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4 September 2000

From the Editor…

sue-matthiasWelcome 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

Schools that are fit for the PM's sons?

In Islington, the private sector has taken over state education. Will it work, asksNick Robinson

Liberty, equality, property

The third-world poor hold assets worth as much as all the companies listed on the world's main stock exchanges. So why are they poor? Mark Leonardexplains

Our love affair with low life

What qualities do you need to make yourself into a loveable rogue on the model of Reggie Kray? And why do we glorify bad men while still baying for more law and order?

The irresistible force of a £50bn free lunch

David Cox doubts that ministers can resist the huge potential windfall from selling off the TV airwaves

Arts & Culture

Taking history for a ride

A new attraction at Alton Towers is unlike any other. Scott Lucas finds that, instead of leaving you soaking or feeling queasy, it turns your whole sense of reality upside down

Loitering with intent

Urban renewal - Helen Laville on why hanging out in Birmingham has become a pleasure

Tartan tedium

Edinburgh Festival - Lauren Booth finds the flower of Scotland in full wilt

Cartoon hell

Film - Existentialist angst? Nobody can outgloom the French

Moving news

Television - Andrew Billen on the changing face of the BBC

Dean cuisine

Food - Bee Wilson on whether the kitchen has anything to offer the liberated man

Reach for the tsars

Drink - Victoria Moore on a historical collection of Russian wine

Books

Ghost town. Trieste abounds with echoes of a vibrant and diverse past. Henry Sheen is charmed by the last city in western Europe and by the multilingualism of its most famous visitor

The Years of Bloom: James Joyce in Trieste 1904-1920
John McCourt The Lilliput Press, 320pp, £25
ISBN 1901866459

Breaking rules

All Hail the New Puritans
Edited by Nicholas Blincoe and Matt Thorne Fourth Estate, 204pp, £10
ISBN 1841153451

Feel the detail

Romanticism and its Discontents
Anita Brookner Viking, 198pp, £25
ISBN 0670892122

Simply true

Call If You Need Me: the uncollected fiction and prose
Raymond Carver Harvill, 312pp, £15
ISBN 1860467598

How the dead live

Going Gently
David Nobbs Heinemann, 412pp, £15.99
ISBN 0434007846

Union city blues

Claiming Scotland: national identity and liberal culture
Jonathan Hearn Polygon at Edinburgh, 224pp, £16.99
ISBN 1902930169

Novel of the week

Nineteen Seventy Seven
David Peace Serpent's Tail, 342pp, £8.99
ISBN 185242639X

Observations

Letters to the Editor

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