How can thousands of people not realise an artwork is the wrong way round? That is perhaps the most obvious question to arise from the story that a masterpiece by the Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian has been hanging upside down for 75 years. The mistake was revealed by Susanne Meyer-Büser, a curator who realised during research for an exhibition that something was wrong with the piece, titled New York City I. “Once I pointed it out to the other curators, we realised it was very obvious. I am 100 per cent certain the picture is the wrong way around,” she told the Guardian. Before the sniggering at clueless art-lovers begins, it’s worth pointing out that it was an easy mistake to ...

Let us start with a confession: I have a blue tick on Twitter (actually the verified badge is a white tick on a blue background, but still). I have, in fact, had a blue tick for more than a decade. I have forgotten what it is like to live without one. So far as I can recall, I didn’t get verified by a journalistic outlet I worked for, or for any fame I had. Someone had been impersonating me on Twitter. My real handle is @jamesrbuk; they used @jamesbruk and an identical picture and bio, and then sent abusive messages to my friends. After suspending the impostor Twitter offered me the hallowed tick. This is, in fact, the purpose for which the ...

As I boarded the train to the New Statesman office this morning I made sure to reserve a seat for Spitty, my Mozambique spitting cobra. He’s a beloved member of the family and I take him everywhere because it is my right to do so. Sadly my fellow passengers reacted to the presence of a three-foot long venomous snake with ignorance and, it has to be said, prejudice, backing away from Spitty in horror. “Don’t judge him on appearances!” I pleaded, as Spitty reared up, seeking a pair of human eyes to hose with his burning venom. “He’s just being friendly!” Many readers will have experienced a similar situation, although perhaps with a different – and much more dangerous – animal: ...

Confusion abounds in Poole. The Conservative MP for the area, Sir Robert Syms, has revealed that his constituents are “perplexed” as to why asylum seekers might cross the Channel to the UK in unsafe boats when they are themselves happy to go on holiday to France. It is somewhat surprising that Tories, of all people, would be shocked that someone would choose Britain over France, and it shows how the debate around cross-Channel migrants has been taken over by soundbites. The question of why those seeking asylum bypass safe countries is rather a red herring. Although EU and UK domestic law makes some provision for migrants to be returned to the first “safe” country they entered in certain circumstances, international law ...

Social media exploded last week at the news of Andrew Tate’s conversion to Islam. I guess I must at this point issue a disclaimer. I am a Muslim and a feminist. My first reaction to seeing Tate praying alongside his long-time friend Tam Khan was to write a blog post about why I was concerned about Tate’s conversion. I asked that Tate disown his widely shared views on women having to bear responsibility for being raped, how women shouldn't drive, and on preferring to date teenagers aged 18-19 so that he can “make an imprint” on them. He has also talked about hitting, choking, destroying women's personal possessions and generally degrading them by using language like “hoe”. And yet, all this was overlooked by his new Muslim brothers, who ...

Here’s a question: what do Conservatives have against north London? I ask because, frankly, they seem obsessed. At Prime Minister's Questions this week, Keir Starmer asked about comments Rishi Sunak made during the summer Tory leadership contest, when he boasted about “changing funding formulas” to funnel money intended for “deprived urban areas” to places such as affluent Tunbridge Wells in Kent. (The New Statesman’s own Rachel Wearmouth got the scoop.) Sunak’s response was that Starmer doesn’t understand that there are deprived areas all over the country because he “rarely leaves north London”. The fact that this line got a rousing cheer from the Tory back benches, as though nationwide poverty were something to be proud of after 12 years in power, is ...

Rishi Sunak’s first days in office will remind all teachers of the start of a new school term. Everything is still neat and tidy, the people you work with (both grown-ups and juveniles) are refreshed and eager to please, and the agenda is yours to set. In Sunak’s case, he has put education front and centre, saying that education is the “silver bullet in public policy” that will put Britain on the path to prosperity over the summer. But just like the naive teacher at the front of the weary class, the new PM’s claims will ring hollow. After more than a decade of broken Tory promises and six education secretaries in 14 months, staff, students and parents are in ...

So far our new Prime Minister has given two “I am now your leader” speeches. In the second, on the steps of No 10 Downing Street yesterday (25 October), Rishi Sunak looked out at the press gathered under a grey sky and promised to fix mistakes and come good on the Conservatives' 2019 manifesto pledges. It was an address that could have been given by any Tory politician taking pains to sound sensible following the shambolic tenure of their predecessor, Liz Truss.    The previous day, however, a fairly robotic-sounding Sunak gave an address that only a politician of a certain background might give. His victory fresh in the headlines, Sunak declared: “It is the greatest privilege of my life to be able to ...