July 2024

July 2024 issue

Election special: Why does UK politics appear so hopelessly inadequate for the challenges we face? Plus: Rachel Shabi on how the war in Gaza is reshaping Britain’s Jewish community and Sasha Mudd on the complexities of free speech

Past issues

Photography by Sara Morris

General Election 2024

Britain, the puerile polity

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are complicit in the farcical performance that debases every British election campaign. It is a mode of politics hopelessly inadequate for the challenges that we face—and the victor should break with it

Editor’s Picks

Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Is Labour ready?

Fractured minority

Illustration by Vincent Kilbride

Why I’m suing Facebook in US federal court

Ethan Zuckerman

Illustration by Harry Tennant

England, our England

Margaret Hodge’s diary: Goodbye to all that

Illustration by Michael Rea

Kara Swisher: Big tech companies will own the future

People

‘Wokeism’ after 7th October

The comic artist fighting to keep making art

David McAllister

The founders of Palestine Action on how to shut down a weapons factory

Image: Natalie Campbell

Natalie Campbell: Labour doesn’t promote black women

Columns

When Theresa May called a snap election in 2017, not everything panned out exactly as she had planned. Image: Malcolm Park / Alamy

Snap elections can expose a party’s problems

Margaret Hodge’s diary: Goodbye to all that

Echoes of Vietnam

Illustration by Vincent Kilbride

Why I’m suing Facebook in US federal court

Ethan Zuckerman

The University of Columbia. Ron Adar / Alamy Stock Photo

The philosophy of free speech is complicated—and that’s OK

Illustration by Andy Smith

In clubland, there’s nothing worse than being unclubbable

Karim Khan, Credit: YouTube

The ICC and the nature of legal power

Regulars

The Prospect Grid: July 2024

Letters: July 2024 edition

Illustration by Michael Rea

Kara Swisher: Big tech companies will own the future

Stephen Collins’s cartoon: Political football

The Generalist: July 2024

Features

Photography by Sara Morris

Britain, the puerile polity

What we aren’t talking about in this election

Credit: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Is Labour ready?

The six trip hazards that await Starmer

Fractured minority

Illustration by Gregori Saavedra

What British defence is for

Malcolm Chalmers

Crash course

Culture

Illustration by Harry Tennant

England, our England

Illustration by Harry Tennant

North stars

Illustration by Harry Tennant

Camera man

Illustration by Harry Tennant

Unmanaged decline

Christiana Spens

Illustration by Harry Tennant

The battle between England’s interwar architects

David McAllister

Truly wonderful: detail from Lucien Freud’s “Unripe Tangerine”. Image: Wilson Loan / © The Lucian Freud Archive. All Rights Reserved 2024 / Bridgeman Images

Still life, still going

Francesca Peacock

“The look of a video that a backpacker might send home to his family to update them on his long recovery from malaria.” Image: Substack

Cummings shots

Imogen West-Knights

Psychiatrist with a camera: Laurent Cantet diagnosed modern France’s anxieties. Image: Associated Press / Alamy

Class act

Image: Marc Brenner

Wherefore art thou?

From 1984 to 2024: A detail from the original ‘Smalltown Boy’ single. Image: Ralf Liebhold / Alamy

Bigtime resonance

© Chroma Collection - Alamy Stock Photo

Classical notes: Dial O for obsession

Lives

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Farming life: Why I shot my sheep

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Long life: I have been shocked to my core by Wandsworth prison

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Mindful life: Being locked out of NHS services hurt my mental health

Illustration of Tilly Lawless by Clara Nicoll

Sex life: Dating a younger woman

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Clerical life: The role of church rituals

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Young life: I can’t stop chasing the night

Illustration by Clara Nicoll

Sporting life: What my recent trip to the US taught me about cricket