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This Week's Magazine

From the Editor…

12 May 2008

sue-matthiasWelcome 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…

Features

Humanity's last rage

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

All along the watchtower

All along the watchtower

It was a year of horror and bad faith

Are you a 1968 sell-out?

Test yourself - are you still true to the spirit of 1968?

A boys' year

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

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

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

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

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

Released from Brixton clink

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"

Tactical Briefing

Tactical Briefing

From the Unit...

Culture of denial

Ministers say they will listen and learn. But the message they will hear won't offer them much cheer

Who's for a Gordon's?

All the gossip from the Westminster Village

Could Crewe go blue?

Could Crewe go blue?

The Tory candidate, a member of the Timpson stores family, knows it won't be a shoo-in

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?

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

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

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

Labour has the vision

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

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

Virtue's reward

Some viewers find Tarkovsky’s films boring, but those who persist are, by definition, better people.

Cultural revolution

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

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)

Love music, hate corporate sponsorship

Love music, hate corporate sponsorship

Aggressive security and commercialism undermined this festival's message
Love Music, Hate Racism
Victoria Park, London E3

It's just me, myself and I

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

When two stars collide

When two stars collide

The highbrow South Bank Show is as celebrity-driven as crummy reality TV

Master of the universe

Even a pop star obsessed by UFOs can turn out to be charming and witty

A cross to bear

Heterosexual men wearing women's clothes - our last taboo

Playing the tuber

Now is the time to get the best of "earthy" Jersey Royals

No strings attached

No strings attached

Why the notion of the faithful party voter is a thing of the past

Playtime all over again

Kids needed to be protected from evil video games - then Wii came along

Accidental tourist

Accidental tourist

Rob Blackhurst books a family break at a Portuguese resort - and finds himself babysitting in Praia da Luz

Golden balls

And the award goes to . . . Hunter Davies chooses his best in show for this season

Books

Lights! Camera! Fiction!

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

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

Cast the first Stone

Cast the first Stone

Sway
Zachary Lazar
Jonathan Cape, 272pp, £11.99

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

What Boris did next

Observations on the Mayor of London - how long can he keep up this serious facade?

Free to be poisoned

Free to be poisoned

Observations on trade

Moodometer

We test the temperature of the nation this week

Unfriendly persuasion

Unfriendly persuasion

Observations on abortion

Power to the people

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

Read the letters

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