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From the Editor…
6 October 2008
Welcome to the New Statesman website. Whether you are a new reader or an existing one - online or via the magazine - I hope you'll enjoy the great writing, fresh ideas and provocative debate that make the New Statesman Britain's award-winning current affairs weekly
From this week, here is a selection of my favourites…
- 'Muted optimism' is the theme By Tara Hamilton-Miller
- Israel's illegal outpost By Jonathan Cook
- Democracy, but not yet By Lindsey Hilsum
Cover story
The perils of regicide
Five prime ministers in modern times have faced leadership challenges. But Gordon Brown's enemies should take note: regicide is no way to win an election
Features
Waiting for David
Who was the kung fu panda? What's a pillow menu? These were the questions keeping Tories awake at conference. And then, finally, the "big guy" appeared
Weather makers
As storms break around Gordon Brown and David Cameron, politics is being shaped not by the party leaders, but by a complex network of super-powerful press and media players
Strictly, but nicely
Everything about Strictly is good. Here is a programme featuring an element of reality - stars not only playing themselves, but actually doing something
The pay packet crunch
Robert Reich, labour secretary in Clinton's administration and world-renowned economist, explains why the American economy is grinding to a halt
It was a failure of regulation
The evidence from history is clear. Weakly controlled banking systems tend to have a high proportion of bad loans and thus to collapse
Interview: Peter Mandelson
Just before being reappointed to the Cabinet Peter Mandelson, one of the key architects of New Labour, talked to the New Statesman. Read our exclusive in which he talks about the challenges faced by the party and how it mustn't return to the left/right warfare of the past which left them languishing in opposition
Essay
Crisis, what crisis?
It is nearly 30 years since Jim Callaghan spoke of a sea change in British politics. We are at a similar moment of transition. The question is, has Labour learned a lesson?
Regulars
New Statesman Leader
Labour is given the opportunity to show what it stands for
The global economic crisis has made us all more aware of the state’s weakness in the face of “supercapitalism”
Diary
Fighting on to the end
With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end - a message for Gordon Brown to give the troops?
Politics
No credible alternative
The Conservatives were supposed to be preparing for power in Birmingham. They were scuppered by events and their inexperience was exposed - Labour's civil war still looms
Tactical Briefing
From: The Unit
To: GB
Subject: The world remade
A sepia-tinged crisis
As the bailout drama lurches on, America is looking back nostalgically to the days of FDR and Eisenhower, when Wall Street still invested in real things
Village Life
Cameron's champage ban
I overheard a City grandee complaining that the names of the hedge-fund boys bankrolling the leader's office had been leaked - all the gossip from Tory conference
Media
The market delivers bad news
If Grade's shareholders had their way, ITV would probably broadcast no regional news programmes at all
This England
Each printed entry will receive
a £5 book token. Entries on a POSTCARD, please, to This England, NS, address here http://www.newstatesman.com/nscontactus.htm
Object of the exercise No 4046
We asked for the facts of life as explained by a historical person of your choice, real or fictional
Arts & Culture
Rothko retrospective
Mark Rothko's paintings are spaces within which we can contemplate the stillness at the core of who we are - a space to daydream
A life in pictures
David Thomson's books will tell you more about film than anyone else's, yet the term "critic" can't contain his love for the medium. Antonia Quirke meets her hero
Performance
There's more to life than comedy
The ghost of Hamlet haunts this winning revival of Chekhov's overlooked first play
Ivanov
Donmar West End, London WC2
Film
Once in a lifetime
A child's unearthly performance is at the heart of this brilliant directorial effort
The Fall (15)
dir: Tarsem
Television
What does it mean to be free?
The life of America's elusive Founding Father provides a compelling narrative
John Adams More4
Radio
Once upon a time in the Midlands
At times, Julie Walters's memoir sounds like a prayer to her loved ones
Travels
Conditions of carriage
Trains are the "mode of the moment". But where's the romance in today's railway journey?
Books
Never criticise the family
Zionism is one of the most contentious ideas, freighted with emotion by both partisans and detractors. Now some Jews are speaking out, breaking a long self-censorship
Mother of invention
Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles
Richard Dowden
Portobello Books, 576pp, £25
Organic intellectual
Liver: a Fictional Organ with a Surface Anatomy of Four Lobes
Will Self
Viking, 277pp, £18.99
Letters to the Editor
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