06 April 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
God - what do we believe?
In this special issue we have contributions from A N Wilson, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, John Pilger, Tom Holland, Sara Wajid, Michael Barratt and many more. Click on God – what do we believe? to find out more
Features
Fake faith and epic crimes
The Brussels War Crimes Tribunal and the newly established Blair War Crimes Foundation are building a case for the former British prime minister’s prosecution
Why I believe again
A N Wilson writes on how his conversion to atheism may have been similar to a road to Damascus experience but his return to faith has been slow and doubting
CS Lewis: fiction and faith
With their emphasis on good and evil, the Narnia books were regarded as having drawn on Christian, as well as Greek and Roman, mythology. James Macintyre on the Christian writer
Please, let’s not do God
The Vanity Fair columnist and author of God is not great on Tony Blair's new faith foundation
The Tony Blair Foundation
The author of the God Delusion responds to Tony Blair's article on faith in last week's New Statesman
Don’t fetishise religious identity
'The NHS was far more important to my practising Muslim father him than any religious institution. The only time I remember seeing him in a mosque, he was in a coffin'
The end of nature’s mystery
Michael Barrett, a leading research scientist, spends his days stripping life down to its chemical components. This has led him to conclude that we began as bits of goo
What God means to me
With Tony Benn, Marina Mahathir, Polly Toynbee, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Peter Mandelson, Jonathan Sacks, Camila Batmanghelidjh and more...
American idol
The roots of Obama's popularity are not hard to find. After eight years of dangerous American nationalism, the sharp rupture with the Bush years is cause for celebration
Essay
Kingdoms not of this world
To imagine that Islam can be transformed with a little nudge here and there into a kind of Church of England with hijabs is absurd, writes Tom Holland. For Christians and Muslims worship different gods, and this has a huge influence on the relationship between religion and state, even in the modern world
Regulars
The Politics Column
Face up to the challenge
As the Westminster elite grow ever less confident, alienation from mainstream politics is increasing. We need reform – and need it now, writes Michael White
First Thoughts
Not barmy about the army
. . . on British attitudes to battles, bald leaders and booze
Down & Out in London
Down and out in London
“Lazy, selfish, borderline alcoholic” – what an enticing prospect for the next Mrs Lezard
Culture
Film as an act of love
Fifty years ago, François Truffaut’s Quatre cents coups heralded a revolution in cinema. Sukhdev Sandhu salutes a modern classic
A creative space for all
NS art critic Tim Adams celebrates the restoration of a part of the East End's soul
Performance
Carry on camping
Stephan Elliot’s drag queen classic is the latest film to get a West End makeover
Film
The great rock’n’roll swindle
This boorish romp does a disservice to the memory of 1960s pirate radio
Television
Preaching from the choir
Surely the BBC doesn’t think that viewers will put up with this rubbish?
The Fan
Clough and me
Clough ran ahead down the street with all the kids behind him, shouting, ‘‘We are the champions!’’
Books
The patter of tiny feet
The Secret World of the Working Mother Fiona Millar Vermilion, 288pp, £12.99, and, The Idle Parent: Why Less Means More When Raising Kids Tom Hodgkinson Hamish Hamilton, 320pp, £14.99
The lowdown
A View from the Foothills Chris Mullin Profile Books, 616pp, £20
Young Mr Death
War Child: a Boy Soldier’s Story Emmanuel Jal Little, Brown, 288pp, £12.99
