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13 November 1998

From the Editor…

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

Cover story

Why gays become politicians

Pitt the Younger, Tom Driberg, possibly even Disraeli: Simon Heffer explains why homosexuality and a political career have long been natural bedfellows

Features

The perils of a sound-bite health policy

Whatever ministers say, smaller waiting lists do not make a better NHS, argues Neil Pettinger

He's an awful gossip, I'm a historian

Katie Grantthinks that Ron Davies' descendants will be delighted he got his name in the papers

Shock: King Herod turns green

Michael Jacobs thinks that, before very long, we really will have an energy tax

The German who worries new Labour

Peter Mandelson is keeping a watchful eye on Oskar Lafontaine.John Lloydexplains

Colonialism returns to South Africa

To fury from the left, big companies are moving from Johannesburg to London. R W Johnsonexplains the historic implications

The scandal of the tax havens

Offshore financial centres, such as Jersey and the Bahamas, now play host to a third of the world's total wealth. David Boyleexplains why Britain must act

The city of buried secrets

Near your left foot, the Hitler bunker; by your right heel, the Gestapo torture chambers. Christopher Hope wonders if Berlin can ever lose its ghosts

Hague can't afford to miss this trick

Find the heir to the House of Lords and save yourselves, Tessa Keswicktells the Tories

Arts & Culture

Growing pains

Biotechnology alarms us: we fear Hitler clones and designer genes. Colin Tudge suggests we stop worrying and start trusting our instincts

Reborn in the USA

Music

West of Suez

Film byJonathan Romney

Playing at politics

Theatre byKate Kellaway

Made for TV

Art

Commentary - Make it strange, make it new

George Walden, writing in the NS last week, lamented the inertia of our contemporary culture. Scott Reyburn believes there is energy, but not in the world of letters

Sites of interest

Television

Peasoupers

Food

Spirit levels

Drink

Books

Casanova, your playing days are over. Jane Jakeman blows the whistle on the myth of the 18th-century rogue

Casanova: A Study in Self-Portraiture
Stefan Zweig Pushkin Press, 158pp, £7

Casanova's Return to Venice
Arthur Schnitzler Pushkin Press, 189pp, £7

Casanova
Andrew Miller Sceptre, 279pp, £14.99

Casanova or the Art of Happiness
Lydia Flem Allen Lane, 211pp, £9.99

Rural queen of the Nile

Cairo: The City Victorious
Max Rodenbeck Picador, 395pp, £20

A Tory Third Way?

On the Right Lines: The Future of the Centre-Right in the British Isles
Perri 6 Demos, 87pp, £7.95

Waxing the corpse

Lenin's Embalmers
Ilya Zbarsky and Samuel Hutchinson The Harvill Press, 215pp, £12.99

Novel of the week

The Metaphysical Touch
Sylvia Brownrigg Gollancz, 444pp, £16.99

Observations

Letters to the Editor

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