of a whitewash, Matt explores what it means for Sunak and Starmer's fortunes with polling expert <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tories-uxbridge-south-ruislip-by-election-win ...

Helen is away this week, so Stephen is joined by Senior Writer, Anoosh Chakelian, and Citymetric Editor, Jonn Elledge. Together they explore how Theresa May's latest EU dealings are less strong-and-stable, and more "like being in a car with a drunk driver". Then discuss which can ...  Show more