09 January 2006
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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
The death of freedom
The rights of ordinary people to speak out against an unjust war and atrocities unleashed in their name are being crushed. Fascism is at the door. Who else, asks John Pilger, will fight it?
Features
Technohype bites back
Does your quad-band, polyphonic camphone make you feel slightly sick? It should. Our addiction to pointless technology will be the death of us all, argues David Cox
Essay
NS Essay - 'From the ashes of political idealism, religion has risen, seductive because it offers a simplistic division of right from wrong that suits both political spin and political vision'
"Can politics remain secular?" we asked for last year's Webb Essay competition. It must, argues the winner, Katy Long, because if we continue to pander to blind faith, our vision of a just society will die
Regulars
The Politics Column
The politics column - Richard Reeves
Maybe an MP or two might cross the floor to Cameron. Could Shaun Woodward do it twice? (Churchill did, after all)
Michela Wrong is refused a visa
It's the way an embassy turns down your visa request that tells you everything you need to know about the country in question
Ziauddin Sardar captures Bin Laden
Muslims urgently need a better class of heroes. Why has the Islamic world not produced a Gandhi or a Mandela?
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
Over here, Mona!
With galleries reporting record visitor figures, our appetite for art has never been greater. And yet there is a crisis in the way we look at it. An impatient glance is no substitute for the searching gaze
Theatre
Seen, not heard
Theatre - Helen Chappell discovers that these days there's more to mime than French clowns in white make-up
Radio
Radio - Rachel Cooke
Andy Kershaw, who wants to get You and Yours off the airwaves, is already my hero of 2006
Theatre
Michael Portillo - Hollywood satire
Theatre - A lavish but pointless revival of an early Tinseltown spoof, writes Michael Portillo Once in a Lifetime Olivier Theatre, London SE1
Film
Victoria Segal - A load of balls
Film - Angst-ridden veteran makes a hash of his London debut. By Victoria Segal Match Point (12A)
Television
Andrew Billen - National portrait
Television - Gabby Aussie and tight-lipped monarch make a perfect match, writes Andrew Billen The Queen by Rolf (BBC1)
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies worries about Michael's foot
What had happened to Harry Kewell? Had a bird decided to nest on his head?
Books
The ethics of responsibility. For life to have meaning, we need to stop pursuing our own interests and learn to share. Giving is what makes us human. This is a message common to all religions, writes Ziauddin Sardar
To Heal a Fractured World Jonathan Sacks Continuum, 288pp, £16.99 ISBN 0826486223
Making the grade
Teacher Man Frank McCourt Fourth Estate, 272pp, £18.99 ISBN 0007173989
Thinking outside the text
How to Read Derrida Penelope Deutscher Granta Books, 128pp, £6.99 ISBN 1862077681 How to Read Marx Peter Osborne Granta Books, 128pp, £6.99
Perfect profile
Ivor Novello: portrait of a star Paul Webb Haus Publishing, 208pp, £16 ISBN 1860570194
Fiction - Lost fragments
The Prince Hushang Golshiri, trans. James Buchan Harvill, 128pp, £12 ISBN 1843431718
