13 March 2000
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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
Ken, the great conductor
With his impeccable sense of timing and drama, Livingstone is the supreme politician of our age. But what, asks Steve Richards, is the point of it all?
Features
Apology - Can a whistle-blower be wrong?
On 13 March 2000 the New Statesman published an article entitled 'Can a whistle-blower be wrong?'. This article was further published on the magazine’s website. Subsequently, Mrs Alison Taylor issued libel proceedings against the magazine in respect of allegations about her. The proceedings were settled with the magazine agreeing to withdraw the article and to pay damages to her. The online version of the article was immediately withdrawn but was inadvertently restored to the website in November 2005. The New Statesman has apologised to Mrs Taylor for this unfortunate occurrence and the article has now been deleted and destroyed.
Let people live where they wish
Paul Barker argues that John Prescott's attempts to restrict new house-building are wrong
Why charity is a waste of money
An appeal is launched - for Mozambique or Romanian orphans - and cash pours in. Malcolm Clark thinks we should take more care over its destination
The devil's in the details of your diet
Peter Stanford predicts schism as a potential Pope declares that the Antichrist is among us
A mystery in the Bodleian
Stephen Smith joins journalists who, looking for new revelations about Edward VIII, found only a very British cover-up
Shock! You may get value for money
A report will call for the banks to face greater competitive pressures
The Anglosphere Project
For now, it is no more than a gleam in the eyes of a few influential and powerful people. But an English-speaking union, as an alternative to the EU, could be the next big right-wing political idea. John Lloydreports
Go on, Tony, take paternity leave
The PM should put his own government's policies into effect and take time off with his baby, argues George Lucas
Answers to our Labour Party centenary quiz
The winners of Robert Taylor's Labour centenary quiz competition are Darren White, of London N8, Katherine Morgan, of London NW1, and Heather Petch, of London SW2. Each will receive a bottle of champagne
Yes, I actually like living out here
Bryan Rostron, an exile returned to South Africa, finds himself an object of curiosity
Sartre, Bogart and the last puff of freedom
Smoking once meant glamour and romance; now, the smoker is victim and polluter
The press pack waits and salivates
New Statesman Scotland
It's not just a place for hillwalkers
New Statesman Scotland - While farming has long ceased to be a horse-and-plough idyll, farmers have yet to adapt to new ways of life that will also preserve the countryside
Released back into the wild
New Statesman Scotland - The Tories, once an endangered species, are making a comeback. They owe it all to the Scottish Parliament and PR
Primary Tartan
New Statesman Scotland
Samuel Smiles
New Statesman Scotland
Regulars
Arts & Culture
Poor Tom
Tom Jones has just been feted by the Brit Awards as "Best British Male Solo Artist". But Richard Cook is unmoved by the bawler from Pontypridd
Window-shopping
Art - Charles Darwent is impressed by the New Art Gallery, Walsall
Big bang
Music - Dermot Clinch discovers a rare TV treat
Sky's the limit
Design - Hugh Aldersey-Williams wonders at the skill of the London Eye architects
Drink
Getting the gastric juices going
Drink - Victoria Moore laments the passing of the taste for bitters as aperitifs
Books
The longest journey. Post-imperial writing is suffused by a sense of exile and loss. But what the authors have most in common is the pursuit of individual freedom, argues Robert Winder
Voices of the Crossing
Ferdinand Dennis and Naseem Khan Serpent's Tail, 179pp, £11
ISBN 1852425830
Both nice and nasty
Hierarchy in the Forest: the evolution of egalitarian behavior
Christopher Boehm Harvard University Press, 258pp, £24.95
ISBN 0674390318
Decline and fall
The C of E: the state it's in
Monica Furlong Hodder & Stoughton, 418pp, £18.99
ISBN 0340693991
Maths mad
Uncle Petros and Goldbach's conjecture
Apostolos Doxiadis Faber, 209pp, £9.99
ISBN 0571202039
Gone shopping
The Arcades Project
Walter Benjamin Harvard University Press,1074 pp, £24.95
ISBN 067404326
Novel of the week
Emotionally Weird
Kate Atkinson Transworld, 355pp, £16.99
ISBN 038540882
Sky high
Sky Nails
Jamie McKendrick Faber & Faber, 115pp, £8.99
ISBN 0571201784
Her Book
Jo Shapcott Faber & Faber, 125pp, £8.99
Observations
Letters to the Editor
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