14 April 2008

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

''Jesus will appear again as judge of the world and the dead will be raised''

Tom Wright's literal belief in the Resurrection makes him a hero to conservative Christians worldwide. Here he declares war on militant atheists and liberals, and explains why heaven is not the end of the world

Features

Dangerous liaisons

Dangerous liaisons

As Farc guerrillas drag Latin America to the brink of war, ratings for Colombia's ultra-right Álvaro Uribe soar. Now the left is determined to divorce itself from the group

Fundamental change

Fundamental change

Both politically and theologically, conservative Christianity is now a militant and rapidly growing force, in Britain and globally

The politics of religion

Religious belief is no basis for law-making

The big benefit cheat

The big benefit cheat

Billions of pounds flow into the Exchequer by stealth but it is not the middle classes who are losing out, it is those with the lowest incomes.

'People try to portray us as spongers'

Simon W Jenkins talks to one man struggling to escape the cycle of poverty on Jobseeker's Allowance

Regulars

Fleecing the poor is not the best way to fight poverty

Fleecing the poor is not the best way to fight poverty

The New Statesman leader this week looks at the way tax under Labour is redistributing from the poorest

Mr Brown at your service

Mr Brown at your service

The polls are not good for Labour. The latest advice to the Prime Minister is to show that he identifies with voters. First, though, he must learn how to speak to people worried about the rising cost of everyday items

Knives out for Jack the Lad

All the gossip from the Westminster village

All in a name No 4022

We asked you for new words (plus their definitions) that have entered the English language and are based on people's names

Culture

Who's the daddy?

Who's the daddy?

Donald Sutherland is a veteran Hollywood activist who in the 1970s made anti-Vietnam films with Jane Fonda. Those heady days pale in comparison to today's political battles.

Meditation man

Nigel Hall's sculptures are points of stillness in a chaotic world

International front

International front

The term "world music" has finally become redundant in 2008

Shiny, happy people

The veteran rock band have regained the passion that made them great REM Royal Albert Hall, London SW7

Lock up your darlings

A claustrophobic work argues that desire is a form of imprisonment The Last Mistress (15) dir: Catherine Breillat

No laughing matter

Great acting aside, this series on the lives of comedians has been a let-down Frankie Howerd: Rather You Than Me BBC4

A message to you, Auntie

The BBC's celebration of 2 Tone is something of an opportunity missed

Books

My bath mat's campaign for the presidency

I revealed the intimacy of my relationship with Dr Moo, a half-man, half-cow chimera created following the new embryology bill

How did we get here?

How did we get here?

After ten years of new Labour in power, the academics and commentators have been taking stock. David Marquand argues that it is the unintended and still unpredictable consequences of its constitutional changes that will be seen as its most damaging legacy

Failing upwards

The Remarkable Lives of Bill Deedes Stephen Robinson Little, Brown, 480pp, £20

Horror in Uganda

Horror in Uganda

The Wizard of the Nile: the Hunt for Africa's Most Wanted Matthew Green Portobello Books, 335pp, £16.99

Gray's anatomy

The Last Cigarette Simon Gray Granta Books, 320pp, £14.99

The daily chronicle

The Northern Clemency Philip Hensher Fourth Estate, 738pp, £17.99

Freudian slippage

Envy Alain Elkann Pushkin Press, 125pp, £7.99

After the conflict

After the conflict

The Angel of Grozny: Inside Chechnya Åsne Seierstad Virago, 340pp, 14.99

Hostile takeover

Hostile takeover

Boss of Bosses: How Bernardo Provenzano Saved the Mafia Clare Longrigg John Murray, 300pp, £20

Eye of the storm

Eye of the storm

Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland Jonathan Powell Bodley Head, 338pp, £20

Work in progress

Work in progress

The New Rome: the Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America Cullen Murphy Icon Books, 272pp, £14.99

The mask remover

Taken from The New Statesman 31 May 1968

Observations

The big African oil grab

The big African oil grab

Observations on Equatorial Guinea

Moving the boundaries

Observations on Macedonia

Moodometer

We test the temperature of the nation this week

Tipping point

Observations on 12.5%

My baby maybe

Observations on DNA

Fidel Castro

The last revolutionary

The last revolutionary

Steve Richards

On Tory policy

Our future in their hands

Science

Religion and Darwin

Since the dawn  of time

James Macintyre

Miliband's dilemma

Brussels is back with a vengeance

Will Self

On Oscar Wilde

Where the Wilde things are

Film review

Bright Star

Bright Star (PG)

Books

Paul Auster

Invisible

Interview

Alain de Botton

The Books Interview: Alain de Botton

Vote!

Was the government wrong to sack David Nutt?

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