07 July 2008

From the Editor…

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Cover story

Photo essay: Young lives

An exclusive essay on the obstacles laid in the paths of this generation. Plus Suzanne Moore on why young people are unhappy. She argues society has demonised and and silenced them and that it's time for a new approach

Features

When discrimination works

When discrimination works

Parents of children who are now at private school are already talking of moving them to the local state sixth form

What the NHS means to me

What the NHS means to me

As the Health Service turns 60, Alan Johnson says Nye Bevan's vision continues to inspire him and points out that a decade ago it was talked of as if it was on its knees

Brown's Scottish play

Brown's Scottish play

For 50 years, Scotland was unshakeably Labour. But a string of party blunders has lost it - and the Union - to the Nationalists

A new deal for British children

A new deal for British children

Why are our young people so unhappy? Because we have become a society that fears, demonises and silences them. The fault is ours, not theirs

The long fight for equality

The long fight for equality

When women won the vote 80 years ago, many thought true equality was a mere step away. But it has not been so simple

Endless curiosity

W H Auden: Prose, Volume III (1949-1955)
Edited by Edward Mendelson
Faber & Faber, 779pp, £40

On summer schools

Throughout the US and UK, the summer school was a distinctive feature of the progressive age before the Great War. The spirit of those optimistic times is well conveyed in this article, written anonymously for the New Statesman (but possibly by S K Ratcliffe) during the first year of the magazine's life. The Chautauqua Institution in New York State described was founded in 1874, and still holds nine weeks of educational and cultural activities every summer.

Selected by Robert Taylor

Interview

Interview: Ed Balls

Interview: Ed Balls

With soaring street violence and constant classroom testing, Martin Bright and Suzanne Moore ask the children's secretary, if the next generation is getting a fair deal

Regulars

Ending child poverty is a huge ambition, but it is the right one

It is our responsibility, at whatever cost, to see that we do not squash the indomitable spirit of today’s children

A short walk in Palestine - or is it Eretz Yisrael?

A short walk in Palestine - or is it Eretz Yisrael?

We stopped to eat our picnic breakfast of Nabulsi goat's cheese and tomatoes - which we had to eat whole because I could not risk being stopped on the road carrying a Swiss army knife

David Davis's hard words

The ex-shadow home secretary turned Parliamentary hopeful has hard words for “Helping” Hands

This England

Each printed entry will receive a £5 book token. Entries on a POSTCARD, please, to This England, NS, address here: http://www.newstatesman.com/nscontactus.htm

Shazia's week

There was more hat swapping than wife swapping at this year's Glastonbury

Shaken, not stirred No 4034

Set by Joy Hosker
If Sebastian Faulks can write a Bond novel, why can't others?

Arts & Culture

Enduring memories

Enduring memories

The Cuban master film-maker Tomás Gutiérrez Alea trod a fine line, supporting the revolution but insisting that artists should maintain their distance from those in power

Seaside hide-and-seek

Seaside hide-and-seek

The Folkestone Triennial aims to revive the fortunes of an ailing town. But where is all the art?

John Squire

John Squire

Squire is a musician and painter, best known for having been the guitarist in the Stone Roses. For details of his artwork and forthcoming exhibitions, log on to: http://www.johnsquire.com

Unenlightened behaviour

Unenlightened behaviour

Clunking anti-Americanism mars a bold updating of Bernstein's work
Candide
Coliseum, London WC2

Keeping it low-key

Keeping it low-key

A talented writer-director bangs the drum for plain, unremarkable lives

The Visitor (15)
dir: Tom McCarthy

All the wrong lines

All the wrong lines

Fine performances are wasted on a script that tries too hard to be "relevant"
Criminal Justice BBC1

Riffing away on Rafa

Riffing away on Rafa

To my delight, the airwaves are filled with admirers of a certain tennis hero

Time and the river

Time and the river

A bicycle ride along the Thames Path spirits Nigel Fountain out of the rat race and into London's past

Books

No easy way out

No easy way out

The policy failures of Nato and the United States have left Afghanistan and Pakistan dangerously unstable, argues Ahmed Rashid. And any solution will be difficult as long as Pakistan's army and military intelligence continue to support the Taliban and al-Qaeda

Praise be to Godard

Praise be to Godard

Everything Is Cinema: the Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard
Richard Brody
Faber & Faber, 720pp, £30

Knock, knock

Knock, knock

Hammer and Tickle: a History of Communism Told Through Communist Jokes
Ben Lewis
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 368pp, £14.99

Short. Sharp. Shocking

Short. Sharp. Shocking

Trauma
Patrick McGrath
Bloomsbury, 224pp, £15.99

Tiananmen Square

20 years on

Desperately seeking democracy

Nina Power

Newspeak's legacy

Bamboozle, baffle and blindside

Television

Simon Schama

Simplistic Simon says: “Look at me, everyone!”

Theatre

Liberal guilt

Watch out for the bleeding-heart liberal

Vernon Bogdanor

Worse than Profumo

End of the party

Nicky Wire

The way I see it

Nicky Wire: The way I see it

Vote!

Will China rule the world?

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