19 January 2009
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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
Obama: What the world expects . . .
He only has to rescue the global economy, solve the crisis in the Middle East and fix the environment . . . In this special report, Alec MacGillis, Patricia J Williams, Will Hutton, Sigrid Rausing, Benjamin Markovits, Katherine Butler and Mark Lynas assess the new president's prospects
Features
In the bleak Midwinter
The collapse of Waterford Wedgwood is a disaster for the Potteries, and for a once-rich craft heritage
Happy New Fear
Sick of a corrupt political elite, young Greeks continue to take to the streets. Their words of rage echo through the capital
The conflict within Hamas
The territory's ruling party is by no means united. Until its factions can resolve their differences, peace with Israel is a distant prospect
A new global game?
Obama and Sport
A New Deal of the mind
The government's job creation plans are inspired by FDR's New Deal. But ministers have ignored its most lasting legacy: the boost it gave to writers, artists and intellectuals
The chocolate king of São Tomé
Xan Rice visits a man who has been on a quest to produce some of the finest dark chocolate in the world
Interview
A day with Jon Cruddas
After a strong showing in Labour's deputy leadership race, a ministerial role beckoned for Jon Cruddas but, he tells Alice O'Keeffe, he prefers to speak his mind from the back benches
Regulars
The Politics Column
Dancing with Gordon
The Prime Minister has cleverly rearranged the political choreography, but he is too desperate for quick hits. He must watch his step
The Politics Column
Battle of the blogsites
The right has dominated the UK online community so far. A new Labour site is fighting back - with help from Obama staffers.
New Poet Laureate No 4058
Though Harold Pinter died on 24 December, I have allowed G M Davis's entry into the winners' box in tribute to the great man and also because it was submitted before his death. £20 to the winners, the best of whom (Josh Ekroy) also gets the Tesco vouchers.
Culture
Back to the future
Marinetti's futurist manifesto, published 100 years ago next month, launched one of the most brilliant and disturbing episodes in 20th-century art
All that glitters
With a display of the opulent clothing of Russian royalty, are post-Communist curators inviting us to forget why the tsars had to go?
Performance
Reason to be cheerful? Hardly
Ian Dury deserves a better tribute than this musical two-hander can provide Hit Me! The Life and Rhymes of Ian Dury Leicester Square Theatre, London WC2
Film
His finest hour
Mickey Rourke makes a triumphant return as a washed-up prizefighter The Wrestler (15) dir: Darren Aronofsky
Television
Food for thought
Two unsqueamish chefs adopt a very civilised approach to some unusual dishes Could You Eat an Elephant? Channel 4
Radio
Mere flânerie of the hedgerows
This impressionistic wildlife programme aims for poetry but only hits pretension
Books
Squaring the circle
"The war between George W Bush and Osama Bin Laden defeated both of its protagonists," says Gilles Kepel in his provocative study of the war on terror and the Middle East. But there's too much else to lose for America or the jihadis to withdraw from the conflict.
Flushed with success
Holden on Hold'Em Anthony Holden Little, Brown, 306pp, £12.99
The noble plot
Countdown to Valkyrie: the July Plot to Assassinate Hitler Nigel Jones Frontline Books, 308pp, £19.99
Observations
Fame and the little fat one
Whisper it in Morecambe, but on his own Eric wasn't all that funny. He needed something solid to bounce off. Without Ernie, his humour is too broad
