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I’m a London based journalist working for The New World magazine with bylines in The Financial Times, The Times, The Mirror, and Private Eye. I have also appeared on BBC Radio 4 and LBC. I received the 2025 National SPA Award for Best Comment Piece, for an article about assisted dying. I achieved the Gold Standard NCTJ from News Associates.

Contact me at lucyreade@thenewworld.co.uk

Below are some of my favourite articles

The New World •

Porn, drugs, self-harm, eating disorders: What young teens can see on TikTok

Our investigators created a profile on TikTok for a 13-year-old girl in the UK, named “Emily”, and then spent 127 minutes – the exact average time it is estimated British children spend per day on TikTok – exploring the content that was freely available to her. A New World investigation has revealed just how easy it is for young teens to access disturbing content relating to sex, pornography, drugs, eating disorders, self-harm and misogyny on TikTok – the most frequented social media platform in...
The New World •

Theydon Bois and the fight against the young

The village of Theydon Bois, in Essex, is currently in uproar. Proposals to build 150 new homes on a stretch of green belt land beside its tube station have drawn fierce opposition from the local MP, councillors, and multiple residents’ groups.In a town of fewer than 4,000 people, a row is unfolding that tells you almost everything you need to know about modern Britain: the increasingly bitter stand-off between NIMBYs and YIMBYs.That backlash has, in turn, provoked its own online argument. Self-...
The New World •

How Gen Z fell for Andy Burnham

No, dear reader, your drink has not been spiked. The paragraph above is merely a reflection of the way Gen Z has swung behind the new Makerfield MP and wannabe next British PM.We are often dismissed as a politically apathetic generation, supposedly more interested in refreshing our social media feeds than casting a vote. But that misses the fact that modern politics increasingly lives in those feeds. Political engagement and online culture are no longer separate activities; for many young people...
The New World •

Brexit: a burden carried by the young

I was 12 when Britain voted to leave the EU. An unusually news-obsessed child, I was already paying close attention to politics, but even if I hadn’t been, it would have been impossible to ignore. Brexit felt like the biggest political event any of us had ever witnessed, shortly to be overhauled by Donald Trump’s election a few months later.According to the Office for National Statistics, around six million Brits were born between 1999 and 2005. These six million people have spent their entire t...
The New World •

The death of the after-school job

You’ll no doubt then be regaled with how they used to sweep up hair in a barbers, or folded t-shirts at Debenhams, or collected glasses down the local boozer, and probably got paid pennies for doing it (which, as they love to remind us, was enough to buy a pint or two back then).A tip for anyone under 30: if you ever find yourself stuck in a conversation with a middle aged person where you cannot think of anything to say – ask them what their first Saturday job was.But, with the recent news that...
The New World •

Tommy Robinson’s pointless, confused, US-funded march

This time around, his reason for gathering thousands of his supporters from across the country into London was much less clear. This rally, he said, was to “unite the Kingdom” or “unite the west”. It soon became obvious that different people in attendance had very different ideas about what that actually meant.When former tanning salon owner Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – better known as “Tommy Robinson” – last gathered his supporters in London, his march had a clear ostensible purpose. Robinson was ho...
The New World •

Britain’s new class-based divide is here – and it starts with the children

It happened in small, reasonable concessions. Teachers would tell students to take a photo of the homework written on the board. Or remind them to message absent classmates to check in. And then, the shining reward at the end of the lesson: a Kahoot (a quiz that students play online). All educational, yes, but it subtly normalised the idea of having your phone out in class. I started secondary school in 2015, and for my first few years phones were effectively contraband. If you were caught with...
The New World •

Why are Gen Z so ready to forgive Kanye West?

The easiest way to test whether “cancel culture” actually exists is not to look at who gets cancelled, but at who doesn’t.In my experience, two names tend to come up again and again.

The first is Michael Jackson. For years now, a certain kind of mental gymnastics has taken place around him — Gen Z’s professed commitment to hardline moral stances has, in theory, made it impossible to separate art from artist. But people really don’t want to let go of Michael Jackson, so instead, many simply side...
The New World •

OnlyFans and the new sexual arms race

The owner of OnlyFans, Leonid Radvinsky, passed away on March 20 aged 43 after a battle with cancer. His estimated net worth was $4.7 billion, having bought the company from its British founders in 2018.Even the most chronically online among us probably didn’t know his name until his death was announced, but the company he owned has unarguably changed pornography, the internet, and possibly even society.What began as a platform geared towards subscription content quickly became the dominant forc...
The New World •

The risks Labour must take to beat Farage

It is 200 pages long and is a message not to his Lib Dem successor David Laws, but to his own Labour Party: that the mainstream political system has stopped delivering for the people it once promised to serve, and that populists are capitalising on their righteous anger.It is nearly 16 years since Liam Byrne left a now infamous note reading “Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid there is no money” in a drawer at the Treasury. Now he realises what the note should have said. When we speak over the phon...
The New World •

The dream is no longer to be boss – it’s to be the intern

Recent Office for National Statistics figures show that while the core rate of unemployment is 5.2%, for 16- to 24-year-olds it’s 16.1% – which comes as no surprise to any of us.I once watched Fight Club with a friend who was bewildered by the idea that, in the 1990s, the idea of having a job where you worked in a cubicle was something terrible. This is how bleak the current jobs market is for graduates. We’ve all seen the countless testimonials about how nowadays you’re lucky even to get a reje...
The New World •

Stop blaming women for Britain’s falling birth rate

Recently unearthed footage from November 2024 shows Goodwin mansplaining about where women are going wrong. “Many women in Britain are having children much too late in life,” he said, adding, “we need to also explain to young girls and women the biological reality of this crisis.”In a turn of events that has surprised absolutely no one, the Reform candidate for Gorton and Denton, Matt Goodwin, has managed to offend people.This patronising guff has sparked a considerable backlash. Natalie Fleet,...
The New World •

The New World’s cream of arts and culture in 2025

As Tony Blair made mention in 1998 (the year Oasis released compilation album The Masterplan) this is not a time for soundbites. But Wembley wasn’t shaking that night; it was beating like a heart. Noel, accountant-poet, tallying anthems as if they were balance-sheet miracles. Liam with a fucking tambourine on his head somehow the most serious man in the stadium.

Two hours of time travel, back to when Britain really was something to behold; beach-ball buoyant, bouncing, fabulous. The guy in fron...
North West Londoner •

How new licensing reforms could transform Soho’s nightlife

Soho has long been the centre of London’s nightlife, but Westminster Council’s strict licensing laws mean that many of its bars and clubs have struggled in recent years. 


Much of Soho sits inside the West End Cumulative Impact Zone, where new late-night licences face a presumption to be refused unless venues can prove exceptional circumstances, and further bureaucracy poses even more challenges. 


High costs, constant applications and uncertainty for businesses, make it harder for pubs, bar...
South West Londoner •

Football hooliganism in London has not returned to pre-pandemic levels

Since fans returned to stadiums following the pandemic, football-related disorder in London has escalated and remains above pre-2020 levels, according to data from the Home Office.


The number of banning orders and arrests have risen sharply across the capital, particularly at the largest clubs, with West Ham topping the table for both.


Since the last full pre-pandemic season in 2019, banning orders for London clubs have more than doubled, from 227 total banning orders across London clubs i...
The New World •

How AI turned Gen Z into narcissists

We all know the stats: 80% of Gen Z workers use AI to complete daily tasks; 90% of university students have used it; a third feel dependent on it to complete daily tasks. And then there’s the four in 10 bosses saying it will allow them to cut jobs.

Perhaps even more depressing is that people are falling in love with their chatbots. 

In 2025 we have been inundated by heartbreaking stories of teenagers and young adults who have taken their own lives after being allegedly encouraged by AI. Some h...
South East Londoner •

“We’re Tired”: South London Rescue Speaks Out over Bias Against Black Cats

A South London animal rescue has spoken out in frustration after a surge of adopters rejecting cats on the basis of their coat colour. A Facebook post by The Stray Cat Club, based in Croydon, voicing anger at the continued unpopularity of its black and black-and-white cats, has since gone viral, attracting thousands of reactions and shares. The post read: “Please don’t apply to adopt from us if you’re not open to black or black & white cats! This week alone, nine people turned down cats who woul...
South West Londoner •

J. M. W. Turner’s south-west London childhood home honoured with blue plaque on painter’s 250th anniversary

A Brentford pub where the landscape artist J. M. W. Turner once lived and received his first commission has been honoured with a blue plaque, unveiled 250 years after his birth.


The Weir Pub has received a boost in visitors after their unveiling ceremony on 4 September, which was attended by guests including the Mayor of Brentford.


Turner, who features on the £20 note and is considered one of Britain’s most influential painters, lived and worked across the Thames valley in South West Londo...
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