27 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
Rise of the geeks
A new class of specialists is analysing which websites you look at, what you buy in the supermarket, and how you behave at work. As we produce ever more digital data, the numerati’s influence can only grow
Features
The strangest bank of all
Barclays first defied the Treasury by refusing to take its money. Now it won’t join the Chancellor’s insurance plan. But why not?
Legacy of the Raj
Born in Mumbai, Mihir Bose has won numerous awards for his wide-ranging journalism over four decades. Now the BBC’s sports editor, he reflects here on democracy in India – and asks if the British really wanted their former colony to survive
Appreciation: J G Ballard
His writings were a lifelong experiment in imaginative alchemy, the transmutation of senseless dross into visions of beauty
How celebrities saved, then killed, the book trade
The London Book Fair and our Spring Books special inspired Nicholas Clee, the former editor of the Bookseller, to reflect on the publishing industry’s unhealthy obsession with fame
Get up, stand up
Thirty years ago, a violent clash with racists marked the beginning of a political and artistic awakening for British Asians, writes Salil Tripathi
Africa’s Oscars
African cinema is in a fix, yet at the top Burkinabé film festival, Katrina Manson finds no lack of inspiration
Interview
‘‘The party has lost its soul’’
After a 60-year-long association with Labour, the former MP Alice Mahon has resigned in protest against its “lurch to the right”. Neil Clark spoke to her
Regulars
World view
Face to face with history
The UN conference on racism confronted western countries with difficult truths – but that’s no reason for anyone to walk out
Down & Out in London
I was the original Idler
Our boulevardier columnist takes a rare trip to the countryside, which he finds – surprisingly – much to his taste. There are even bees
First Thoughts
Limping along on the left
. . . on teaching music, taxing drugs and taking on the right-wing bloggers
Performance
The age of Enlightenment
Venezuela’s thrilling youth ensemble proves to be far more than a novelty act
Film
Don’t hold the front page
Hollywood bungles an adaptation of a thriller about crime-busting journalists
Television
Dead on revival
Dated and unfunny, this is one remake of a classic Seventies sitcom too far
Radio
The saint of Stockwell
Roger Moore thinks we live in a different world from him, but he’s not sure which
Books
Freudian slip
Observations on Grimble
After the gold rush
The spree is over, the global economy is in ruins and our political masters are in disarray. Make no mistake, writes John Gray, the neoliberal era is over – but at what cost?
Radical chic
The Frock-Coated Communist: the Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels Tristram Hunt Allen Lane, 459pp, £25
The mother tongue
Things I’ve Been Silent About: Memories Azar Nafisi William Heinemann, 368pp, £17.99
The twilight zone
A new study of Britain in the 1970s argues that there was more to the decade than a slow slide towards Thatcherism. But not very much more, feels David Marquand
Trained leeches
Celebrity: How Entertainers Took Over the World and Why We Need an Exit Strategy Marina Hyde Harvill Secker, 247pp, £11.99
Touched by time
Brooklyn Colm Tóibín Viking, 256pp, £17.99
Period pains
The Children’s Book A S Byatt Chatto & Windus, 623pp, £18.99
Shakespeare’s Globe
The House of Lords could soon welcome a new member – the first cabinet minister to wear a thong in public
