07 March 2005

From the Editor…

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Cover story

The Bling Bling List

It's the super-rich who have done best under Labour. The top one per cent have seen their wealth rise at a rate that the rest of us can barely comprehend. Introduction

Features

Even Desperate Housewives is a victim of the culture wars

Violence and threats from militant religious groups are coming thick and fast, and the targets are widening. Francis Beckett argues that church leaders are among those who fail to express sufficient outrage

''Parte'', said the frontier guard

Bert Lodge recalls the curious outcome of a mission he undertook for the late Peter Benenson, Amnesty's founder

It's everywhere: just don't talk about it

For thousands of ever younger people, hard-core pornography on the internet is becoming their introduction to sexual expression. Yet the sudden ubiquity of porn is hardly ever discussed publicly. Johann Hari on a dangerous silence

"People in England live differently . . ."

Polish migrants work for tiny wages that British workers won't accept. But many have only the haziest idea of how cynically they are being exploited. Christina Zaba reports

Essay

NS Essay - Whether it's sex, drink, schools or culture, the English are extremists

England doesn't deserve its reputation for moderation. Where else do you find, in the same country, a Soviet-style health service - or aristocrats still making laws?

Regulars

Secret justice is bad justice

John Pilger kebabs the Tonier-than-thou club

Those who regard themselves as commissars of the respectable, moral, liberal class do not convey to us the enormity of what happened in Iraq. Their silence is quite disgusting

Darcus Howe quakes at Caribbean justice

The Caribbean still needs the law lords in London as a final court of appeal - for now

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Culture

Paint it black

On the run from a death sentence, Caravaggio found a deeper, more urgent voice and produced paintings of genius. Richard Cork is mesmerised by the 17th-century master's dark, final works

With apologies to Will

Shakespeare's plays have spawned a strangely uneven subculture. Tom Sutcliffe analyses opera based on the canon, and Michael Coveney looks at theatre inspired by the Bard

You sexy thing

Cinema - How should the most explicit film in recent memory be viewed? With pleasure

Michael Portillo - Punch-drunk

Theatre - Alcoholic lovers fascinate and charm, until they start to fight, writes Michael Portillo Days of Wine and Roses Donmar Warehouse, London WC2

Mark Kermode - Sexual revolution

Film - A triumph of grown-up cinema, and adolescent fare that sucks. By Mark Kermode Kinsey (15) Boogeyman (15)

Andrew Billen - It's good to talk

Television - Paul Whitehouse reveals new depth in a therapeutic sitcom, writes Andrew Billen Help (BBC2)

The fan - Hunter Davies is surprised to see his name in the obits

My wife lingers over photos of Mourinho, especially that moody one

Books

The holiday snaps. Abu Ghraib wasn't the fault just of US politicians and soldiers. Torture, glamourised by Hollywood, is now intrinsic to American life. By Ziauddin Sardar

Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the war on terror Mark Danner Granta Books, 573pp, £16.99 ISBN 186207772X The Torture Papers: the road to Abu Ghraib Edited by Karen J Greenberg and Joshua L Dratel Cambridge University Press, 1,284pp, £27.50

Close encounters

Aliens: why they are here Bryan Appleyard Scribner, 340pp, £15.99 ISBN 0743256859

Cause for concern

Better or Worse? Has Labour delivered? Polly Toynbee and David Walker Bloomsbury, 346pp, £7.99 ISBN 0747579822

Psychic cleansing

Going Sane Adam Phillips Hamish Hamilton, 245pp, £14.99 ISBN 0241142091

Spirited away

England's Lost Eden: adventures in a Victorian utopia Philip Hoare Fourth Estate, 548pp, £25 ISBN 0007159102

The book business

Nicholas Clee on an absurd literary prize

Fiction - Lost corner

Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro Faber & Faber, 263pp, £16.99 ISBN 0571224113

Observations

Fill out the forms, Mr Clarke

Observations on house arrest

The spice traders' tale

Observations on adulterated food

Secrets and marriages

Observations on Egypt

Will envelopes die in vain?

Observations on the general election

How Korea became cool

Observations on eastern fashions

A classier waiting experience

Observations on queues

Fidel Castro

The last revolutionary

The last revolutionary

Steve Richards

On Tory policy

Our future in their hands

Science

Religion and Darwin

Since the dawn  of time

James Macintyre

Miliband's dilemma

Brussels is back with a vengeance

Will Self

On Oscar Wilde

Where the Wilde things are

Film review

Bright Star

Bright Star (PG)

Books

Paul Auster

Invisible

Interview

Alain de Botton

The Books Interview: Alain de Botton

Vote!

Was the government wrong to sack David Nutt?

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