Best of British Longform: Newcastle, Nazis, and No-Holds-Barred Politics

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A Nervous Breakdown In The Body Politic

Rowan Williams, New Statesman, 1 May

Nazi analogies tend to drag arguments down, but this chilling response to the rise of the Far Right is as well-reasoned as you’d expect from a former inhabitant of Lambeth Palace. As Trump assumes the Republican nomination, Williams reminds us to heed history.

‘It’s ugly and dangerous’: the inside story of the battle to be London mayor

Simon Hattenstone, Guardian, 30 April

Sadiq Khan has seen off Zac Goldsmith in the battle for London mayor, but his landslide follows a battle that saw smear campaigns, personal attacks, and accusations of racism. As the dust settles, Simon Hattenstone picks apart one of the dirtiest fights British politics has ever seen.

That sinking feeling

Sam Parker, Esquire, 2 May

Leicester’s fairytale march to the top of the Premier League comes two decades after another gang of outsiders came achingly close. In his Peter Beardsley shirt, a 10-year-old Sam Parker’s heart broke when Newcastle slumped at the last. Twenty years on, he’s finally ready to talk about it.

How Craig Venter Is Fighting Ageing With Genomic Sequencing

Kathryn Nave, Wired, 3 May

Fighting Father Time is the holy grail for health researchers. The man who sequenced the first human genome — his own — thinks he may have the answer. And it lies within our DNA. Kathryn Nave dives deep into genomics to find out if the secret to never ageing has been inside us all along.

The struggle for the soul of Milton Keynes

Patrick Barkham, Guardian, 3 May

Milton Keynes has been a punchline for almost half a century, synonymous with the soulless new towns Britain has long deemed inferior to organic sprawl. But as Barkham shows, its design was far more nuanced than the endless roundabouts suggest. Which is why as its legacy gets reevaluated, developers are suddenly interested. And this soulless town, surprisingly full of soul, could be about to change forever.