15 June 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
Features
A garden of smoking pollen
After falling from her horse, the author suffered concussion – and suddenly the world became a place of strange wonder
The corrupted currents
As Jude Law brings a touch of Hollywood to the role of Hamlet, Jason Cowley draws parallels between the world of the great plays and the plight of our embattled Prime Minister
Who owns our democracy?
From the success of the BNP to the expenses scandal, we are lurching from one moral crisis to another. Our leaders are able only to follow the public's mood, not shape it.
20 ways to save Labour
Figures including Germaine Greer, Richard Dawkins and John Pilger suggest policies to revive Labour
Nothing to turn back to
Irresponsible capitalism has left us in economic and political turmoil. The solution is a new democracy – and a new socialism, argues Neal Lawson
Old wound, same pain
The conquest of the Wild West left North America’s first inhabitants scattered, diseased and broken. Can they find a panacea at the gambling table?
Morning, campers
A Somerset holiday park makes a weirdly enjoyable setting for an indie music festival, finds Dan Hancox
Interview
The Politics Interview: Alan Johnson
The amiable postman, the ‘‘good, cor blimey cockney’’, insists Labour must get behind its leader. But the new Home Secretary doesn’t rule out standing for the job himself
Regulars
New Statesman Leader
Europe turns right as the progressive vote collapses
This should have been the perfect moment for centre-left parties to triumph
The Politics Column
First among equals
Gordon Brown has survived, but humiliated and with his powers reduced. What can he do now?
Commons Confidential
Mandy is handy but will Cameron play the Field?
Is Frank Field set to cross the floor?
World Citizen
Smile on the face of the tiger
Obama’s speech in Cairo on the Middle East peace process was seductive, but its content was as morally bankrupt as any of Bush’s spiels
Down & Out in London
Wanted: one cat
My usual squalor has been limited by having a cleaning lady, and Razors. But the mice still prance about as if they own the place
Film
Looking for Eric (15)
Loach’s most upbeat film yet delivers moments of magic without convincing
Television
Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire
Is this comic fantasy series a cult hit in the making – or just one for the nerds?
Radio
Take zat, Pablo Neruda
Something about the French crooner Charles Aznavour is lost in translation
Books
The Spectre at the Feast: Capitalist Crisis and the Politics of Recession
Periodic deep crisis is fundamental to capitalism. And until we recognise that creative destruction is the terrifying essence ofthe system, we are doomed to repeat needless errors.
Reporting the World
Journalist and author Keith Kyle always carried the aura of a great man. This outstanding memoir shows why.
In the Skin of a Lion
The book that changed my life
