06 March 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
Where did it all go wrong?
Education - The Education Bill has turned into a definitive confrontation between Tony Blair and his party. The argument goes to the heart of new Labour's idea of the role that education should play in the nation's life - a very different idea, explains Peter Wilby, from what drove the pioneers of comprehensive schools
Features
Touch me, feel me, renovate me
The housing market has slowed down, but house-hunting shows on television are still booming. Joe Moran on the deception behind all that property porn
Regulars
New Statesman Leader
Palestine's future is in our hands
Hamas must be required to make a gesture; this should coincide with a longer-term economic package and a new political dialogue with Israel
The Politics Column
The politics column - Martin Bright
When a prime minister himself is prepared to cavort on holiday with a man as morally dubious as Berlusconi, that does not, to put it mildly, set a good example
Michela Wrong finds three years isn't enough
If I had £50 for every time I've heard the words "I've only been in Africa for . . ." on the lips of an expat, I wouldn't need to work
Ziauddin Sardar rumbles a scam artist
It is one of the most successful cons in recent Muslim history, and many reputable believers have been had
Competition
Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store
Culture
Making waves
Art - Winslow Homer's vision of the sea was transformed by the storm-racked English coast, finds Richard Cork
Film
Just her luck
Film - Christopher Bray on the tragic career of Kay Kendall, whose reputation was marred even before it was made
Radio
Radio - Rachel Cooke
Radio 3 rows are particularly delicious - like dons arguing in the common room
Theatre
Michael Portillo - The silent prince
Theatre - A visually ravishing production never quite finds its voice, writes Michael Portillo Hamlet New Ambassadors Theatre, London WC2
Film
Mad, bad world
Film - A self-consciously serious look at the brutality of geopolitics. By Victoria Segal Syriana (15)
Television
Andrew Billen - Purple haze
Television - A tale of 1970s corruption is an exercise in confused nostalgia, writes Andrew Billen The Lavender List (BBC4)
The Fan
The fan - Hunter Davies learns a thing or two in Barnet
There was outcry in Carlisle after the plastic sheep was kidnapped
Books
American beauty. John Updike, whose second love was painting, sees his nation's art as a spiritual struggle on a grand scale. George Walden argues that we must keep its achievements in perspective
Still Looking: essays on American art John Updike Hamish Hamilton, 222pp, £25 ISBN 0241143357
Kiss and tell, and tell
My Horizontal Life Chelsea Handler William Heinemann, 213pp, £9.99 ISBN 0434015385
A rake's progress
John Wilkes: the scandalous father of civil liberty Arthur H Cash Yale University Press, 482pp, £20 ISBN 0300108710
The talking cure
Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, al-Jazeera and Middle East politics today Marc Lynch Columbia University Press, 320pp, £16 ISBN 0231134487
Modern life is rubbish
The Critique of Everyday Life: volume 3 Henri Lefebvre Verso, 179pp, £20 ISBN 1859845908
Illegal highs
The Devil's Picnic: a tour of everything the governments of the world don't want you to try Taras Grescoe Macmillan, 359pp, £12.99 ISBN 1405045817
Recipe for empire
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man John Perkins Ebury Press, 250pp, £7.99 ISBN 0091909104
Fiction - Lost and found
Suite Francaise Irene Nemirovsky; translated by Sandra Smith Chatto & Windus, 404pp, £16.99 ISBN 0701178965
