15 January 1999

From the Editor…

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

Cover story

A slight and delicate minister?

If Robin Cook is to be an effective Foreign Secretary, he must put past failures behind him

Features

Blunkett accepts schools for profit

Ministers hoped that the private sector would give money to education for altruistic reasons. At last, they've grasped the reality, reports Francis Beckett

It's work, Jim - but not as we know it

Ralf Dahrendorf argues that the government's welfare reform policies may be undermined by a revolution in the labour market

How the left went west

You thought Islington was the new Labour heartland? Wrong. Giles Corenexplains the lure of Notting Hill

Don't try to control everything

Matthew Taylor argues that ministers must encourage the public sector to take risks

Special Report - Are we better off as laggards?

The Chancellor is obsessed with the productivity gap between Britain and other leading industrial nations. Is his anxiety misplaced, asks Caroline Daniel

The dark side of the nuclear family

Children suffer chronic illness because grandfathers were exposed to radiation

Some queer goings-on in the trenches

The army was a happy hunting ground for gays during the Great War, writesA D Harvey

Culture

A matter of life and death

A meditation on art and ethics, or Hollywood at its most sentimental?James Hall ponders the true colours of Vincent Ward's What Dreams May Come

Welsh terrier

Rock

Winter warmer

Theatre

Sister act

Film 1

Czech point

Film 2

News for old

Television

Books

Fight the power

I'm a Little Special: A Muhammad Ali Reader Gerald Early (editor) Yellow Jersey Press, 299pp, £16

The Darwinian lie

Darwinism Today (series editors Helena Cronin and Oliver Curry) Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £4.99 each Divided Labours Kingsley Browne, 70pp The Truth About Cinderella Martin Daly and Margo Wilson, 68pp

Novel of the week

Glamorama Bret Easton Ellis Picador, 482pp, £16

Poetry - Banging the anvil of words

Lavinia Greenlaw recalls how a $2,000 grant uncovered a world of unknown talent

Green heroes

The top ten

20 green heroes and villains: Heroes

Green villains

The top ten

20 green heroes and villains: Villains

Bjorn Lomborg

Cloud control

Cloud control

Interview

Omar Bin Laden

The NS Interview: Omar Bin Laden

What if...

Hugh Gaitskell lived

What if... Hugh Gaitskell had lived

James Macintyre

Brown at war

Like it or not, Brown’s a war leader

Will Self

On brands

We’re all with the brand

Film review

A Serious Man

A Serious Man (15)

Vote!

Will Baroness Ashton be an effective EU foreign minister?

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