07 May 2001
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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
John Prescott: sinking fast
His old Labour credentials once made him indispensable, but now the Deputy Prime Minister's star is waning. What went wrong? Jackie Ashley reports
Features
A performance on the barricades
John Lloydjoins the May Day protests in London and finds himself in the middle of a TV show that seems to lack a director
Don't trust farmers with our land
Farming subsidies have already done the countryside harm, argues David Cox. Government plans for conservation subsidies would finish it off
Have a nice cup of cocoa
Generation Next - They may think of Hague as a pig and Blair as a dog, but young Britons take a resolutely middle-of-the-road attitude to most political issues
Kyoto is good for business
America's refusal to mend its ways in the face of climate change is foolish in every sense. In the long term, Adair Turnerwrites, being green pays
Not the General Election
The election campaign is expected to start this month, but the NS and the Institute for Public Policy Research bring you something better: the debates that the politicians always fudge. This week - criminal justice
Brideshead inspected? No, sir!
Francis Beckett explains how teaching at the top universities managed to escape official scrutiny
A new Che leads protest in paradise
It looks like a sleepy Caribbean island, but Vieques is where the US tries out its bombs and uranium-tipped bullets. And the natives are restless
Essay
The New Statesman Essay - A sense of belonging
Is there a real danger that Britain will become a foreign land and the British a mongrel race? Michael Dummett, the distinguished philosopher, disentangles the issues
Interview
The New Statesman Interview - Lars Nittve
The head of Tate Modern wants £2m more from the government, and less censorship from the prudish Brits. Lars Nittve interviewed
Culture
The soul of music
The Wigmore Hall celebrates its centenary birthday this month. Hilary Finch looks back over the history of a concert hall that has remained stubbornly true to itself
Freedom song
Music - Howard Fast remembers a legendary performer who lent voice to the oppressed
Immortal longings
Art - Ned Denny is underwhelmed by the many images of the great Egyptian queen
Radio
Niceness pure
Radio - Laurie Taylor is impressed by the first show on BBC Radio that sounds colloquially black
Television
Cockpit of conflict
Television - Andrew Billen on a painfully funny sitcom that shows the family as war zone
Books
Why the Victorians were colour blind. In the 19th century, race mattered far less than social distinction: a West African tribal chief was unquestionably superior to an East End costermonger. By Kenan Malik
Ornamentalism: how the British saw their empire David Cannadine Allen Lane, 264pp, £16.99 ISBN 0713995068
Mr Crusoe, I presume
Selkirk's Island Diana Souhami Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 256pp, £14.99 ISBN 0297643851
Things didn't get better
Reasons to be Cheerful: from punk to new Labour through the eyes of a dedicated troublemaker Mark Steel Scribner, 287pp, £10 ISBN 074320803X
The girl can't help it
On Green Dolphin Street Sebastian Faulks Hutchinson, 341pp, £16.99 ISBN 0091802105
The colour of hope
Moralities: sex, money and power in the 21st century Joan Smith Allen Lane, 202pp, £14.99 ISBN 0713994096
Novel of the week
Glue Irvine Welsh Jonathan Cape, 469pp, £12 ISBN 0224061720
The best is past
The Blair Effect Edited by Anthony Seldon Little, Brown, 672pp, £14.99 ISBN 0316856363
A wandering Jew
Them: adventures with extremists Jon Ronson Picador, 337pp, £16 ISBN 0330375458
Ignorant incest
The Tragedy of the Street of Flowers Eca de Queiroz Dedalus, 320pp, £9.99 ISBN 187398264X
