13 July 2009
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From the Editor…
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Cover story
Off with their heads
From Wat Tyler swilling beer in front of Richard II to chants of “God save the poor and down with George III”, the British have a long history of hostility towards the Crown. Can it survive the coronation of King Charles III?
Features
It’s a knockout
It is 2020, hereditary monarchy is over, and the British people are about to elect their first king or queen. Our special correspondent reports from the future
“We are within one explosion of having King Harry”
The acclaimed historian has long held royalist sympathies, but recent events have thrown him into doubt
Long live the Queen!
To focus on monarchy is a distraction from the class and social issues that rightly command attention
Carbuncles and coronets
The Prince of Wales demands that British buildings hark back to the past, but architects will be bullied no more
One’s bit on the side
The story of the royal family since Victoria is one of madness, badness and dissolution.
Does the monarchy still matter?
Will Self, Eric Hobsbawm, Stephen Bayley, Peter Tatchell and others discuss whether we should call time on the Windsor family
Essay
Mourn on the 4th of July
With his government of warmongers, Wall Street cronies and polluters from the Bush and Clinton eras, Barack Obama is merely upholding the myths of a divine America
Interview
The Politics Interview: Lord Adonis
“How can we have 92 hereditary peers in the Lords after 12 years of a Labour government? We have to stop that”
Regulars
Down & Out in London
Down and out in London
At this party no one is even smoking. I feel like the Ancient Mariner, only not so garrulous
New Statesman Leader
There can be no constitutional renewal while a monarch sits on the throne
At a time when the Westminster elite are being forced to discuss urgent constitutional reform, no one is discussing the powers and excess of the British monarchy
New Statesman Leader
The scandal of our railways
Has there ever been any public policy decision as botched, chaotic and disastrous as the privatisation of the railways?
The Politics Column
Miliband on manoeuvres?
Fortunately for Labour, the Foreign Secretary does not feel constrained. Expect more domestic interventions
Commons Confidential
The latest whispers from Westminster
First Thoughts
The death changes nothing
First thoughts on Press TV, the Jacko industry and hard-hat zones
World Citizen
Know your enemy
Why isn’t the trial of a man charged with preparing for terror attacks using tennis-ball bombs being reported? He’s not a bearded Muslim
Culture
We know what’s good for you
Criticised by both right and left, the Proms are nonetheless an annual institution that stays true to its founders’ democratic ideals
How I killed 2 Tone
Thirty years on, Michael Hodges remembers one of Britain’s best-loved and boldest record labels
Theatre
Forbidden Broadway
This complacent send-up of musicals reveals just how dire most of them are
Books
Power to the people
John Stuart Mill’s classic treatise On Liberty, published 150 years ago, has much to teach an intellectually exhausted left.
The Literature of Liberation
A selection of the finest revolutionary classics including Thomas Paine, Karl Marx, Mary Wollstonecraft and George Orwell
All Consuming
Swap God for Gucci
Mercian Hymns
The book that changed my life
Naked Lunch: 50th Anniversary Edition
The last modernist
Short Reviews
In the Rooms by Tom Shone and The Salati Case by Tobias Jones
