27 November 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 real Afghan war
The Taliban and the insurgency are not Afghanistan's worst problems. The country is now ruled by a new mafia of corrupt police and officials, who are crippling any hopes for a democratic future. Kate Clark reports
Features
Can sharia be good for women?
Across Afghanistan, girls and women are now receiving an education: but it is a purely Islamic one
The Russia I lost
In Soviet times, to challenge the state was to risk one's freedom and one's life. But is it any different now in the new world of oligarchs and opulence? Here, Russia's best-known cultural journalist, Artemy Troitsky, fears for his country's future
Stupid drinking
Labour promised that relaxed licensing laws would create a "café culture" in our cities. A year on, urban drunkenness is at disturbing levels
Brown's moral compass
The man likely to be the next prime minister is as concerned with the "moralisation" of Britain as its modernisation. This is no empty soundbite. As a glance at his bookshelf would reveal, he is passionately and philosophically committed to a compassionate society
Regulars
New Statesman Leader
Russia can still find a pluralistic path that fits its own needs
New Statesman leader on the state of Russia in 2006
The Politics Column
A strange conversation
A strange encounter with Tony Blair's friend, the Labour fundraiser Lord Levy, at a Guardian party
Reader, I divorced him No 3956
Set by Brendan J O'Byrne As the sequel to "Peter Pan" hits the bookshops, we asked for others of your choice
Culture
Playing God
Religious belief is not just a philosophical issue - it divides families and societies. That is why theatre is uniquely placed to explore it
Tough love
Prison arts programmes are no soft option. They cut crime and protect victims, writes Angela Neustatter
Theatre
Love is your best bet in Vegas
The Beatles and Cirque du Soleil have created a stunning spectacle Love The Mirage, Las Vegas
Film
Lost in the labyrinth
This political fairy tale is haunting, but it has little to say about the real world Pan's Labyrinth (15) dir: Guillermo del Toro
Television
Just one last drink
Alcoholics plead that no one understands them. This film says: "We're trying" Rain in My Heart BBC2
Books
A new chapter for books
After five centuries, the printed page is giving way to PDFs and HTML. Does that mean the end of reading and the beginning of information processing, asks John Sutherland The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters G W Dahlquist Viking, ten-part serial, £25, see http://www.glassbooks.co.uk (A one-volume version will be published in January 2007, £16.99) Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge Jean-Noë Jeanneney University of Chicago Press, 96pp, £10
Our bluffer's guide to the year in books
Hold your own at any Christmas dinner party. By Rachel Aspden, Henrietta Clancy and Daniel Trilling.
