23 June 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
Truly, madly, politically
David Davis's snap resignation struck a chord with people because it was spontaneous and unscripted. But why did so many commentators struggle with the idea it was a reasoned decision, ponders Demos director Catherine Fieschi. And why do we have a problem with emotion in politics?
Features
The key is respect
The government needs to change the relationship between state and citizen, writes the Minister for the Cabinet Office
Are gender stereotypes boring?
Suggestions one sex is more intelligent, witty, sympathetic, moral or interesting than the other do tend to be objectionable
Power v poverty
Privatisation, free trade and market forces . . . the rich world insists poor states play by our rules. But they don't work. Time to let countries determine their own destinies?
Obama's first presidency
As a brilliant student, the Democratic candidate became the first black editor of the influential Harvard Law Review. What does volume 140 reveal about his future career?
Can't take the heat
Washington ground to a halt in a recent heatwave. What better proof of how America's infrastructure is crumbling?
Regulars
New Statesman Leader
There is a political deficit at the heart of Europe
A constitution should be something that people demand of a government, not have forced on them to enhance “efficiency”
The Politics Column
On parables and principles
Where is the David Davis of the left, prepared to resign and challenge the government's authoritarian agenda?
Commons Confidential
The whispers
Miliboy: boldly going where no MP has gone before - all the gossip from the Westminster Village
Good Labour. Bad Labour
The efforts to divide Labour into two camps - "good" Compass Labour and "bad" new Labour - are leading the party forward to its past
A day in the life of . . . No 4032
On leaving office, politicians need a minimum of half a dozen jobs to fill their time and bank accounts. We asked you to suggest some occupations for the likes of Dubbya, Ian Paisley, and others whose time will come. Details of all new duties wanted
Culture
Poetry without motion
The paintings of Vilhelm Hammershøi were derided in his lifetime for being stark and uneventful. To the modern viewer, however, they capture a mood of existential angst
Smiley culture
The Ragga Twins blended reggae with electronic sounds - and gave birth to UK dance music
Hidden dragon
Huang Yong Ping lit a rocket under China's art Establishment when he founded the Xiamen Dada group in the 1980s. The struggle continues, he tells Alice O'Keeffe
Performance
Improvised genius
The Indian sitar master delivers a mesmerising farewell concert Ravi Shankar Barbican Hall, London EC2
Film
A talent in need of nurture
Stylistic gusto fails to hide the flimsy nature of this Dylan Thomas biopic The Edge of Love (15) dir: John Maybury
Television
Before the age of reality TV
A look back to 1988 suggests that we've lost the art of making documentaries Afghantsi More4
Radio
It takes a nation of maestros . . .
How oppression gave rise to China's obsession with playing the piano
Books
New world orders?
Terrorism will become more common and more destructive in the 21st century. But is al-Qaeda really so new and uniquely dangerous?
How green was my alley
On Guerrilla Gardening: a Handbook for Gardening Without Boundaries Richard Reynolds Bloomsbury, 256pp, £14.99 The Acorn House Cookbook Arthur Potts Dawson Hodder & Stoughton, 288pp, £20M
All this and WWII
Avro Lancaster Owner's Workshop Manual: an Insight into Owning, Restoring, Servicing and Flying Britain's Legendary World War Two Bomber Jarrod Cotter and Paul Blackah J H Haynes & Co, 160pp, £17.99
What God is and isn't
Theology for Pilgrims Nicholas Lash Darton, Longman & Todd, 224pp, £14.95
Radical hope in Venezuela
¡Hugo! The Hugo Chávez Story: from Mud Hut to Perpetual Revolution Bart Jones Bodley Head, 608pp, £12.99 Americanos: Latin America's Struggle for Independence John Chasteen Oxford University Press, 240pp,£14,99
Observations
The rise of the far right
The New Labour project relied on the assumption that its traditional support had nowhere else to go. But this is now changing, and the BNP has emerged as one beneficiary
