16 January 2006
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From the Editor…
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Cover story
We were wrong about Sharon
Sharon: His past is appalling and we may loathe his motives, but he did things that Palestinians and peaceniks have been demanding for years. And he would have gone on doing them
Features
The Adrian Mole generation
David Miliband (Labour), David Cameron (Tory) and Nick Clegg (Lib Dem) lead the new wave in politics, and though they are in different parties they have a lot in common. By Martin Bright, NS political editor
His real aim was to divide and dominate
Sharon: The Israeli leader did not become leftish or dovish; he just changed his tactics. His plan was to foment clashes among his enemies, and it is working
Power to fight both fires
Sharon: Amir Peretz won't win the March election but, argues Samir El-Youssef, he's the best hope for peace - Palestinian and Israeli
Where have all the feminists gone?
Across a whole range of issues, including even abortion and rape, women's rights are being challenged or eroded in ways not seen for decades. And no one seems ready to fight back
An American education
It is "early applications" time for US universities, and families have been on tenterhooks. If you want to see the class system at work, look no further
Trickle-down economics
Returning to Nigeria and a life of privilege, the novelist Uzodinma Iweala learns a lesson at the roadside
Essay
NS Essay - 'Little by little, the ''social'' element in social democracy has drowned out the ''democratic'' element. Freedom, tolerance, human rights, civil liberty and the rule of law slowly fell off the radar screen. It is time to redress the balance'
Twenty-five years after the SDP was born, it is fashionable to say that Blair and new Labour are the party's true heirs. Nonsense, writes David Marquand, who was once a leading SDP figure. They have betrayed that heritage
Regulars
Commons Confidential
Village life - Kevin Maguire finds the Mingers downhearted
26 newstatesman l 16 January 2006 l columns
Mark Thomas spots a human rights turkey
In Turkey, even assisting the state security forces comes at a price. Consider the case of Private Coskun Kirandi
Culture
Keeping time
Fifty years ago, orchestras performed Mozart's music as if he were another Brahms or Beethoven. Then the early music movement revealed a composer full of grace, lightness and passion. Nicholas Kenyon celebrates a truly modern master
Cinematic Seoul
World film - Forget Crouching Tiger and Spirited Away - Asia's best new movies are South Korean
Analyse this
Museums - Even now, Freud's couch has the power to bring buried memories to the surface, finds Sebastian Harcombe
Radio
Radio - Rachel Cooke
Trying to discover why more black Britons don't climb the social ladder seemed a bit insulting
Film
John Lyttle - The eastern affront
Film - This depiction of oppression is decorously polite, writes John Lyttle Memoirs of a Geisha (12A)
Television
Andrew Billen - Space oddity
Television - A time-travelling DI revisits shameless 1970s chauvinism. By Andrew Billen Life on Mars (BBC1)
Books
Passion high at the Tehran Hopkins Club
Observations on books
The dark side of globalisation . Diamonds, opium, prostitutes, cocaine: if demand exists in the west, the rest of the world will supply it. Illegal trade, accounting for one-fifth of the global economy, is a threat more serious than terrorism
Illicit: how smugglers, traffickers and copycats are hijacking the global economy Moises Naim William Heinemann, 340pp, £12.99 ISBN 0434013501
The small voices
The Place at the End of the World: essays from the edge Janine di Giovanni Bloomsbury, 414pp, £8.99 ISBN 0747580367
War of the words
Consider the Lobster and Other Essays David Foster Wallace Abacus, 352pp, £10.99 ISBN 0349119511
Second helpings
The Fat Girl's Guide to Life Wendy Shanker Bloomsbury, 288pp, £8.99 ISBN 0747578834
Ways of seeing
The Ongoing Moment Geoff Dyer Little, Brown, *285pp, £20 ISBN 0316730254
Fiction - Treading water
An Irresponsible Age Lavinia Greenlaw Fourth Estate, 328pp, £16.99 ISBN 0007156294
Fiction - Happy shoppers
Sellevision Augusten Burroughs Atlantic Books, 229pp, £7.99 ISBN 1843543648
The American scene
Magazines for would-be writers crowd the news-stands. But are they any help with getting published?
