28 September 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
The 50 people who matter today: 1-10
The top 10 on our diverse list of individuals, couples and families changing the world, for good and ill. Including the Murdochs, Marwan Barghouti, Vladimir Putin and Eric Schmidt
Features
Hopes and suicide notes
As Labour draws up the pledges it will put to the voters, it may find inspiration – or warnings – in promises of the past
The 50 people who matter today: 11-20
11-20 on our diverse list of individuals, couples and families changing the world, for good and ill. Including Angela Merkel, Paul Kagame and Harvey Levin
The 50 people who matter today: 21-30
21-30 on our diverse list of individuals, couples and families changing the world, for good and ill. Including Amartya Sen, Gordon Brown and Warren Buffett
The 50 people who matter today: 31-40
31-40 on our diverse list of individuals, couples and families changing the world, for good and ill. Including Usain Bolt, Yukio Hatoyama and Simon Cowell
The 50 people who matter today: 41-50
41-50 on our diverse list of individuals, couples and families changing the world, for good and ill. Including Jay-Z, Hugo Chávez and Anna Wintour
Essay
The fight of their lives
A Labour conference would not be the same without a debate over its leader, but not since 1982 has the party been so scared of electoral defeat
Interview
"This will be a 'big choice' election"
On the eve of the Labour party conference in Brighton, Mehdi Hasan and James Macintyre talk exclusively to a defiant Gordon Brown in his study at Downing Street
Regulars
There is no hiding place in the hard times
The current crises – economic, climate, political – reveal the true colours of Labour and the Tories. The parties’ manifestos will show that, come the election, there is a crucial choice to be made
New Statesman Leader
Leader: Labour must seize this opportunity for change
If the party does not make the most of this progressive moment it will drift to ignominious defeat
First Thoughts
Cuts, consultants and book-buying
The failure to address the underlying causes of crime, drugs and family breakdown costs the UK economy billions
The Politics Column
It’s now or never
For his own sake, and the sake of the Labour Party, Brown must act like this is the final six months of his political life
Preparing for Power
Pulling the puppet’s strings
Writing Cameron's speech has become a Babelian muddle
The Economics Column
Pity the lost generation
The time for cutting public spending is not now, not next year and not the year after. We must help the young
Madness of Crowds
The psychopath is in the detail
British architects have been gripped by wood mania
Labour’s betrayal of society
The dominant legacy of the left is state authoritarianism and private libertarianism
Dissident Voice
Tory fiction, media fact
A right-wing echo chamber of columnists, bloggers and think tanks uncritically supports Conservative policy
Subaquatic homesick blues
Is Melville’s Moby-Dick the ultimate American novel? Even today, it haunts a nation’s thoughts and dreams
Diaries
At first glance, George Orwell’s domestic diaries seem to show a cold and uncaring man. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth
