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From the Editor…
12 May 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…
- Released from Brixton clink By Peter Wayne
- The French revolution By Paul Johnson
- Tony Benn: 1968 and me By Sholto Byrnes
Features
Humanity's last rage
Was it a great beginning . . . or just the final great street festival before the darkness closed in? Peter Wilby wonders whether the year changed everything - or nothing at all
A boys' year
It was men who led the demos. We weren't aware of what would soon be called women's liberation, writes Anna Coote. But then we caught the mood . . .
The French revolution
In May '68, Paul Johnson, the then editor of the New Statesman, extolled Parisian student power in an impassioned article, abridged here, entitled "The new spectre haunting Europe"
Signs of the times
An exhibition of posters and photographs from the Paris rebellion is irresistible, but tricky out of context
Tony Benn: 1968 and me
So, where was the Labour Party in the year of revolution and street protests? The great conscience of the left recalls a time when even he was considered a "fascist"
Eric Hobsbawm on 1968
The Marxist historian casts his eyes back 40 years
Regulars
New Statesman Leader
If Labour fails to act on its beliefs now, then when will it?
Brown will not win the hearts of the people until he combines his competence with a clear moral vision
Diary
Released from Brixton clink
"Out already Peter?" came the decidedly resentful tones of Detective Sergeant "Sniffer" of West End Central Crime Squad. "If you wouldn't mind showing me what's in your bag"
Politics
Culture of denial
Ministers say they will listen and learn. But the message they will hear won't offer them much cheer
The Other Side
Could Crewe go blue?
The Tory candidate, a member of the Timpson stores family, knows it won't be a shoo-in
Media
They won, but they're not rejoicing
Right-wing commentators greeted Tory election success with doubt and anxiety. Isn't this is the outcome they were hoping for?
Despatches
Destroying the best of Britain
Watching Durham miners, defeated but unbowed by hunger and debt, march back to the pit in 1985, led by their women, was a glimpse of Britain at its best
Undercurrents
Angry Anna shows us how to age
While the older generation bears the brunt of pernicious ageism, a fear of being considered old infects society as a whole
From our archive
The Crouch End Commune
In 1968 one of the most prominent protests in the UK was at the Hornsey College of Art...
Shazia's week
My audience in Liverpool bawled about Boris. Give me Bollywood bowling instead - any day
Politics
Labour has the vision
After a grim election night, we must contrast our vision with the absence of any new vision from the Tories, argues the work secretary. Plus Martin Bright gives his verdict on 1 May 2008
Arts & Culture
Enter the dragon
Choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and sculptor Antony Gormley were drawn to the legendary Shaolin monastery. The reality they uncovered was not what they'd expected
Virtue's reward
Some viewers find Tarkovsky’s films boring, but those who persist are, by definition, better people.
Cultural revolution
The Chávez government attracts attention for its social and political programmes, yet its effect on Venezuela’s art scene has been just as striking.
The way I see it
Bernhard is an American comedian, actress and singer. She will perform a reprise of her 1988 stand-up show “Without You I’m Nothing” at Manchester Opera House on 9 May in the Queer Up North Festival (http://www.queerupnorth.com)
Performance
Love music, hate corporate sponsorship
Aggressive security and commercialism undermined this festival's message
Love Music, Hate Racism
Victoria Park, London E3
Film
It's just me, myself and I
Morgan Spurlock's documentary is a masterclass in vain, glib navel-gazing
Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? (12A)dir: Morgan Spurlock
Television
When two stars collide
The highbrow South Bank Show is as celebrity-driven as crummy reality TV
Reboot
Playtime all over again
Kids needed to be protected from evil video games - then Wii came along
Travels
Accidental tourist
Rob Blackhurst books a family break at a Portuguese resort - and finds himself babysitting in Praia da Luz
Sport
Golden balls
And the award goes to . . . Hunter Davies chooses his best in show for this season
Books
Lights! Camera! Fiction!
A hundred years ago the job of screenwriter didn't exist in the early film business; today the script is the keystone of all movie production. The Hollywood screenwriter and director Chris Weitz reviews a history of the trade
Old Spanish practices
Imagining Spain: Historical Myth and National Identity
Henry Kamen
Yale University Press, 240pp, £25
Rich and strange
Walter Rothschild: the Man, the Museum and the Menagerie
Miriam Rothschild
Natural History Museum, 432pp, £9.99
Paragons of bad faith
A Dangerous Liaison
Carole Seymour-Jones Century, 392pp, £20
Rock’n’roll heroines
Girls Like Us
Sheila Weller Ebury Press, 592pp, £18.99
Victorian voyages
A Corkscrew Is Most Useful
Nicholas Murray Little, Brown, 544p, £25
After the sugar rush
Rum: a Social and Sociable History
Ian Williams Nation Books, 340pp, £9.99
Observations
What Boris did next
Observations on the Mayor of London - how long can he keep up this serious facade?
Power to the people
South Korea has just held its first jury trial,Japan is planning to reinstate juries next year, Russia is experimenting and even China is toying with the idea. And in Britain?
Letters to the Editor
New Statesman readers give their views - see what they said and find out how to contribute yourself by going to our letters pages
