24 May 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
Luvvies, stop moaning
Middle-aged males who have done well out of subsidy want even more. But their apocalyptic imaginings of a world without culture do the arts no favours
Features
Revealed: the way they want to go
. . . or what Tony and Bill said to Ger and Wim
Looking for the real war
Lindsey Hilsum does her best to get to the bottom of what's happening in Kosovo, but fails to meet Nato's injunction to impose her will
When the law turned to terrorism
The surreal tale of a burning beach bistro in Corsica should teach France a lesson: devolution, British-style, is needed, argues David Lawday
Just the poet to make us yawn again
Ted Hughes made the Poet Laureateship seem exciting. But for his successor new Labour has gone to a tired, old, Oxbridge voice, laments Michael Glover
Who will curb the mighty Irvine?
The Lord Chancellor is set to acquire extraordinary new powers. And if we get a Human Rights Act he will become more powerful still
A search for identity in the shock of the new
Scottish writing fits the mood of the nation, writes Jason Cowley. But can England find an authentic voice?
Arts & Culture
Sticky wicket
Both flummoxed and outflanked by football, cricket in Britain is at a low ebb. Stephen Moss wonders whether the World Cup and Channel 4 can save it
Basso profundo
Rock byRichard Cook
Famous for 110 minutes
Film byJonathan Romney
Books
Nothing to declare
Mandelson: The Biography
Donald Macintyre HarperCollins, 467pp, £19.99
Devil worship
Satan Wants Me
Robert Irwin Dedalus, 232pp, £14.99
Imperial spouse
Daughters of Britannia: The Lives and Times of Diplomatic Wives
Katie Hickman HarperCollins, 323pp, £19.99
Descartes' prisoners
Through Our Eyes Only? The Search for Animal Consciousness
Marian Stamp Dawkins Oxford University Press, 192pp, £9.99 (paperback); 208pp, £16 (hardback)
Novel of the week
Everything You Need
A L Kennedy Jonathan Cape, 576pp, £16.99
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
