10 April 2000

From the Editor…

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Features

Expelled . . . for speaking out

A useful peer keeps quiet. Is that why Wayland Kennet is not among the hereditaries kept on in the Lords by Labour?

The long war against democracy

The real battle in Zimbabwe is not against white farmers. Mugabe's target is a black middle-class committed to modernity and rock music

From limp wrist to long finger

Neil McKenna thought he was gay; now science says he's not. He fears that it will all end badly

When journalists get it wrong

Quick to point out the errors of others, newspapers need better systems for correcting theirs

"I have here a warrant to beat you up"

Our present laws on arrest are intimidating and oppressive and pander to the most authoritarian elements in the police, argues Richard Colbey

Can we have some jobs, please?

Schemes to teach "social skills" multiply at a dizzying rate. But the unemployed know how to chat to their neighbours; what they need is work

Literacy? It's really very simple

A reading scheme is flourishing in Canada, the US and NZ. Why not here, asks Francis Beckett

Steve's just dying to meet you

Helping people connect isn't just air-kissing. Networking is hard work, writesCarole Stone

Even more foul than murder

Most of us can imagine being driven to kill. So why do we call it the ultimate crime, while far greater evils go unpunished?

Half the way with LBJ

Charles Wheelersuggests that, far from being shameful, Harold Wilson's stance on Vietnam was brave defiance of the US, to which, as usual, Britain was in hock

Scotland's Victor Meldrew

New Statesman Scotland

Passionate polemics? I plead guilty

New Statesman Scotland - A new book charts the rocky relationship between the Scottish Parliament and the press. Tom Brownon blackmail, bluster and balderdash

A game to go down in history

New Statesman Scotland - Scottish rugby has been accused of being rotten to the core. Is the defeat of England the sign of a comeback? By Tom Pow

Samuel Smiles

New Statesman Scotland

Primary Tartan

New Statesman Scotland

Essay

The New Statesman Essay - Don't let the right hijack enterprise

The minimal state isn't good for business. To get started, even Microsoft needed help from big companies and big government

Interview

The New Statesman Interview - Simon Jenkins

He has the fire in his soul, but not the iron. Is that why, despite his many opportunities, he has achieved little? Simon Jenkins interviewed

Culture

Strange and charmed

Science is changing our moral world. But, writes A S Byatt, it is also altering the visual landscape, as artists respond to its discoveries and challenges

Complicated web

Language - John Willinsky on net loss and gain: e-OED

Late Como

Music - Richard Cook on the man who created casual

House proud

Design - Adam Wishart on ideal homes

Brat-pack

Film - Jonathan Romney on the Russian film-maker Alexei Balabanov

The smiling exile

Television - Andrew Billen on how Ali G stays funny

Books

The tale of a tiny whopper. Alan Rusbridger is unconvinced by Jonathan Aitken's attempt to smooth over his downfall

Pride and Perjury Jonathan Aitken HarperCollins, 400pp, £19.99 ISBN 0002740753

The mad monk

Rasputin: the last word Edvard Radzinsky Weidenfeld, 524pp, £20 ISBN 0297819755

Magical mystery tour

The letters of Dorothy L Sayers Volume Four 1951- 1957: in the midst of life Barbara Reynolds (ed) The Dorothy L Sayers Society, 449pp, £25 ISBN 095180006

Flights of fancy

Nabokov's Butterflies Vladimir Nabokov Penguin, 752pp, £25 ISBN 0807085405

The hunted

Tigers in the Snow Peter Matthiessen, photographer Maurice Hornocker Harvill Press, 185pp, £22.50 ISBN 0691001111

Speak memory

Chasing Shadows: memories of a vanished world Hugo Gryn, with Naomi Gryn Viking, 300pp, £16.99 ISBN 0670887935

Novel of the week

What are you like? Anne Enright Jonathan Cape, 256pp, £10 ISBN 0224060635

Paved with indifference

The Nazi Terror: Gestapo, Jews and ordinary Germans Eric Johnson John Murray, 656pp, £25 ISBN 0719555817

Hall of mirrors

Tommaso and the Blind Photographer Gesualdo Bufalino Harvill Press,183pp, £9.99 ISBN 1860465684

Oh, what a capital city

To inhabitants of London, it's busy, buzzy and cosmopolitan. To outsiders, its size, influence and affluence are the stuff of envy

Livingstone threatens paralysis

Ken is back, and he's as exciting as ever. But Steve Richardsfears that it will all end in acrimony, tears and court cases

How Dobson got help from Upstairs

Labour's official candidate for mayor enjoyed good fortune as health secretary, but he also gave the department oomph

Ken-proof, yes, but a powerful symbol on the world stage

The mayor's ability to make changes in local government is limited. But his political clout will be hard to resist

Rocky road to a smoother journey

Londoners want better-quality and cheaper public transport. With limited cash and powers, will the mayor be able to deliver?

Ahead, but watch out for Amsterdam

London's growth sectors - Telecommunications

Green heroes

The top ten

20 green heroes and villains: Heroes

Green villains

The top ten

20 green heroes and villains: Villains

Bjorn Lomborg

Cloud control

Cloud control

What if...

Hugh Gaitskell lived

What if... Hugh Gaitskell had lived

James Macintyre

Brown at war

Like it or not, Brown’s a war leader

Will Self

On brands

We’re all with the brand

Interview

Omar Bin Laden

The NS Interview: Omar Bin Laden

Film review

A Serious Man

A Serious Man (15)

Vote!

Will Baroness Ashton be an effective EU foreign minister?

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