07 August 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
Blood on his hands
Blair knew the attack on Lebanon was coming but he didn't try to stop it, because he didn't want to. He has made this country an accomplice, destroying what remained of our influence abroad while putting us all at greater risk of attack
Features
Generation X-Files
The psychic schools have never been so busy, and it's not the Doris Stokes brigade who want to learn, but the young, the prosperous and the educated. Stephen Armstrong uncovers a paranormal boom
Mugabe: Why Africa applauds him
He is responsible for the hunger, homelessness and exile of millions - black and white - yet neighbouring countries still dignify him with a hero's welcome. Christina Lamb reports on the tolerance of tyranny
Frankenstein fuels
Pioneered by bearded hippies running clapped-out vans on recycled chip fat, biofuels now mean big business, sold to us as a solution to global warming. We must not be fooled, argues Mark Lynas
Regulars
The Politics Column
Where wealth disparities and violence meet
As our politicians shed responsibility for managing the economy they have to prove their importance elsewhere. That place is the crime agenda
Prime suspect No 3940
Set by Dipak Ghosh In order to help Tony Blair (or his ghost-writer), we asked for suggestions for a title for his autobiography summing up his time at No 10, plus either an opening or final paragraph
Culture
Un-American beauties
With Broadway theatres afraid to mention child-killers, politics, Aids or 9/11, radical playwrights from the US are flocking to Soho, Battersea and Edinburgh
The triumph of painting
Forget video installations and performance art: the oldest medium is still the best, argues Richard Cork
Theatre
Won't you charleston with me?
Naughty girls and frisky fellows make for perfect summer entertainment The Boy Friend Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, London NW1
Film
Things could have been so different
It's hard to recognise Confederate or eco-friendly America CSA: the Confederate States of America (12A) dir: Kevin Willmott Who Killed the Electric Car? (U) dir: Chris Paine
Television
Modern life is rubbish
Two satires on Blair's Britain take savage swipes at celebrity culture Time Trumpet BBC2 Modern Toss Channel 4
Books
Discovering the secrets of the city
Psychogeography Merlin Coverley Pocket Essentials, 160pp, £9.99 The word "psychogeography" crops up endlessly in style mags. But what does it actually mean? Sukhdev Sandhu goes in search of the ghosts of the urban past
Hispanic fantasy
Ghost Train Through the Andes: on my grandfather's trail in Chile and Bolivia Michael Jacobs John Murray, 336pp, £25 ISBN 0719561795
Managing chaos
Plundering the Public Sector: how new Labour are letting consultants run off with £70bn of our money David Craig, with Richard Brooks Constable & Robinson, 264pp, £9.99
Haves and have-nots
Fortunate Son Walter Mosley Serpent's Tail, 313pp, £11.99 ISBN 1852429313
Children of Céline
Mammals Pierre Mérot Canongate, 216pp, £9.99 ISBN 1841955833
Style and substance
99 Ways to Tell a Story Matt Madden Jonathan Cape, 206pp, £12.99 ISBN 0224079255
Numbers game
A Boy of Good Breeding Miriam Toews Faber & Faber, 256pp, £10.99 1582433402
Too clever by half
Cunning Don Herzog Princeton University Press, 192pp, £15.95 ISBN 0691124159
Out of Africa
Assassinating Shakespeare: confessions of a bard in the bush Thomas Goltz Saqi Books, 253pp, £12.99 ISBN 0863567185
