14 April 2008
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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
''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
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
Both politically and theologically, conservative Christianity is now a militant and rapidly growing force, in Britain and globally
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
New Statesman Leader
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
Diary
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
Politics
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
Shazia's week
While filming in Las Vegas I see Tom Jones. I once served him a milkshake, you know
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
Arts & Culture
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
Performance
Shiny, happy people
The veteran rock band have regained the passion that made them great
REM
Royal Albert Hall, London SW7
Film
Lock up your darlings
A claustrophobic work argues that desire is a form of imprisonment
The Last Mistress (15)
dir: Catherine Breillat
Television
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
Radio
A message to you, Auntie
The BBC's celebration of 2 Tone is something of an opportunity missed
Travels
The needle in the sea
Simon Worrall sets sail for a southern island to meet a man fighting the looters of China's underwater treasure
Books
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
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
Hostile takeover
Boss of Bosses: How Bernardo Provenzano Saved the Mafia
Clare Longrigg
John Murray, 300pp, £20
Eye of the storm
Great Hatred, Little Room: Making Peace in Northern Ireland
Jonathan Powell
Bodley Head, 338pp, £20
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
