Guido often teases the intern-exploiting, chauvinist vanity project that is the New Statesman. Is this constructive criticism warranted? Let us see how the Staggers’ money-making – or more accurately losing – capabilities compare to their great rivals at the Spectator.

The Speccie’s average paid weekly circulation last year was 56,635. Annualised that makes roughly 2,945,000 copies sold. Their last available accounts show a profit of £448,000, no mean feat in the age of the dying dead tree press. A quick calculation tells us that the Speccie makes some 15p profit on each copy sold.

So what about the Staggers? Their average paid circulation last year was, the editor claimed to the Press Gazette, 20,000, though some say the actual number is in the mid-to-high teens. Being generous we can say that around 1,000,000 copies were sold in the last year. Their latest accounts show huge losses of £1,408,000. The New Statesman therefore loses some £1.35 on every copy of the magazine sold. 

Without Mike Danson’s millions, loaned to the Staggers interest free and with no repayment date, or real likelihood of repayment, the Staggers would be no more. It is a money-hemorrhaging left-wing, vanity project…