02 November 2009

From the Editor…

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Cover story

Trial by fury

Trial by fury

We live in an age when everyone is encouraged to have their say on Twitter or blogs. But, in our anger over MPs’ expenses or Nick Griffin, we are nearer to the baying, blood-hungry mob of ancient Rome or 18th-century Tyburn than we would like to admit

Features

The forgotten war

The forgotten war

Alpha mail

Until he surfaced recently Royal Mail boss Adam Crozier had stayed strangely quiet

Rise and fall of little voice

We are killing in the light  of God

We are killing in the light of God

More than five million people have died in the war that has been raging in eastern Congo. And now, yet another rebel group is at large in the country, slaughtering hundreds of civilians. It is led by Joseph Kony, a ruthless yet charismatic killer who claims he is fighting a holy war

Home is where  the heartbreak is

Home is where the heartbreak is

Asylum-seeking women are especially vulnerable to persecution, but the British immigration system does little to help

The Returning Officer

Buckingham

Essay

The battlefield of ideas

The battlefield of ideas

In earlier decades, the atmosphere in the universities was optimistic, heady even, stimulated by close ties with Westminster and Whitehall. Now that close relationship seems to have gone. What went wrong, and who is to blame?

Interview

“I am a Leninist. Lenin wasn’t afraid to dirty his hands. If you can get power, grab it”

“I am a Leninist. Lenin wasn’t afraid to dirty his hands. If you can get power, grab it”

The eminent thinker Slavoj Žižek tells Jonathan Derbyshire why he rejects mainstream political theory, why he supports Barack Obama, and why we need Marx more than ever

The NS Interview: Tony Benn

The NS Interview: Tony Benn

“I would be ashamed if I ever said anything I didn’t believe in”

Campaign spotlight: Grey pride

Kylie Murray, student and ambassador for Help the Aged and Age Concern's Big Q Campaign

Regulars

Leader: George Osborne: what is your plan B?

The complacency of the political classes may yet send Britain into the depression we have so far avoided

Rory Stewart, Who’s Who and clubs

Stewart is a man of action and a man of letters of a kind you no longer find in British politics

“We must move on from New Labour”

“We must move on from New Labour”

The Westminster village would do well to listen to an emboldened Peter Hain

Our battle was begun on the playing fields of Eton

Sue Ryder on the storm

Culture

She’s lost  control

She’s lost control

When Sophie Calle’s lover dumped her by email, she turned life into art. Fisun Güner on a woman who binds the helpless and confessional to the coolly conceptual

An Education (12A)/Taking Woodstock (15)

It’s hard to avoid cliché in such a well-visited era

The Thick of It

This once-biting political satire now feels strangely dated

Performance review

How to stay cheery in the face of management-speak

Graphic images

Ed Ruscha's paintings play with the typography of the US

The prude  of love

The prude of love

The erstwhile Victor Meldrew is on fine form

Books

The Humbling

The Humbling

Sex, death, loneliness, old age: yes, it’s another Roth novel. But this time, is the great American author merely repeating himself?

The lion king

Green heroes

The top ten

20 green heroes and villains: Heroes

Green villains

The top ten

20 green heroes and villains: Villains

Bjorn Lomborg

Cloud control

Cloud control

What if...

Hugh Gaitskell lived

What if... Hugh Gaitskell had lived

James Macintyre

Brown at war

Like it or not, Brown’s a war leader

Will Self

On brands

We’re all with the brand

Interview

Omar Bin Laden

The NS Interview: Omar Bin Laden

Film review

A Serious Man

A Serious Man (15)

Vote!

Will Baroness Ashton be an effective EU foreign minister?

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