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A montage of images taken by the Voyager spacecraft of the solar system

Ed Miliband speaks after Labour's Andy Sawford had won the Corby by-election

A woman holds a placard during a SlutWalk protest in Melbourne in 2011

Lance Armstrong. Photograph: Getty Images

Our welfare system is broken, but Labour and the Tories just trade myths

By Rafael Behr - 04 January 16:13

Rather than arguing about policy and practice, both parties encourage a futile debate about...
What the Lib Dems need to do to get back on track in 2013

By Richard Morris - 04 January 14:46

Stopping the worst excesses of the Tories is not enough. The party needs radical new policies...
The poll that shows Labour can win the argument over benefits

By George Eaton - 04 January 13:23

The better educated people are about the benefits system, the less likely they are to support...
The child benefit reforms are a disaster waiting to happen

By Amna Silim - 04 January 10:22

Osborne has underestimated the perverse incentives that removing the benefit from higher...
Cameron defends "intense" conversation with Rebekah Brooks

By George Eaton - 04 January 8:56

Prime Minister says: "My wife’s cousin had a party and I went, it’s not a big deal."
Labour unveils jobs guarantee for the long-term unemployed

By George Eaton - 03 January 23:13

Ed Balls announces new policy to be funded by reducing pension tax relief for those earning...
Tesco's "indie" coffee shop should worry defenders of capitalism

By Alex Hern - 03 January 14:26

Free markets rely on informed choices, and those seem lacking in the case of Harris + Hoole.
Labour begins the year ahead but Cameron is still preferred to Miliband

By George Eaton - 03 January 14:30

First poll of the year gives Labour a 12-point lead but Cameron is eight points ahead as "the...
49's the sticking point for French firms

By Alex Hern - 03 January 11:06

Quantifying regulatory burden.
IDS is in trouble over his strivers’ tax – and he knows it

By Liam Byrne - 02 January 21:34

Unable to justify the government's decision to cut support for families, the Work and Pensions...

Need to Know

Space man: the genius of Roman Polanski
Blogs | By Ryan Gilbey
Wind farms and abuse of statistics: bird edition
Sci-Tech | By Alex Hern
When "wind farms are dangerous" really just means "there are a lot of birds".
In the Frame: Mind Tricks
Blogs | By Tom Humberstone
Tom Humberstone's weekly comic.
Switzerland's getting into a currency war with us? Brilliant!
Economics | By Alex Hern
Spend, spend, spend.
Does the death penalty afford meaningful redress in rape cases?
Blogs | By Aisha Gill

Books

WM Paul Young: "Religious systems are fundamentally opposed to women."

By Charlotte Simmonds - 03 January

The Books Interview.
A year in books

By Jonathan Derbyshire - 31 December

The literary highlights of 2012.
The dead of night: how to write the perfect ghost story

By Mark Gatiss - 31 December

Mark Gatiss tells Robin Ince about his love of MR James.
Comics review: The Lengths by Howard Hardiman

By Alex Hern - 23 December

A love story about a male escort, told with dogs. What's not to
A View from a Hill

By Stewart Lee - 19 December

A ghost story.
One man’s struggle to unmask Lance Armstrong

By Geoffrey Wheatcroft - 19 December

Vicious cycle.

Business

Oddbins embrace "gingers", Germans and bankers.

By Martha Gill - 04 January

Oddoffers.
"The bank wilfully and aggressively jumped in to fill a void that was left when other Swiss banks abandoned the practice"

By Helen Roxburgh - 04 January

Business quote of the day.
Five questions answered on the closure of Switzerland’s oldest bank

By Heidi Vella - 04 January

Weglin pleads guilty to charges.
30 of UK's top tax criminals published on Flickr

By economia - 04 January

Tax cheats sentenced to combined 155 years in prison.
Transocean to pay $1.4bn in fines for BP’s Macondo well oil spill

By New Statesman - 04 January

US Department of Justice concludes investigation of Transocean.
FTC closes Google investigation

By New Statesman - 04 January

The internet search giant agreed to make changes to its search

Media

Game Theory: talking videogames at the New York Times

By Helen Lewis - 31 December

Games as ballet, a playwright on the medium, and (sorry) me
The dead of night: how to write the perfect ghost story

By Mark Gatiss - 31 December

Mark Gatiss tells Robin Ince about his love of MR James.
2012 in review: The New Statesman on... the media

By Alex Hern - 27 December

From Leveson to the scandals at the BBC, no-one in the media has
What were the biggest media myths of 2012?

By New Statesman - 24 December

From the Essex lion to the Liverpool Care Pathway, three
Dennis Skinner trolls the Queen

By Helen Lewis - 22 December

Josie Long nominates an unusual tradition as one of her favourite
NRA wants federal agents in every school - but why stop there?

By Helen Lewis - 22 December

Wayne LaPierre, the head of the National Rifle Association,

Interviews

WM Paul Young: "Religious systems are fundamentally opposed to women."

By Charlotte Simmonds - 03 January

The Books Interview.
What makes a gay vicar stay in the Church of England?

By Hannah Meltzer - 02 January

He smokes roll-ups, his ring tone is Abba, and he is passionately
The Rolling Stones: the myth and its makers

By Charlotte Simmonds - 22 December

Photographers Dominique Tarle and Peter Webb spent 1971 making
Nassim Nicholas Taleb: A thinker with an antifragile ego

By Jonathan Derbyshire - 20 December

"He talks in a machine-gun patter that combines Tony Soprano-
Jim Al-Khalili: "Indoctrination from any perspective, in any point of view, has to be wrong"

By Robin Ince - 19 December

The new president of the British Humanist Association explains
Ricky Gervais: “There shouldn’t be a word for atheism"

By Robin Ince - 19 December

Spending time in the US has only made Ricky Gervais a more

Economics

Fixing the debt ceiling with a trillion dollar platinum coin

By Alex Hern - 04 January

Make a silly demand, get a silly concession.
Child benefit withdrawal will make it better to work less for families with over seven children

By Alex Hern - 04 January

And come 2076, that will be the case for every family in the
Switzerland's getting into a currency war with us? Brilliant!

By Alex Hern - 04 January

Spend, spend, spend.
Japan "nationalises" industrial stock

By Alex Hern - 03 January

State capitalism, or unconventional fiscal policy?
Tesco's "indie" coffee shop should worry defenders of capitalism

By Alex Hern - 03 January

Free markets rely on informed choices, and those seem lacking in
Tesco's "indie" coffee shop should worry defenders of capitalism

By Alex Hern - 03 January

Free markets rely on informed choices, and those seem lacking in

Film

Film in 2013 - the year of DiCaprio unchained

By Ryan Gilbey - 03 January

What to look out for on the big screen this year.
The Life of Pi - review

By Ryan Gilbey - 24 December

An extravagantly decorated cake of a film with nothing inside but
Films of the year

By Ryan Gilbey - 17 December

The best movies of 2012.
The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey - review

By Ryan Gilbey - 13 December

Peter Jackson has managed to dart off in new directions as he
Pete Doherty is a really, really bad actor

By Alex Hern - 07 December

The former Libertine isn't very good at playing a libertine.
Seven Psychopaths: energetically directed and intermittently amusing

By Ryan Gilbey - 06 December

Welcome to the mobsters' ball.

Sci-tech

Pinterest acquires and shutters Punchfork

By Alex Hern - 04 January

The mayfly life of a 2010s start-up.
Wind farms and abuse of statistics: bird edition

By Alex Hern - 04 January

When "wind farms are dangerous" really just means "there are a
4G's so last year: why we need 5G, and now

By Rahim Tafazolli - 03 January

We have a spectrum crunch on our hands, and technology is only
RoboRoach + Twitter = Crowdsourced cockroach steering

By Alex Hern - 02 January

#cyborgcockroacheswillruletheworld
Resource security isn't achieved by locking up commodities

By Dustin Benton - 02 January

We must strike at the root of resource insecurity, by
Most-read Wikipedia articles: French holly, Vietnamese sex positions and Japanese pornstars

By Alex Hern - 27 December

A glimpse into national psyches.

Television

Review: David Attenborough's Africa

By Catriona Harvey-Jenner - 03 January

David Attenborough's latest series shows we're not so different
The dead of night: how to write the perfect ghost story

By Mark Gatiss - 31 December

Mark Gatiss tells Robin Ince about his love of MR James.
Tweed, tramps and Lycra

By Rachel Cooke - 19 December

Christmas TV reviewed.
Perfectly tailored

By Antonia Quirke - 19 December

Christmas radio reviewed.
The Hour: series 2, episode 6

By Caroline Crampton - 14 December

An ending both satisfactory and unsatisfactory.
TV crushes: From Bruce Willis to Konnie Huq to the Yellow Power Ranger

By Bim Adewunmi - 13 December

Some of our screen crushes fade quickly, but others (like Bim

World affairs

By candlelight, a nation confronts its dark heart

By Soumya Bhattacharya - 03 January

It won’t be so easy to change the deeply entrenched patriarchal
Leader: The fiscal cliff has not been averted, just postponed

By New Statesman - 02 January

The deal struck by Obama and the Republicans leaves open the
Obama rejects Osbornomics: "we can't simply cut our way to prosperity"

By George Eaton - 02 January

The US president's statement on the fiscal cliff deal
Quote of the Day: Barack Obama on the fiscal cliff deal

By New Statesman - 02 January

The US president on why the country must avoid excessive cuts.
Will the protests against the Delhi gang rape reach rural India?

By Priya Virmani - 31 December

In the backwaters of India, in rural areas still governed by
In the wrangle over America's Fiscal Cliff, Barack Obama holds all the cards

By Nicky Woolf - 31 December

There is no incentive for the Democrats to be conciliatory on the

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