22 January 2007
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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
Sex, politics and idealists
Politics is not just for nerds, nor is it a cynical hunt for power. That is the message of a new BBC drama that is trying to glamorise the world of Westminster. Martin Bright, aka the show's consultant, reports
Features
Don't let civil servants blame it on us
The logical response to the Home Office crisis is to make Whitehall officials more accountable for their actions, or inactions - rather than calling for ministerial sackings
Bangladesh: Give me back my country
When Tahmima Anam went home to Dhaka to cast her vote in the now-postponed election, she found a nation in chaos, tormented by corruption and brutality.
Forced out, looking inwards: Britain's Bangladeshis
How a large number of Britain's Bangladeshis find themselves poorly educated and with no job
Our independent press is not safe
The threat the political climate in Bangladesh created to the free press
Bush's blue-collar war
The US soldiers in Iraq come overwhelmingly from poor backgrounds and only five members of Congress have sons or daughters serving there.
Interview
Interview: Peter Hain
The Northern Ireland Secretary wants to inject ethics back into foreign policy after all the courting of George Bush
Round robins No 3961
Set by Tiny Tim We asked for the usual Christmas circulars, from famous people of your choice
Culture
Lessons from America
The Metropolitan Opera in New York is battling for new audiences, enlisting celebrity support and staging daring productions, writes Peter Conrad
A walk on the dark side
Richard Cork is horrified by Christoph Büchel's haunting installation in the East End of London
Theatre
A rather sorry affair
Predictable and lacking in frisson, this sex comedy doesn't hit the spot Same Time Next Year Mill at Sonning, Reading
Film
Of love and war
Two very different films highlight the human cost of armed conflict Iraq in Fragments (12A) dir: James Longley Black Book (15) dir: Paul Verhoeven
Television
Clash of the current affairs flagships
Streamlined to 30 minutes, Panorama is drinking in the last-chance saloon Panorama BBC1 Dispatches Channel 4 Tonight ITV1
Books
The F-word
From Afghanistan to the Bible Belt, fundamentalism is locked in a struggle with secular modernity. But it is more complex than shock headlines suggest
Style and substance
Sergey Prokofiev: diaries 1907-1914 - prodigious youth Edited by Anthony Phillips Faber & Faber, 800pp, £25 ISBN 080144540X
Juvenile delinquent
Possible Side Effects: true stories Augusten Burroughs Atlantic Books, 224pp, £7.99 ISBN 1843545225
Death à la carte
John Sutherland uncovers California's secret obsession with the grave
How to be good
Worldchanging: a user's guide for the 21st century Edited by Alex Steffen Abrams, 596pp, £24.95 ISBN 0810930951
Plenty more fish
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Paul Torday Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 321pp, £12.99 ISBN 0297851586
