The New Statesman was an award-winning British sitcom of the late 1980s and early 1990s satirising the Conservative government of the time. It was written by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran at the request of, and as a starring vehicle for, its principal actor, Rik Mayall. Many people consider the show a hybrid of Yes Minister and another Rik Mayall sitcom, The Young Ones.

The show's theme tune is an arrangement by Alan Hawkshaw of part of the Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky.

The programme was made by the ITV franchise Yorkshire Television between 1987 and 1992, although the BBC made two special episodes; one in 1989, the other in 1994.

The New Statesman is a British left-wing political magazine published weekly in London. The most recent editor was John Kampfner until his sudden resignation on February 13, 2008. The magazine is committed to "development, human rights and the environment, global issues the mainstream press often ignores".

In the issue dated 29 May 2006, editor John Kampfner stated that the New Statesman remained "true to its heritage of radical politics".

The magazine is sometimes affectionately referred to as 'The Staggers'.

Tells the adventures of Conservative MP Alan B'Stard, a man who doesn't have any morals at all. He stops at nothing to make himself richer and more powerful in the party and is involved in drugs, adult films, fraud (making up charities with the initials C.A.S.H when writing on cheques) and even murder but believes that he will never be caught as he is a Conservative MP and therefore all powerful. He has almost complete power over another MP - Piers Fletcher-Dervish who is nearly completely brainless. His wife Sarah B'Stard has very loose morals (both of them have affairs mostly every day) and has hated her husband from five minutes after they got married and tries to use Alan to get anything she wants. Each episode contains recent news items and Alan moves with the times with things like the end of the cold war, the Nazi hunt in the late 80's as well as the Animal Freedom Party. Keeping up with the huge amount of cash, Alan moves (in the 4th season) to the European Union to continue to make herself richer and to climb to the most powerful position he can reach... Written by Lee Horton