18 August 2003

From the Editor…

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Cover story

How fat became a political issue

Obesity will soon be the biggest problem facing the National Health Service, costing us all billions of pounds a year. Shouldn't the government take action, asks Richard Reeves

Features

From rags to rags (and riches to riches)

Labour came to power with a mission to improve social mobility. But the chances of a bright child from a poor family becoming a high-flyer have worsened

The hidden people

Illegal immigrants in Norfolk take on the jobs no one else will do. One of them tells his story to Alex Stephens

Divide and teach

Amid the clamour over A-levels, Labour is quietly carving up education into a two-tier system. By Francis Beckett

Regulars

Watch everyone cover their backs

Politics - Anne Perkins on the dark arts of news management

The dark arts of news management have been practised for years and by all parties. Yet Alastair Campbell and a paranoid Labour administration have taken them to new heights

John Pilger investigates US plans for mini-nukes

With the United States spoiling for further fights across the globe and prepared to consider the deployment of "mini-nukes", there is no doubt which is the greatest rogue state of all

Darcus Howe on police getting away with racism

So now our police officers are to be forgiven for not understanding inner-city culture

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Culture

Demolition

Heritage I - Is restoration necessarily a good thing? A new BBC series asks us to vote on which historic building should be preserved. But what would we most like to see destroyed?

National treasure

Heritage II - Richard Cork discovers the Queen Mother was a daring patron of contemporary art

No frills

Heritage III - Caroline Murphy follows the chintz trail from India to a Victorian house in Doncaster

A conflict of views

Photography - Jenny Matthews on the inevitable censorship and bias in documenting war

Game over

Film - Mark Kermode discovers new shallows and unexpected depths in screenwriting

Sale of the century

Television - Andrew Billen detects dodgy arithmetic in a series of documentaries about auctions

Books

Grandmother's footsteps. Sex and the City, Bridget Jones and ever new ways of dating - young women are still obsessed with finding a man at all costs. Decca Aitkenhead on why nobody wants to be a thirtysomething singleton today

Modern Love: an intimate history of men and women in twentieth-century Britain Marcus Collins Atlantic Books, 294pp, £19.99 ISBN 1903809215

Made for love

Courtesans Katie Hickman HarperCollins, 363pp, £20 ISBN 0007113919

War without end

Society Must Be Defended Michel Foucault Translated by David Macey Penguin, 336pp, £16.99 ISBN 0713997079

The big picture

The Americas: the history of a hemisphere Felipe Fernandez-Armesto Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 235pp, £12.99 ISBN 1842127136

Grand designs

A Thing in Disguise: the visionary life of Joseph Paxton Kate Colquhoun Fourth Estate, 307pp, £18.99 ISBN 0007143532

Gangster chic

Truecrime Jake Arnott Sceptre, 338pp, £10.99 ISBN 0340832428

Novel of the week

Mr Golightly's Holiday Salley Vickers Fourth Estate, 345pp, £16.99 ISBN 0007156472

Observations

The choice is almost yours

Observations on hard sell

And so to Bedlam

Observations on prisoners

When the doves get militant

Observations on church

Sod this for a game of soldiers

Observations on the army

Green heroes

The top ten

20 green heroes and villains: Heroes

Green villains

The top ten

20 green heroes and villains: Villains

Bjorn Lomborg

Cloud control

Cloud control

Interview

Omar Bin Laden

The NS Interview: Omar Bin Laden

James Macintyre

Brown at war

Like it or not, Brown’s a war leader

What if...

Hugh Gaitskell lived

What if... Hugh Gaitskell had lived

Will Self

On brands

We’re all with the brand

Film review

A Serious Man

A Serious Man (15)

Vote!

Will Baroness Ashton be an effective EU foreign minister?

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