15 July 2002
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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
Sexy kids
Always eager for new markets, capitalism has turned to pre-teens: shops are full of videos, clothes and cosmetics designed to exploit and sexualise them
Features
A very English mugging
Bettina von Hase wonders if our native reticence sometimes goes just a little too far
Private profit, public squalor
Why, in 2002, does a school have rain pouring through its rotting window frames? Francis Beckett reports
Power - but not to the people
Russians pray that their neighbours pay their electricity bills: thanks to Soviet wiring, if one gets cut, they all get cut. And privatisation threatens to make things even worse
Books, lies and videotapes
In Yorba Linda, California, only the Nixon-lovers can hear you scream, as they buy gifts and even get married at the memorial library for the disgraced president
Give your baby a chance
What became of the idea that every child would get a state bounty?
Essay
NS Essay - Whatever happened to popular culture?
A generation ago, a man like the Singing Postman, with his authentic folk poetry, could still flourish, as could the self-taught working man. Have Murdoch, EastEnders and Hollywood killed all that?
Regulars
Politically incorrect - John Kampfner reveals Brown's grand design
Brown, the great engineer and planner, will dish out the money - but he wants it to affect the way we study, how we work and where we live
John Pilger on a not-so-free press
"Freedom of the press" is a phrase that sounds well. But in the world of George W Bush and Enron, freedom is not meant to be that free
Darcus Howe denounces a former ally
My one-time ally let moral and spiritual values go out of the window
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
Fascisme doux
Middle East conflicts - Anna Somers Cocks rebuffs allegations that a report on Israeli cultural destruction in Palestine was anti-Semitic
Reflected glory
Medals - Luke Syson on the art of forging reputations for posterity
Television
Not just tolerated, but loved
Television - Andrew Billen on the awkward truths of Shipman, a docudrama that disappoints
Books
The Fruit Cellar
An exclusive short story
Ingenious bubble wrap. The 1990s revelled in decadence and imposture. Sadly, this clever cultural history is as superficial as the era it recalls, writes Will Self
The Nineties: when surface was depth Michael Bracewell Flamingo, 373pp, £12.99 ISBN 0007128010
Psychobabble
Equals Adam Phillips Faber and Faber, 246pp, £12.99 ISBN 057120970X
Get thee to a nunnery
Virgins of Venice Mary Laven Viking, 284pp, £20 ISBN 0670896357
War wounds
Peacetime Robert Edric Doubleday, 357pp, £12.99 ISBN 0385602979
A series of mini-accidents always in progress
Does our global economy offer us the option of a new capitalism? asks Charles Leadbeater
Novel of the week
Uninvited Richard House Serpent's Tail, 160pp, £10 ISBN 1852424389
Orchestral manoeuvres
Janacek Mirka Zemanova John Murray, 352pp, £25 ISBN 071954923X
Ultimate puzzle
Lost Languages Andrew Robinson McGraw-Hill, 352pp, £25.99 ISBN 0071357432
