08 November 1999

From the Editor…

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Features

How the PM recruited for the Tories

Very much like the Old Contemptibles, the Conservatives are now rejoicing in an enemy's insult

The story of a strange romance

Once, business was solidly Tory; now many big corporate chiefs adore new Labour. But can it last? John Lloyd reports

A new breed of godfathers

Anna Matveeva describes the strongmen of the former Soviet provinces in the Caucasus: ruthless warriors, who are also sports stars and writers

In Asia, the dynasties still rule

Gandhi, Bhutto, Megawati: they all owe their positions to feudalism, not to merit. The result is an inept and corrupt politics, reports John Elliott

Why I can't take the City seriously

For 13 years D J Taylor worked with corporate heroes and accounting executives. Then he realised that they all talked rubbish and expected him to do the same

It's what they call a challenging post

New Statesman Scotland - Scottish Labour is looking for a new general secretary. Tom Brownrewrites the job description

Designed to see to all our needs

New Statesman Scotland - Colin Douglason the first fruits of plans to meld the health service into a single, smooth-running machine

Primary Tartan

New Statesman Scotland

This Alba

New Statesman Scotland

Grassroots

New Statesman Scotland

Essay

The New Statesman Essay - To uplift the souls of the people

Blair's call for moral purpose echoes a very old Labour theme

Interview

The New Statesman Interview - Harold Pinter

The odd dissenter, a professional Mr Angry who is more Victor Meldrew than Vaclav Havel. Harold Pinter interviewed

Culture

Neat dreams

Suburbia may attract, amuse or appal us. Charles Darwent sees this ambiguity developed in the dark room

Clearly labelled

Music - Richard Cook celebrates 30 years of Manfred Eicher's ECM Records

Animal magic

Technology - Hugh Aldersey-Williams on the ever quicker march of animation

Cheap thrills

Film - Jonathan Romney enjoys a low-budget high

Royal dissent

Theatre - Kate Kellaway on a merely loveable Lear

Kith and skin

Television - Andrew Billen on civil war in Kosovo and race relations in Britain

Books

A debt to pleasure

The Oxford Companion to Food Alan Davidson Oxford University Press, 892pp, £40 ISBN 0192115790

Apples and pears

My East End: A History of Cockney London Gilda O'Neill Viking, 322pp, £16.99 ISBN 0670870773

Pukka Stalinist

The Vices of Integrity: E H Carr, 1892-1982 Jonathan Haslam Verso, 240pp, £25 ISBN 1859847331 Revolution and World Politics: The Rise and Fall of the Sixth Great Power Fred Halliday Macmillan, 416pp, £15.99

Back in print

The Unfortunates B S Johnson Picador, £18.99 ISBN 0330353292

The do Ron, Ron

Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan Edmund Morris HarperCollins, 874pp, £24.99 ISBN 0002177099

Novel of the week

A Good Place To Die James Buchan Harvill, 320pp, £16.99 ISBN 1860466478

Useful Idiots

Under the Red Flag: A History of Communism in Britain Keith Laybourn & Dylan Murphy Sutton Publishing, 256pp, £25 ISBN 0750914858

Fidel Castro

The last revolutionary

The last revolutionary

Steve Richards

On Tory policy

Our future in their hands

Science

Religion and Darwin

Since the dawn  of time

James Macintyre

Miliband's dilemma

Brussels is back with a vengeance

Will Self

On Oscar Wilde

Where the Wilde things are

Film review

Bright Star

Bright Star (PG)

Books

Paul Auster

Invisible

Interview

Alain de Botton

The Books Interview: Alain de Botton

Vote!

Was the government wrong to sack David Nutt?

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