Emily Lawford

Brilliant reporting by Anoosh as always

Some personal news: after 17 wonderful years at the New Statesman I’ve decided it’s time for something new.

Grateful to brilliant colleagues past and present. Here’s my farewell column from this week’s magazine. www.newstatesman.com/comment/2026...

Thank you!!

great piece that makes me almost nostalgic for years of hanging around on (non-royal) doorsteps in the rain with journalism's most world weary people, snappers

Thanks so much!

On the hunt for Prince Andrew Outside Sandringham, the British press had scented blood

“They’re all sycophant, sycophant, sycophant on air, and then off air, ‘twat, twat, twat’.”

Brilliant piece by @emilylawford.bsky.social on the royal media circus:

In Bicester Village, England is for sale The outlet is the second most popular attraction for Chinese tourists visiting the UK

For the New Statesman’s “This England” section I went to Bicester Village

www.newstatesman.com/this-england...

Pornhub is restricting UK users. I wrote about the harm it’s already done

www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

Britain’s housebuilding crisis on my block Building work on the estate I live in was supposed to take two years – it’s now in its fifth

Everything I've learned from life on the frontline of Britain's housebuilding slump - my latest @newstatesman1913.bsky.social column:

The march of the Pink Ladies Groups of pink-clad women protesting outside asylum hotels say they are standing against sexual violence by asylum seekers

Excellent reporting by @emilylawford.bsky.social on the movement changing the anti-immigration agenda from an argument about "state capacity and fairness to the threat of violence to women":

It is not easy to reconcile Badenoch’s respective statements about the Connolly and Abd El-Fattah cases. But she is not alone. Many people will say Connolly should have been convicted but Abd El-Fattah should not face sanction, and many will have the opposite view. Few will say both should have the protection of free speech, and few will say that both should suffer legal consequences. In today’s hyper-partisan political culture, a common position is “free speech for me, but not for thee”. Those claiming the benefit of the right to free expression often make grand declarations against censorship and so on, while simultaneously nodding along with prohibitions and sanctions on others.

NEW

When should social media posts have legal consequences?

Comparing and contrasting the cases of Lucy Connolly and Alaa Abd El-Fattah

By me, at @newstatesman1913.bsky.social

www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

@samuelmarclowe.bsky.social can you follow me back so I can DM you?

Thanks so much!

"I don't know if you've heard of the beginning of the oppression of women," he began. I said I hadn't. This delighted him. "In the early days, as Engels said, everyone 'lived frivolously' - everyone fucked." He looked wistful. "It was only with the start of class society we started producing a surplus, and men wanted to pass their surplus on to their children. So they couldn't let women sleep around." It all came down to who's inheriting your wealth. "You have to know your children are yours." He shook his head. "It blew my mind." The idea that class is the root of sexism - as opposed to, say, I don't know, men - is the sort of thing revolutionary communists like.

Well this is rather delicious from @emilylawford.bsky.social on being mansplained to about the roots of sexism by the Revolutionary Communist Party
www.newstatesman.com/politics/the...

Thanks so much!

On the front line in the Battle of Ideas At the free speech festival, people were prophesying a race-fuelled civil war

Very funny report of the 'Battle of Ideas' by @emilylawford.bsky.social

Particularly entertained to read some definitely accurate pronouncements from Reform's in-house genius James Orr, and that an English civil war is still just around the corner.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/the...

I went on a Border Force patrol with immigration minister Mike Tapp for the New Statesman

www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-...

Really happy to have signed with @annapallai.bsky.social. Hopefully exciting projects ahead
www.ampliterary.co.uk/about-1-1

Bob Vylan, Kneecap and the politics of Glastonbury The police have got involved after this year’s festival. Here’s what it was like to be there

With the pressure to be political at Glastonbury in front of a sea of Palestine flags, it was almost odd when some artists avoided the topic, writes @emilylawford.bsky.social.
www.prospectmagazine...

Our summer double issue has just hit newsstands! Here’s a preview of what’s inside... 🧵

For our cover story, @oliverbullough.bsky.social details how water privatisation has left us with leaky pipes, sewage spills and rivers not fit to swim in: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/world/enviro...

Thanks so much!!

Thanks so much!

Thrilled to be selected as a winner of this year’s 30 to Watch award!

My appointment with Dr Death Philip Nitschke facilitated the world’s first legal assisted suicides in the 1990s. But is he the best advocate for the cause he so believes in?

"In the pod, there’s a red button. This is what you’d press to die. What a crazy way to go, is all I can think. Nitschke’s face looms outside the plastic windows"

A fantastic piece by @emilylawford.bsky.social from our new issue @prospectmagazine.co.uk

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/a-good...

For our new magazine, I profiled Philip Nitschke - aka “Dr Death” - who facilitated the first ever assisted suicides in the 1990s and has spent the rest of his life inventing new ways to die www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/a-good...

‘Fictosexuality’ and artificial wombs — our dystopian future In her novel Vanishing World, Sayaka Murata, the author of the bestselling Convenience Store Woman, imagines a sexless society where all babies are conceived in laboratories

I reviewed Sayaka Murata's Vanishing World - where all babies are conceived by IVF and pretty much no one has sex - for The Times www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

Bad History A short meditation on living the past.

I’ve finally bitten the bullet & started a #substack! I’ll write pieces related to Byzantine studies & history, reviews, tips+tricks, and art. This first essay is personal, outlining some feelings about Doing History. #historybluesky #byzantinebluesky
empressofbyzantium.substack.com/p/bad-histor...

The incel trap Angry and lonely young men can easily enter a web of hatred against women online. Is there a way out?

If you’re watching Netflix’s Adolescence, it’s a great time to revisit @emilylawford.bsky.social’s deep dive into the radicalisation of young men in the online “manosphere” from our November 2024 issue.
www.prospectmagazine...

I reviewed Róisín Lanigan's funny and haunting book about the horrors of renting in London www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

This never happens. The @prospectmagazine.co.uk paywall is down until 7pm GMT tomorrow, so head over our site to read for free

@arusbridger.bsky.social