18 June 2001
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From the Editor…
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Cover story
Meet the people who make Tony Blair sweat
Forget the Tories. The real opposition to the new government are doctors, landowners, Greenpeace and Channel 4. Stephen Pollardreports
Features
New Labour, new thuggery
Ministers and their aides already look more stern: if they don't deliver this time, progressive politics is over for a generation
Now for an epic of insincerity
Portillo, the front-runner for Tory leader, wants to be caring and inclusive. But Simon Heffer thinks that market place is already a bit overcrowded
A bit wobbly on the euro
As the EU enlarges and its central bank rules, John Lloyd finds scepticism even among Europhiles
Rise of the professional politician
Natalie Brierley finds few manual workers, but just as few managers, among the latest Labour intake
Nice office, shame about the job
Andrew Lappin, a former insider, warns John Prescott that his new department is just a dumping ground for unpopular initiatives and dying policies
Whose speech is it anyway?
Meghnad Desai proposes a people's version of the state opening of parliament
Into the age of chairs and tables
Gandhi's Congress Party wants to reinvent itself, new Labour style. By John Elliottin Delhi
Why mums are turning their backs on nature
Too posh to push? No: growing numbers of women think caesarean births are better
Un-American activities rule in France
You have big government. You also have good food, a 35-hour week and trains that run on time. So why change? David Lawdayreports from Paris
Essay
The New Statesman Essay - The logos fight back
The culture jammers tried to subvert the big brand names. But the smart advertisers now use guerrilla tactics themselves
Culture
Easy peasy Japanesy
The Japanese past is best known in the west for its periods of withdrawal. Now, despite economic instability, Hywel Williams finds a country seeking out the world with a lavish celebration of its culture
Boyzone
Art - Holly Johnson goes to Hoxton to get horny
Ketchup and confusion
Music - Patrick O'Connor longs for the final curtain of ENO's muddled Don Giovanni
The reel facts
Film and History - Robert Fox on how Hollywood takes cinematic liberties with the truth
Television
Cops without frontiers
Television - Andrew Billen on the strange allure of a crime drama set in Las Vegas
Books
The unaesthetic sex. It wasn't the lad mags that started viciousness towards women. Blame the early 20th-century modernists, writes Decca Aitkenhead
The Trouble with Beauty Wendy Steiner Heinemann, 291pp, £20 ISBN 0434007358
Holding the middle ground
Inventing Herself: claiming a feminist intellectual heritage Elaine Showalter Picador, 384pp, £16 ISBN 0330346695
Strange, not elusive
Gwen John: a life Sue Roe Chatto & Windus, 364pp, £25 ISBN 0701166959
Victoria's pride
The World for a Shilling Michael Leapman Headline, 308pp, £14.99 ISBN 0747270120
Novel of the week
The Siege Helen Dunmore Viking, 304pp, £16.99 ISBN 0670897183
A world on the brink of collapse
The reclusive French writer Michel Houellebecq has been called a misogynist, a nihilist and a pornographer - by his admirers. But who is he? What does he want? Gerry Feehily goes in search of the "most exciting writer" in Europe
Cookery lessons
Playing Sardines Michele Roberts Virago Press, 196pp, £9.99 ISBN 1860498140
Paperback reader
In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz Michela Wrong Fourth Estate, 336pp, £7.99 ISBN 1841154229
