Hannah Barnes

We need a culture change in maternity services There is something bigger going on than just staff shortages, low morale or lack of funding.

Hannah Barnes: We need a culture change in maternity services

There is something bigger going on than just staff shortages, low morale or lack of funding. @hannahsbee.bsky.social

Wes Streeting’s maternity revolution The Health Secretary has vowed to overhaul the NHS’s most scandalous service.

The Health Secretary has vowed to overhaul the NHS’s most scandalous service.

🖊️ @hannahsbee.bsky.social: Wes Streeting’s maternity revolution

The cover: Why George Osborne still runs Britain

By @willdunn.bsky.social ydunn

Also inside:
🔴 Kate Mossman meets Gordon Brown
🔴 @hannahsbee.bsky.social on birth trauma
🔴 @georgeeaton.bsky.social: How Labour learned to love immigration control
🔴 Tom Cruise's ego trip
🔴 The end of privacy

The assisted dying impact assessment resolves nothing The government’s review promises to address concerns about the bill – but only raises new ones.

Hannah Barnes: The assisted dying impact assessment resolves nothing

The government’s review promises to address concerns about the bill – but only raises new ones.

🖊️ @hannahsbee.bsky.social

The birth trauma taboo Theo Clarke’s book paints a damning picture of Britain’s failing maternity services. Change cannot come soon enough.

"Giving birth in England is not safe. Half of all maternity units are rated either inadequate or requiring improvement."

🖊️ @hannahsbee.bsky.social: The birth trauma taboo

Labour’s cynical shift on biological sex The party is attempting to rewrite history.

Essential reading from @hannahsbee.bsky.social

www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025...

Naz Shah: “The assisted dying bill is not fit for purpose” The Labour MP and scrutiny committee member on why she fears the consequences if end-of-life proposals become law.

NEW: Labour MP Naz Shah tells me: “The assisted dying bill is not fit for purpose”. Having been through the legislation line-by-line, Shah says it contains many ‘loopholes’, harms women, fails to provide a safety net & is weaker now than at Second Reading
www.newstatesman.com/politics/soc...

Escaping Eden For those who leave the Exclusive Brethren sect, separation comes at great personal cost.

So the Telegraph has a feature on the Exclusive Brethren which seems to borrow rather a lot from this (outstanding, in my view) New Statesman cover story by my amazing colleague Pippa Bailey.

If you fancy reading the original (and much better) source material...
www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2...

Andrew Marr: "National service, watch this space" The New Statesman | UK politics and culture · Episode

Me and the ever perspicacious Andrew Marr and @hannahsbee.bsky.social on the @newstatesman.com Politics podcast, discussing the resignation of NHS England CEO Amanda Pritchard, and what it tells us about the way out of the NHS crisis. From 16.00mins

open.spotify.com/episode/5hma...

Our overdiagnosis epidemic How a marked rise in the treatment of certain conditions – physical and mental – is harming, not protecting, public health.

Our overdiagnosis epidemic

“The line between mental disorder and normal diversity has become increasingly blurred.”

🖊️ @hannahsbee.bsky.social

Lovely piece by @hannahsbee.bsky.social on the value of female friends - that’s you @katrinamurraymp.bsky.social @anicerioja.bsky.social ❤️

An ode to female friendships From Elena Ferrante to Amandaland, the power of brilliant friends is rightly celebrated.

An ode to female friendships, by @hannahsbee.bsky.social

The horror of Hamas’s parade of hostage coffins The bodies of hostages taken on 7 October were returned to Israel in a disturbing spectacle.

“Any remaining doubts of the barbarity that underpins Hamas were dispelled by the events of 20 February.” Me on the horror of Hamas’s parade of hostage coffins for @newstatesman.com

www.newstatesman.com/comment/2025...

The Do No Harm dilemma What happens when a drug that can save lives could also ruin them?

The Do No Harm dilemma

What happens when a drug that can save lives could also ruin them?

By @hannahsbee.bsky.social

This week's cover: The new Gods of AI

China, the US and the battle to control the future. 🖊️ @brunomacaes.bsky.social

Inside:
🪖 Andrew Marr on defenceless Britain
🩺 @hannahsbee.bsky.social on healthcare’s risk problem
🍿 Tanya Gold on Bridget Jones’s empty feminism

Honoured to be among the great and good of political podcasting. Thanks so much!

"Each of the four main factions—Turkish-backed Sunni rebels in the north-west, Kurds in the north and east, Jordanian-backed rebels in the south, and the remaining loyalists from Mr Assad’s Alawite sect in the west—has its own army." www.economist.com/middle-east-...

The revenge of the middle-class, middle-aged women The response to Gregg Wallace’s comments marks a turning point.

The revenge of the middle-class, middle-aged women

The response to Gregg Wallace’s comments marks a turning point.

@hannahsbee.bsky.social on Gregg Wallace
www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024...

Of course! It was mistletoe and wine (comma [and obv Cliff Richard]), shaking’ Stevens…. A list as it were!

Keir Starmer is right: the "paranoid" civil service does need change Keir Starmer's former advisor, Peter Hyman, calls for dramatic Whitehall reform.

Making sense of the missions with @hannahsbee.bsky.social and me on the @newstatesman.com podcast: former Blair advisor Peter Hyman, who helped Keir Starmer come up with them and had some fascinating things to say about how Whitehall is(n’t) working

www.newstatesman.com/podcasts/pol...

The Scottish government is ignoring women’s rights A hearing at the Supreme Court exposed just how flawed its position on gender recognition is.

Haven't seen very much discussion here on last week's Supreme Court case brought by For Women Scotland but @hannahsbee.bsky.social gives a useful commentary in @newstatesman.com on the core arguments from the applicants and the Scottish Govt: www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024...

Kingmakers of the album charts How Banquet became the UK's most influential record store.

Kingmakers of the album charts

How Banquet became the UK's most influential record store.

By @hannahsbee.bsky.social

www.newstatesman.com/culture/musi...

Jason Cowley bowing out after 16 years as New Statesman editor Award-winning New Statesman editor-in-chief Jason Cowley has announced he will step down at the end of December after 16 years at the title.

Jason Cowley gave me my first role in print journalism in January. He’s afforded me enormous freedom and unstinting support, for which I’m forever grateful. Sixteen years ain’t a bad innings! pressgazette.co.uk/the-wire/med...

This week's cover: Combat Zone

How the Trump-Putin relationship will decide the Ukraine war

Also, David Lammy: Why Putin must fail for the international order to survive

Assisted dying advocates have much to learn from the legalisation of abortion The two proposals are taking a strikingly similar route through parliament.

My latest: Assisted dying advocates have much to learn from the legalisation of abortion
www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024...

Results out of the Guardian & Observer NUJ’s postal ballot on strike action on the proposed sale of the Observer to Tortoise & its impact on staff. 75% turnout, 92.8% in favour of strike action.

Why Gisèle Pelicot is a hero The horror of the mass rape trial in France has shaken the world.

Why Gisèle Pelicot is a hero

The horror of the mass rape trial in France has shaken the world.

By Hannah Barnes
www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024...

Everything is wrestling American public life is an extension of the nation’s most sordid sport.

American public life is an extension of the nation’s most sordid sport.

In light of Linda McMahon's appointment by Trump as education secretary:

www.newstatesman.com/the-weekend-...

Why Gisèle Pelicot is a hero The horror of the mass rape trial in France has shaken the world.

Gisele Pelicot tells a French court, "It felt like a death sentence." She thought she was ill; when she was actually being drugged by her ex-husband. "There'll forever be 51 people who have defiled me and I will have to live with this for the rest of my life". www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024...

‘Why is it unfair that some farmers - some farmers - will have to pay half the inheritance tax of everyone else?’

‘We’re making 0.5% return on producing this country’s food’

NFU President Tom Bradshaw on #Newsnight