10 April 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
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
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
