Who Are We Now: Stories of Modern England

Jason Cowley, editor-in-chief of the New Statesman, will examine contemporary England through a handful of the key news stories to reveal what they tell us about the state of the nation and to answer the question Who Are We Now?

Spanning the years since the election of Tony Blair’s New Labour government to the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, Cowley will investigate how England has changed and how those changes have affected us. Cowley will weave together disparate stories of the Chinese cockle-pickers who drowned in Morecambe Bay, the East End Imam who was tested during a summer of terror, the pensioner who campaigned against the closure of her GP’s surgery and Gareth Southgate’s transformation of English football culture.

Through these vivid stories Cowley will offer a clear and compassionate analysis of how and why England became so divided and the United Kingdom so fragmented.