06 August 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
An unlikely nation
Many predicted that the state of India would fail and that its races and religions would surely not hold together when the British left. But 60 years after independence, the country remains united and mostly democratic. Ramachandra Guha kicks off our special report with a look at the factors behind a miraculous success
Features
So very unprofessional
How did David Cameron lose his nerve and his bearings in just one month? Martin Bright looks at the disarray that has engulfed the Conservatives since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister.
Jacqui Smith: The Interview
She may be using a softer language on the big crime and security issues of the day but Britain's first female home secretary is pursuing a distinctly authoritarian agenda.
Moving on
From SUVs to battered buses and auto-rickshaws, Delhi's transport captures the divide between rich and poor. But its cheap, safe Metro system may level the field.
Minority report
India's 150 million Muslims face poverty, illiteracy and attacks from the Hindu right, but their identity and traditions are inseparable from the rest of the country.
Growing pains
Behind India's astonishing growth rate lies an economy that can do the impossible, but fumbles the mundane.
Fuelling the fire
Kalpana Sharma on India's looming energy crisis
Regulars
New Statesman Leader
Ties with the US: a good start but still some worrying signs
For all Brown's cooler body language with Bush, the early signs are that on strategic issues he, too, will acquiesce whenever requested
Commons Confidential
It’s business as usual for Labour’s fat cats
Is "Basher" Davis plotting to have Druggie Dave shot for crimes against Conservatism?
Tony Blair - a penitent Catholic
We have had a Jewish prime minister in Disraeli, a Methodist in Thatcher, but still not a Catholic
Sizzling sensations No 3989
Set by Didier d'Argent We asked for mouth-watering publicity blurbs for a famous novel of your choice to ensure that huge numbers of readers are pulled in, whether or not each blurb accurately encapsulates what is in the pages
Culture
To Russia, with dub
Want to fight racism in Russia? Send in Lily Allen, some reggae bands and an outspoken Muslim rapper. But perhaps this celebration of multicultural Britain says more about the tensions in our own society.
Poetry in motion
The highlight of this year’s Edinburgh Festival will be Poland’s Song of the Goat Theatre
The way I see it
The way I see it: Asger Leth
Asger Leth is the Danish-born director of the documentary film “Ghosts of Cité Soleil”, which tells the story of two members of the Chimères street gang in Haiti. Out in cinemas now.
Theatre
Publish and be damned
Literary agents are selfish and grasping? Tell us something we don't know The Agent Trafalgar Studios, London SW1
Film
The never-ending story
Studio Ghibli has just ruined my life - by making its first tedious film Tales from Earthsea (PG) dir: Goro Miyazaki Evan Almighty (PG) dir: Tom Shadyac
Television
This is how to grow old gracefully
Here's hoping for a third series of this fascinating and understated drama Sensitive Skin BBC2
Radio
Keeping the country afloat
It's unpolished, but local radio provides a lifeline for flooded communities Radio Oxford, Radio Gloucestershire BBC local radio
Books
Midnight's adults
Over 60 years, democracy in India has been challenged by poverty, violence and religious extremism. But against all the odds, it has survived.
A touch of Gothic
God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain Rosemary HillAllen Lane, the Penguin Press, 624pp, £30
More than a mouthful
The Khat Controversy: Stimulating the Debate on Drugs David Anderson, Susan Beckerleg, Degol Hailu and Axel Klein Berg, 256pp, £55
Nation of millionaires
Richistan: a Journey Through the 21st-Century Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich Robert Frank Piatkus Books, 256pp, £12.99
Observations
Lines in the sand
An ever growing beach memorial to America's war dead has come to symbolise the catastrophe of the Iraq war
It's another goal for Iraq
Amid the carnage, a little-reported, high-quality mental health service has been established
Vote, vote vote for Upsy Daisy
Igglepiggle, Makka Pakka, Upsy Daisy and the Haahoos are going to be big. In the Night Garden can stun a hyperactive child into a Buddhistic trance within seconds
