18 November 2002
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From the Editor…
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Cover story
NS Interview - Jack Straw
The Foreign Secretary is ready to wage war on tyrants, but blames many of the world's problems on Britain's imperial past. Jack Straw interviewed
Features
Be afraid, be very afraid . . . of gum on the pavement and graffiti on the wall
Medieval handbooks laid down strict rules about spitting; today, staring may be an aggressive act. Paul Barker asks if Blair can win his war on antisocial behaviour
I will be burgled and other urban myths
They are trembling in the suburbs
The Prime Minister prepares to retire
Francis Beckett reports from an alternative universe
Just like his pal Silvio
Tony Blair, assisted by a posse of unelected advisers, propaganda paid for by our taxes, and a subservient civil service, is building a one-party state, a la Berlusconi
Carry on the Windsors
Malcolm Clark sees no gay mafia at the Palace, only courtiers behaving with the typical arrogance of royalty
I'm a Muslim but I can still fly
Arabs and Asians complain of racial profiling. But the widely travelled Sarfraz Mansoor finds US airline security less onerous than he expected after the 11 September atrocities
Essay
NS Essay - Artists on an eternal picnic
Bohemians such as George Barker lived in creative chaos on the margins of mainstream society. Are Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst trying to imitate them?
Regulars
Cristina Odone prefers the Windsors to have gay sex
It's not gay sex that should worry the royals, but bog-standard heterosexual promiscuity
Darcus Howe on 20 years of adventure with Channel 4
My Channel 4 adventures, with ice picks, Zulu war cries and kidnapping threats
Paul Routledge reveals an aborted spliff trip
An old Labour triumph, an aborted spliff trip, and the woman who sculpted Lenin
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
On the right track
The journey to get to them may be hell, but Britain's railway stations remain majestic sites. Matthew Dodd on Network Rail's unique architectural portfolio
The last puritan
Classical music - Henry Sheen on why Glenn Gould still haunts other pianists 20 years after his death
Double-take
Art - Ned Denny on the sacred magic of an artist who operates in the shadows of other people's films
Con-fusion
Jazz - Sholto Byrnes says that what passes for world music is often a sham
Film
A hit by a high school marksman
Film - Philip Kerr on how the fat man of American satire blows apart the gun culture
Theatre
Romeo reaches rock bottom
Theatre - Sheridan Morley applauds a cast for managing not to giggle at their lines
Television
Things can only get better
Television - Andrew Billen finds The Project, like new Labour itself, to be a big let-down
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies auctions off his column
I dream of scoring for Spurs, which surely beats scoring with the Queen
Books
Look, what a lot of dust I raise. Scandal and scurrilities, wrote Voltaire, are the bad fruits from a very good tree called liberty. Sebastian Shakespeare on why politicians make the best gossips of them all
Scandal: a scurrilous history of gossip Roger Wilkes Atlantic Books, 363pp, £17.99 ISBN 1903809630
A monarch of words
Byron: life and legend Fiona MacCarthy John Murray, 674pp, £25 ISBN 071955621X
More than a bloody fool. Michael Ratcliffe on a "malevolent assault" on a maverick talent
Anthony Burgess Roger Lewis Faber and Faber, 434pp, £20 ISBN 0571204929
Music of chance
Finest and Darkest Hours: the decisive events in British politics from Churchill to Blair Kevin Jefferys Atlantic Books, 352pp, £20 ISBN 1903809746
State of nature. Edward Skidelsky on the "greatest living" British philosopher's quest for truth in an age of relativism
Truth and Truthfulness Bernard Williams Princeton UP, pp328, £19.95 ISBN 0691102767
Hideous fate
The Last Journey of William Huskisson Simon Garfield Faber and Faber, 243pp, £14.99 ISBN 0571210481
Ghost of a chance
Shroud John Banville Picador, 405pp, £15.99 ISBN 0330483153
