At the party to celebrate our 100th edition, held in July 2018 on the rather grand terrace of the National Liberal Club overlooking the Thames, our dear late friend Bonnie Greer spoke about what was special about this curious title we had created together.
“Ideas,” she said, “do not carry passports.”
In five words she articulated, better than I ever could, the spirit of what drives the magazine you’re reading in the week of its 500th edition.
When your editor Steve Anglesey and I walked together on the morning of the Brexit referendum result and between us came up with the idea of a new national newspaper “for the 48%”, I don’t think (by which I mean, I know for a fact) that either of us considered we’d be here 10 years later.
The only reason we are, dear reader, is you.
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Why is Farage so keen to protect Russia’s right to lie and cheat?
The New World depends on you utterly. Our business model is you. We are not here because a politically motivated proprietor willed us into being. Nor because we have a billion-pound trust fund. We don’t depend on (or suck up to) advertisers or algorithms.
We’re here because every single week – for 500 weeks now – you dig into your pockets and keep us alive.
So before I forget, let me say this unequivocally: thank you.
You paid for a writer to stay on an investigation. You paid for a lawyer to say “publish”. You paid for a voice in the national argument that doesn’t need anyone’s permission to speak. A subscription to a paper like this isn’t consumption. It’s participation. You’ve given us a most valuable gift. One that many boast of, yet few truly possess: independence.
To The New World, independence isn’t a vibe or a marketing slogan. It’s the entire basis of our business model.
The independence you grant us is what gives us permission to scrutinise, fearlessly, those whose powerful networks and financial clout otherwise shield them.
It’s the reason we can hold other, much more powerful, media organisations to account – from Alan Rusbridger’s brilliant investigation into GB News to James Ball’s scrutiny of the Daily Mail last week. It’s why Michelle Mone and Boris Johnson threatened to sue us. It’s why we can run brilliant and completely opposed arguments on the most contested topics of our times from one edition to the next: Gaza, trans rights, AI, the rise of China, the crisis of democracy.
Of course, there are limits to what a magazine can do. When Alastair Campbell phoned me after the first edition of The New European hit the streets to ask “What the hell are you guys up to?”, my answer – “We’re trying to stop Brexit” – may have been a tad hubristic.
We didn’t stop Brexit. But together we kept the argument alive, even when it was deeply unfashionable. It has, you will have noticed, since become all the rage to point out what a disaster Brexit has been for this nation.
In that decade, the UK has been on quite the journey. So have we. What started as a singular howl of protest about one vote has grown in breadth. We changed our name from The New European (and yes, I know many of you still miss it. So do I!) to The New World, in recognition that the values hadn’t changed but the canvas had grown.
It will keep growing. With the first 500 issues under our belt, we look forward to the next 500. Building on what we’ve achieved. Shaping arguments. Tweaking noses. Punching up. Making mischief.
My pledge to you for the next 500 is this: we will continue to be an unsafe space for argument; we will never resile from our belief that the UK’s future lies at the heart of Europe; and we will stand against the rising tide of populism in our politics and our media. We will carry on irritating all the right people.
Bonnie was, as usual, right. Ideas do not carry passports. But they do need somewhere to live. That’s what The New World is.
See you at 1,000.
