October 2026 issue
Andy Burnham has promised to take on “unaccountable power” and the “Whitehall machine” as he pursues greater devolution. But, asks Phil Tinline, does he really understand the forces he seeks to confront, and what it will take to dismantle them?
Past issues
Illustration by Gregori Saavedra
Andy Burnham
Andy Burnham’s great power struggle
The prime minister has a theory of power, its abuses and imbalances. But there is a major gap in his analysis
Phil Tinline
Editor’s Picks
Illustration by David McAllister / Prospect
The real cost of net zero
Ellen Halliday
Image: Shutterstock
How Israel lost America
Mark Damazer
Illustration by Marianna Gefen
How to build a life in Afghanistan
Neggeen Sadid
Image: Chloe Ellingson
Carlo Rovelli’s romantic pragmatism
Peter Hoskin
“Here sits throned Harold, king of the English.” Though, as the Bayeux Tapestry goes on to relate, his reign didn’t exactly end happily. Image: La Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie / Antoine Cazin
Who needs the Bayeux Tapestry, anyway?
Francesca Peacock
Melissa Harrison’s diary: witnessing a summer of drought
Melissa Harrison
Regulars
Illustration by David McAllister / Prospect. Source: Alamy
Editorial: The high cost of living—like this
Letters: October 2026
Stephen Collins’s cartoon: AI (knight) slop
Stephen Collins
Argument
Image: Alamy
Andy Burnham, phone alert prime minister
Ben Ansell
Zendaya, as Athena, accompanies Matt Damon’s Odysseus. Credit: Syncopy Production / Universal Pictures / Album / Alamy
The Odyssey’s moral maze
Sasha Mudd
Illustration by Vincent Kilbride
Should Trump create an AI sovereign wealth fund?
Ethan Zuckerman
Image: Alamy/Prospect
Embedded with Burnham: As Britain burns...
Henry Morris
Melissa Harrison’s diary: witnessing a summer of drought
Melissa Harrison
Features
Illustration by Gregori Saavedra
Andy Burnham’s great power struggle
Phil Tinline
Illustration by Marianna Gefen
How to build a life in Afghanistan
Neggeen Sadid
The sun contains 99.86 per cent of the mass of the entire solar system. Credit: NASA GSFC Solar Dynamics Observatory
Have scientists found the secret to eternal power?
Isabel Hilton
Illustration by David McAllister / Prospect
The real cost of net zero
Ellen Halliday
Image: Shutterstock
How Israel lost America
Mark Damazer
People
Image: Chloe Ellingson
Carlo Rovelli’s romantic pragmatism
Peter Hoskin
Image: Tanya Marcuse
Claudia Rankine: White supremacy has overrun America
Franklin Nelson
Image: Alamy
Sebastian Faulks: ‘Britain has made terrible errors’
Ellie Jay
Image: Alamy
A lawyer’s lonely fight for democracy inside Hong Kong
Frankie Vetch
The Culture
Illustration by David McAllister / Prospect. Source: Alamy
This is the new world order
Jana Bakunina
Image: Alamy
We need to talk about Lucy Letby
Kate Clanchy
Illustration by Prospect. Source: Alamy
Pay attention to something else
Heather Brooke
Books in Brief: what to read this September
“Here sits throned Harold, king of the English.” Though, as the Bayeux Tapestry goes on to relate, his reign didn’t exactly end happily. Image: La Fabrique de patrimoines en Normandie / Antoine Cazin
Who needs the Bayeux Tapestry, anyway?
Francesca Peacock
Light years ahead: Sean Kaufman in Apple’s “For All Mankind”. Image: Apple
Apple’s big bang
Imogen West-Knights
In praise of eccentrics
Sukhdev Sandhu
From the ashes: Coventry Cathedral in 1940. Britten composed his War Requiem for the reopening of the cathedral in 1962. Image: Alamy
Classical notes: War aims
Ian Bostridge
Lives
Illustration by Clara Nicholl
Second life: What happened to Jason Arday was a soviet-style tragedy
Vitali Vitaliev
Illustration of Tilly Lawless by Clara Nicoll
Sex life: Working in parlours taught me how to handle rejection
Tilly Lawless
Illustration by Clara Nicoll
Clerical life: Call me by my name
Alice Goodman
Illustration by Clara Nicoll
Mindful life: Why you should embrace a beginner’s mindset
Sarah Collins
Illustration by Clara Nicoll
Long life: The natural world unites us
Sheila Hancock
Illustration by Clara Nicoll
Young life: The art of ‘friction-maxxing’
Alice Garnett
Rural life: I am eternally grateful to my alcoholic father
Kiran Sidhu
The man behind the scalpel: Gunther von Hagens. Image: Sion Touhig / Getty Images
Obituary: Gunther von Hagens
Subhadra Das
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