18 May 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
Squish. Splat. Wallop?
The Prime Minister is exhausted, abused and hapless. Labour MPs have one final opportunity to remove him this summer, or accept the consequences. But do they have the will to act and, if they did, what would the outcome be?
Features
The Fraud Squad
Meet the light-fingered home secretary, the Railway King who robbed his own company . . . plus six other hopelessly crooked “Honourable Members"
Attlee on leadership
‘‘A leader must have courage. He must have guts. He must be ready to act swiftly and decisively . . .’’ wrote Labour’s greatest prime minister
Obama is part of the problem
War rages in the North-West Frontier and the poor are embracing the Taliban because they at least fix roads and discipline criminals. But if catastrophe is to be averted in Pakistan it is the corrupt elite who must be confronted
Essay
Laboratory of Jihad
Saudi Arabia has become a laboratory of jihad, spreading poison throughout the Muslim world. Can reform save the land of the Prophet from extremism?
Regulars
The Politics Column
Less than honourable
MPs led by the Speaker have disgraced our democracy. The only certainty now is unprecedented voter alienation
First Thoughts
Turn your back on a bad lot
. . . on toffs’ expenses, C P Snow and why sometimes it’s best to walk away
World Citizen
Distant voices, desperate lives
History teaches us that when no one listens, tragedy ensues. Sri Lanka’s Tamils face terrible suffering. They urgently need to be heard
Culture
From Berlin to Bootle
A new exhibition of work by leading photographer Kevin Cummins celebrates the highly fertile late-Seventies Liverpool music scene
Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall
It is a hushed world where everything is slightly out of kilter, and where people laugh for fear they might never stop crying. This is the realm of Kazuo Ishiguro
Performance
A night at the circus
The star turns are accomplished, but Beckett’s chilling vision is obscured
Film
Through the looking glass
Charlie Kaufman's mind-bending directorial debut is both big and clever
Television
Bonding over the baroque
A series about the history of English music is a bit too anxious to please
Radio
Big shout out to Camden School for Girls
When will Radio 1 DJs learn that their audience isn't made up of gangstas?
Travels
Box of delights
The seemingly sleepy county town of Bedford hides a treasure trove of art, discovers William Cook
The Fan
Clichés of the titans
Which of the overused football wisdoms are still valid, asks Hunter Davies
