09 August 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

Jason Cowley, Editor, New Statesman

Cover story

Immortal longings grow again

Science has failed: it can't explain the self to the "me" generation. Hence, argues Sara Maitland, the renewed interest in an afterlife

By Sara Maitland

Features

A minister's work is never done

By Steve Richards

If our rulers make bad decisions, it is often because of an exhausting and unnecessary workload. Steve Richards asks if the system can be reformed

Prescott and class: a sad confusion

By Mark Hayhurst

Labour ministers used to exaggerate humble origins, not deny them. ByMark Hayhurst

The great Yugoslav failure

By Susan Greenberg

Tito's legacy seemed to offer a "third way" between Moscow and the west. But it was the worst of both worlds, and the result was Kosovo

At another eclipse, a star was born

By Anne Boston

Stephen Hawking may be popular now but, in 1919, Einstein was even more so

A corner of America that is (for a while) Europe

By Stephen Smith

Gondolas, pigeons, muddy water, fine art: Venice has been exported to Las Vegas

Essay

The New Statesman Essay - Celebrate the new family

By Helen Wilkinson

Are "supply mums" and "supply dads" such a bad thing?

Interview

The New Statesman Interview - Ken Livingstone

By Steve Richards

If they don't let him stand for mayor, he warns, he will sink into depression. Ken Livingstone interviewed

Regulars

New Statesman Leader

BBC is better than Murdoch

How 70 died after a mother had been insulted

By Darcus Howe

Tony Blair, supposedly the great social revolutionary, is corroding democracy, yet his fan club in the press still worships him

By John Pilger

I have never cried over being sacked, but I do weep over the Beatles, Tchaikovsky or Judy Garland

By Sean French

Our speaker ignored the social impact of the net and focused on shopping on the Tesco website

By Laurie Taylor

Competition - Win a bottle of champagne

Culture

Lunatic fringe

By Bill Dunn

As Edinburgh's annual jamboree gets under way, Bill Dunn recalls his own and others' inglorious contributions to the ever-swelling comedy scene

Tiger, tiger

By John Henshall

Art

Wim and vigour

By Jonathan Romney

Film

Personality problem

By Dermot Clinch

Classical

Television

Nether regions

By Andrew Billen

Television

Books

Put your money on Dragon Dull . . . but how much better if Dragon Dreamer could win, creating a small republic scoured of Anglo-American greed

By Jan Morris

Wales: A Question for History Dai Smith Seren, 216pp, £12.95 ISBN 1854111256 The Welsh Illusion Patrick Hannan Seren, 168pp, £8.95 Wales for Beginners Jeff Fallow Writers & Readers, 170pp, £7.99