19 March 1999
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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
Unions smell a foregone conclusion
In the struggle between capital and labour, the workers have been losing for years. How far, asks John Lloyd, will new Labour go to redress the balance?
Features
You were just too noisy, Oskar
Lafontaine alarmed the bankers and the markets. Leftist ministers need a more subtle approach. ByChristopher Huhne
Male, healthy and . . . pregnant
If child-bearing were left to men, humanity would soon be extinct, reportsNick Lezard
Has Clarke's hour come at last?
Simon Hefferhears some Tories echoing John Redwood's old slogan: "no change, no chance"
It can't happen here - can it?
Other people, in other countries, had to worry about dawn raids. Or so Gillian Linscott thought
From Braveheart to Cosmo-Scotia
Young Scots are leaving traditional notions of Scottishness behind, reports Pat Kane
Even the babies are put to work
Britain's empire allowed it to abolish child labour at home; Bangladesh has no such option
Regulars
Arts & Culture
Overcooked
The New Statesman's food writer Bee Wilsonrashly gave in to the madness of Masterchef. Now she will never contemplate a shredded leek again
Milestone
Jazz byRichard Cook
Germania calling
Theatre byDavid Jays
Art imitates life
Film byJonathan Romney
Going places
Classical byDermot Clinch
Books
The moronic inferno. The genocide in Rwanda has been rationalised as an outpouring of primeval savagery. But it had distinct historical, political and psychological explanations
We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: stories from Rwanda
Philip Gourevitch Picador, 353pp, £16.99
To England, with love
Voltaire's Coconuts
Ian Buruma Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 326pp, £18.99
Divide and rule
The Irish Civil War
Tim Pat Coogan and George Morrison Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 287pp, £25
Lyrical fuzz
Selected Poems 1956-1993
Gunter Grass, trans Michael Hamburger Faber & Faber, 160pp, £9.99
Handwriting
Michael Ondaatje Bloomsbury, 78pp, £9.99
Novel of the week
Vienna Blood
Adrian Mathews Jonathan Cape, 312pp, £10
Canon fodder
The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written
Martin Seymour-Smith Citadel Press, 498pp, £25
Observations
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
