20 September 2004
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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
Property scandal
A few rich people, many of them aristocrats, own 69 per cent of the land in Britain. As a result, house prices are so high, millions can't afford to buy a home. The NS launches a campaign to end this feudal system
Features
The case for taxing land
Dave Wetzel proposes a tax that would be good for business, good for those struggling to buy houses, and good for the Chancellor
A revolutionary who won over Victorian liberals
Asquith, Lloyd George and Winston Churchill all backed proposals to end the landlords' monopoly. So, Mr Blair, what about you?
We want greener transport
Tim Yeo, Tory environment spokesman, calls for a halt to airport runway expansion, and higher tax on polluting cars
How car dealers can run state schools
If you've got £2m, you can "sponsor" one of new Labour's academies, and control teachers and curriculum. But you don't actually need to stump up cash
House prices? In Italy, too, people talk of little else
Millions of Italians are being plunged into poverty by soaring rents and static salaries. Yet Berlusconi's government insists that inflation is an illusion. Sebastian Cresswell-Turner reports
On the road to recovery
NS business voices dinner - The Department of Trade and Industry seemed to have lost all purpose in recent years. But the current team at the helm has given it a new lease of life
Regulars
Brown seethes as Blair reneges on deal
John Kampfner reveals that the PM really did agree to go. Don't bet against an exasperated Chancellor soon issuing a challenge to his rival
John Pilger hears Blair echo Mussolini
The terrorism of groups and individuals, however horrific, is tiny by comparison with that of states. But the media have no language to describe state terrorism
Darcus Howe pities the people of Grenada
Hurricane Ivan was a blessing only for the murderers of a former Grenada premier
Amanda Platell is snubbed by Blunkett
On the BBC, a cuddly Gordon spoke of being nice to your neighbours. A bit rich, surely?
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
Irrelevant Cautious Antique
It was the stuff of rows in parliament, the most outrageous gallery in Britain. But the Institute of Contemporary Arts has become so dreary that it would scarcely be missed if it closed down tomorrow
Will you still need me?
Repertory theatre - As it hits 40, Liverpool's once unmissable Everyman has got to get its act together, urges Michael Coveney
Unvarnished vision
Old Masters - Michael Fathers explains why the Omai painted by William Hodges is far more arresting than the celebrated portrait by Joshua Reynolds
Theatre
Michael Portillo - A fine tradition
Theatre - The promenaders don their headdress and fly their flags. By Michael Portillo Last Night of the Proms Royal Albert Hall, London SW7
Film
Mark Kermode - True romance
Film - A convincing couple compare well with a tragic mismatch. By Mark Kermode Ae Fond Kiss (15) Code 46 (15)
Television
Andrew Billen - Just another villain
Television - A timely look into a terrorist's mind and the hurt he caused. By Andrew Billen The Brighton Bomb (BBC1) The Hunt for the Bomber (BBC1)
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies advises Sven to stay at home
Sven should fax in the team sheet, then watch at home like the rest of us
Books
The discovery that life has no ultimate purpose leaves us free to make of it what we like. But in a godless universe, failure is absolute. The terrors of hell have been replaced by the terrors of social and sexual failure. By Edward Skidelsky
What's It All About?: philosophy and the meaning of life Julian Baggini Granta Books, 204pp, £12.99 ISBN 1862076618
Absolutely ripping. As the biography of an elusive literary type is published, William Cook eavesdrops on a remarkable conversation
Wodehouse: a life Robert McCrum Viking, 530pp, £20 ISBN 0670896926
Sick to the core
NHS plc: the privatisation of our healthcare Allyson M Pollock Verso, 256pp, £15.99 ISBN 1844670112
Snack attack
Wordy books - Bite-sized aids to writing and speaking are all the rage, but Annalisa Barbieri feels short-changed by the latest crop
Fiction - The perfect match
Cherry Matt Thorne Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 197pp, £12.99 ISBN 0297829092
Fun with words
Literary magazines - Thomas Jones peruses the best of the new journals - but doubts if any will rival the great periodicals of the past
