05 January 2004

From the Editor…

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Cover story

Find this man a job!

Nearly half of Britain's voters think Tony Blair will no longer be PM by the end of 2004. But what can he do instead? David Cox canvasses potential employers

Features

Official! It really is a mad, mad, mad world

Dark thoughts about humanity's future don't usually get to the top of the Christmas singles charts.Jason Cowley finds cause for optimism and wintry celebration in a success that defied and bewildered the British pop music industry

Weimar in Wales

When Jack Jameson was stranded in what looked like a peaceful market town, he got an unpleasant surprise

When Irish eyes are spying

Ireland has not only banned smoking in restaurants and bars, ministers have also asked citizens to grass on the lawbreakers

The deadly march of the chosen ones

They plotted to assassinate Mandela and set up a Boer republic that would expel all blacks from South Africa. Who were they and what drove them? John Carlin reports

Regulars

Leave the stage, Mr Blair, you're in the way

If Iraq posed a threat where is the evidence of clandestine laboratories?

Politics - John Kampfner wonders if we will ever join the euro

Who would have believed that, after seven years of Labour, we would be no nearer to joining the euro and still holding out for "red lines"?

Darcus Howe fails to spread goodwill in the Caribbean

I try to spread goodwill in the Caribbean but am assaulted and abused for my pains

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Culture

A stranger in a strange land

Best remembered for Rebel Without a Cause, the maverick director Nicholas Ray has been neglected by the critics. As a retrospective of his work opens at the National Film Theatre, his pessimistic world-view is as relevant as ever

Camera obscura

Art - Richard Cork on why Gerhard Richter is elusive despite a dizzying array of materials

The last laugh

Theatre - John Morrison on why the art of farce is an extremely serious business

All in the worst possible taste

Film - Mark Kermode on the latest loud, crude but very funny Farrelly brothers movie

Swinging in the Sixties

Television - Andrew Billen revisits the rise of new Labour on a tricky vote - at the 1964 election

Books

Shoulder to shoulder

Hug Them Close: Blair, Clinton, Bush and the "special relationship" Peter Riddell Politico's, 317pp, £9.99 ISBN 1842750844

War hero

The Wars Against Saddam: taking the hard road to Baghdad John Simpson Macmillan, 415pp, £20 ISBN 1405032642

Great dynasties

A People's History of Britain Rebecca Fraser Chatto & Windus, 829pp, £25 ISBN 0701169370

An immodest proposal

The Encyclopaedia of Ireland Edited by Brian Lalor Gill & Macmillan, 1,256pp, £50 ISBN 0717130002

Observations

The A-list celebs move in

Observations on Patagonia

More floods, but still thirsty

Observations on south-east development by Julie Foley

The secrets on the office desk

Observations on new year diaries

The interview

Preview: Ken Livingstone: “The world is run by monsters”

The interview

Preview: Boris Johnson: “I’ll tell you what makes me angry – lefty crap”

On Syria

Intervention in Syria won’t work, so how do we stop Assad?

GOP race so far

Infographic: Republican primary race 2012

Mind your B-sides

Mind your B-sides

Time to rethink

Time to rethink, not reassure

Who minds?

Latter Day Taint?

Alistair Darling

Alistair Darling, the Miliband dilemma and what the party must do next
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