24 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
Cover story
Are the loonies coming back?
The left has been in the doldrums for nearly 20 years. But Scotland and Wales, as well as London, create the hope of a revival, reports John Lloyd
Features
London's own grim fairy tale
With genies, the Pied Piper and strange omens greeting him at every corner, Blake Morrisonfinds the London mayoral campaign trail a surreal experience
Be a relaxer, take a longer holiday
On the Continent, people wind down properly with month-long vacations. The British, by contrast, insist on stress-inducing short breaks
A moment of truth for the centre-left
Putting all your money in shares is risky. Yet our rulers encourage us to do it
Labour's very own backwoodsman?
Francis Beckett asks if David Blunkett has blown his chance to revive our ailing state schools
Max Clifford is a nice chap shock!
Edwina Currie once called him "that little turd", but Britain's most notorious publicist struck Leo McKinstryas a man of integrity and even modesty
Sad, foolish, rather disgusting
James Buchan, having endured the Irving libel case, concludes that the defeated author, like the Mitford girls in the 1930s, sees the Nazis as funny folk
Why Ecstasy is the capitalist pill
Cannabis encouraged dissent. New drugs help you to love the market
Frills and thrills: high camp at the high altar
Christian Churches condemn homosexuality. So why, asks Michael Arditti, are so many priests gay?
Not a bridge too far
New Statesman Scotland
There may be troubles ahead
New Statesman Scotland - A report calling for Anglican bishops to be installed in the Church of Scotland has been well received. But the opposition is already mustering, writesGeorge Rosie
What men can learn from women
New Statesman Scotland - A lifetime of hard work is long gone. Alistair Moffat wants men to channel their energy more productively
Primary Tartan
New Statesman Scotland
Samuel Smiles
New Statesman Scotland
Essay
The New Statesman Essay - When it's right to be a Luddite
Forget risk. The big question is: will GM foods give more freedom to ordinary people or more power to those in charge?
Interview
The New Statesman Interview - Barry Jackson
The head of Britain's surgeons fears that Blair's NHS rescue bid will fail, and then "one has to look at another system". Barry Jackson interviewed
Culture
Three men and a manifesto
Tariq Ali, Howard Brenton, Andy de la Tour: they call themselves "Stigma", and they write "disposable theatre". It took them just one week to write Snogging Ken, a play about the mayoral race. Nina Raine watched them at work
"Salford's Guggenheim"
Architecture - Hugh Aldersey-Williams on how the new Lowry Centre has put Salford on the map
Sitar guru
Music - Dermot Clinch on the man who taught Yehudi Menuhin a thing or two
Theatre
Toiling with Cressida
Theatre - Kate Kellaway doesn't warm to Nicholas Wright's new production
Television
A feel-bad parable
Television - Andrew Billen discovers what sells cars in a documentary of Rover's decline
Books
A place of greater danger. What is wrong with India? Two new books attempt to explain the historical background to the conflicts blighting the world's largest democracy
Kashmir in conflict: India, Pakistan and the unfinished war Victoria Schofield, I.B.Tauris, 286pp, £14.95 ISBN 1860645453
India - First-class traveller
India: A History John Keay HarperCollins, 576pp, £24.99 ISBN 0002557177
Loads-a-money
The Super-Rich Stephen Haseler Macmillan Press, pp232, £16.99 ISBN 0333764293
You want God?
City of God E L Doctorow Little, Brown 272pp, £15.99 ISBN 0375408169
Novel of the week
Babylon Viktor Pelevin Faber, 250pp, £9.99 ISBN 0571202470
Abominable no-men
The Secret Treasury: how Britain's economy is really run David Lipsey Viking, 278pp, £20 ISBN 0670889261
